(Spirit Lake)– A Dickinson county supervisor says it’s time once again to push for improvements to Highway 86 between Highway nine and the Minnesota border.
Supervisor Wayne Northey says efforts should be made to try once again to get the Iowa Department of Transportation to address several safety concerns with the road, including site distances and a lack of shoulders. At the same time, Northey says the most recent traffic study shows a higher volume of traffic using Highway 86 between Highway nine and the Minnesota border than the same stretch of Highway 71 between the Jackson “Y” and the Minnesota border.
Northey says he’s visited recently with officials in Clay and Buena Vista counties that are willing to work with Dickinson county in pushing for improvements to Highway 86, saying they have a lot riding on it as well for businesses and industries in their areas.
Northey says the supervisors will meet next week with County Engineer Dan Eckert to see if some sort of meeting can be lined up with the D-O-T.
It isn’t certain just how effective the county’s efforts will be though. The D-O-T a couple years ago attempted to transfer jurisdiction of all of Highway 86 between Milford and the Minnesota border to Dickinson county, but later backed off the proposal after getting pressure from the county. Northey expects the state will make another effort at that soon.
Adding to the challenge is a new philosophy the Iowa Department of Transportation has adopted due to the state’s budget crisis. D-O-T officials say they’re now putting an emphasis on maintaining the state’s existing roads, rather than building new ones.
