(Ames)– Iowa Department of Transportation Commissioners today (Tues.) heard a pitch for improvements to Highway 86 between Highway nine and the Minnesota border at their monthly meeting in Ames.
Dickinson County Engineer Dan Eckert addressed the matter with commissioners.
Local officials have been bending the ears of state and national lawmakers on getting improvements to the road, which has been described by D-O-T Director Mark Wandro as a “goat trail”.
The feds will play a critical role in the process since most of the land through which the road passes is owned by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service, and some of it will have to be purchased for right-of-way.
A regional committee has recommended 700-thousand dollars awarded in a federal transportation program be earmarked for Highway 86 improvements. The county’s five-year road program has 300-thousand dollars in it earmarked for the project, which has a total estimated cost of seven million dollars for construction alone.
The project would include widening the road and shoulders, lowering some hills and straightening curves at the Minnesota border.
2008 is the earliest construction would start if things go accordingly.
