PROGRESS: Highway 20 completion makes for happy Siouxlanders

A milestone six decades in the making finally was celebrated last fall when the highway became four lanes all the way across the state.

For years, there was no funding stream or momentum for the quest to widen the final miles that were still two lanes from Early to Moville.

Many people contended a wider highway would boost economic development, while others noted a divided four-lane highway would improve traffic safety.

Finally, after a 2015 funding infusion from an increased state fuel tax and a compressed period of construction activity, the Iowa Department of Transportation finished work on the final segment of the highway in October. The opening of the expressway became an event for state department officials and current and past legislators to commemorate at Holstein.

“I think I can sum up today in one word: finally. Finally,” Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg told the audience at the ribbon cutting.

That Holstein event was held at Boulders Inn and Suites Events Center, a two-year-old, 32-room hotel adjacent to the Holstein Travel Center. That was opened by owners to tap into the increased highway traffic that's been projected by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Gary Wilcox, who graduated from Anthon (Iowa) High School in 1957, drove from rural Woodbury County on a new four-lane section of U.S. Highway 20 the following year. Wilcox said that was much better than the winding, "narrow" version of Highway 20 first paved back in 1918.

The problem in the view of many area residents is that the four-laning of Highway 20 in Woodbury County -- from Moville to Sioux City -- stopped after that first 1950s flourish, even as it was modernized in eastern Iowa in subsequent years.

By the 1980s, the eastern two-thirds of Highway 20 had been widened to four lanes. All but 15 miles in western Iowa -- from Moville to Sioux City -- were still two lanes, sometimes in winding fashion, with some sections going north-south.

In the last dozen years, 20-to-25-mile sections with four lanes were opened. First, was a segment from Moorland to Rockwell City. Then came Rockwell City to Early, in a layout more to the north and bypassing most towns. That left a 40-mile section with two lanes back to Moville.

The Iowa Legislature in 2015 approved a 10-cent increase in the state gasoline tax to help pay for the project, and by that summer the DOT used that extra revenue to slate the completion of Highway 20 in Woodbury, Ida and Sac counties. That resulted in a three-year, $215 million endeavor, 60 years after the Sioux City-to-Moville section had been broadened to four lanes.

Some 12 million cubic yards of dirt were hauled away over the final 40 miles of work.

Jerry Sindt, who lives a few miles southwest of Holstein on a long-time family acreage, has lived 68 years in proximity to the highway. Sindt said the new highway will improve safety, plus help many agricultural producers, including area grain producers.