Free Articles: County roads in Iowa

Iowa Primary Highway System

System information
Iowa's primary highway system
Notes:	Primary highways in Iowa are generally state-maintained.
Highway names
Interstates:	Interstate X (I-X)
US Routes:	U.S. Highway X (US X)
State:	Highway X (IA X or Iowa X)
System links
Iowa Primary Highway System Interstates • U.S. Highways • State Highways

The primary highway system makes up over 9,000 miles (14,000 km), a mere 8 percent of the U.S. state of Iowa's public road system. The Iowa Department of Transportation is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the primary highway system, which consists of Interstate Highways, United States Highways, and Iowa state highways. Currently, the longest primary highway is U.S. Route 30 at 332 miles (534 km). The shortest highway is Interstate 129 at 0.27 miles (0.43 km).

The 20th Century was a transformative time for vehicular transportation. In the early years of the century, roads were problematic at best – dusty dirt roads when dry and impassably muddy when wet. Over time, federal money was set aside and bonds were issued allowing the roads to be paved. The U.S. Highway and Interstate Highway Systems connected Iowa to the rest of the country and made national travel feasible. Periodically, new highway construction and changing driving habits have resulted in the obsolescence of local highways, to which the primary highway system has adapted. The former primary highways, turned over to counties and local jurisdictions, county highways, and farm-to-market roads make up the secondary highway system.

Early on, Iowa's registered routes were marked with hand-painted signs created by the group maintaining the highways. When the primary highway system was created, prisoners in Iowa's correctional system began making highway signs. Today, Iowa's highway markers are compliant with standards set forth in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

History

Funding

While the Iowa Highway Commission was growing, the Iowa legislature allowed organizations to sponsor and register certain roads. Sponsors brought in much needed funds to maintain the roadways. Road sponsors were allowed to choose the colors of their road markers and slogans for road signs. The first registered route, the River-to-River Route, connected Davenport and Council Bluffs. Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 6 largely follow the River-to-River Route today. The most famous registered route was the Lincoln Highway. At the peak of the registered route system, there were over 100 registered routes in Iowa.

Signage

Secondary roads

Secondary roads are defined simply by the Iowa Code as those roads under county jurisdiction. The 99 counties in Iowa divide the secondary road system into farm-to-market roads and area service roads. Farm-to-market roads, which connect principal traffic generating areas to primary roads or to other farm-to-market roads, are maintained by the route's respective county and are paid for by a special fund. The Farm-to-Market Road Fund consists of federal secondary road aid and 8% of Iowa's road use taxes. The farm-to-market road system is limited to 35,000 miles (56,000 km).

Unlike other states in the United States, Iowa's signed secondary roads are not numbered on a county-by-county basis. With exception to County Road 105, secondary roads use a uniform numbering grid using one letter and two or three numbers, e.g., E41. County roads running primarily east and west assigned letters (from north to south) A through J. County roads running primarily north and south are assigned letters (from west to east) K through Z. The letters I, O, Q and U are not used to avoid confusion with numbers and other letters.

References

External links

State highways

Other areas

Regions

Largest cities

Counties

2011-12-15

County roads in Iowa