(Spirit Lake)– An important first step that will hopefully lead to massive improvements to Highway 86 between Highway nine and the Minnesota border took place Wednesday.
Dakun Schultz of the regional D-O-T Office in Sioux City says a regional committee that doles out funding from the federal “Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century”, or Tea 21, voted unanimously to award 700-thousand dollars of the region’s money from that program toward the Highway 86 upgrade.
Schultz says Wednesday’s action was basically a recommendation to the Tea 21 Policy Board, which must formally approve it.
Representatives from the planning area served by the Northwest Iowa Planning and Development Agency in Spencer voted on the matter. Dickinson County Engineer Dan Eckert says 11 voting delegates were on hand for Wednesday’s meeting, and all 11 approved the proposal to grant the money toward Highway 86.
Schultz says Highway 86 between the Minnesota line and Highway Nine is by far among the most dangerous stretches of road in the state due to a poor design, hills and sharp curves…not to mention a high volume of traffic that’s on it daily.
Schultz says a discussion D-O-T commissioners had with local representatives at a meeting last fall in LeMars is what brought the Highway 86 issue back to life after years of lying dormant.
Schultz says his next step will be to meet with the Dickinson county board of supervisors to see how much local support there is in helping out with the project financially.
Schultz says if everything goes accordingly, grading on the project could begin in 2008.
Total cost of upgrading the road has been put at roughly 10 million dollars.
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