Iowa DOT Warns Of More Road Closures, Advises You To Find Other Ways To Go

Merry road construction season, my friends!

Nothing says Midwest spring quite like a bunch of road closures. And for the roads that are open, it still feels like driving on the surface of the moon.

Now, the Iowa DOT is telling you the closures are going to get worse before they get better.

Even for a few of the bigger areas of the state (like Des Moines metro area and the cross of I-80 and I-35), District 1 Construction Engineer Frank Leong says that there could be over 100 different projects.

Also, you're going to have to get creative and work your mental map. Leong told WQAD:

The biggest thing is if you have a detour that you could use … finding that additional detour would be great so that you don't have to go into the work zone.

It's going to be a fun time for those of us who rely on navigation apps like Google Maps, that will for sure try to send us straight into a 'road closed' barrier.

They're trying to fill up potholes too so we'll see how that goes.

Leong really wanted to emphasize patience this spring and summer, telling the outlet:

All these things are temporary...They may not seem that way because they're gonna be out there for months and months and months doing the work, but once the work is done, people will get to enjoy that increased capacity out there in an overall safer roadway.

You can keep up with Iowa DOT's list of projects at Iowa 511.