Interstate 80 in Iowa

Interstate 80
I-80 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Iowa DOT
Length	306.268 mi[2] (492.891 km)
Existed	September 21, 1958 (1958-09-21)[1]–present
History	Under construction: 1958–1972[1]
NHS	Entire route
Major junctions
West end	I-80 at the Nebraska state line
Major intersections	I-29 in Council Bluffs I-880 near Neola I-35 / I-235 near Des Moines I-380 / US 218 / Iowa 27 in Coralville I-280 in Davenport I-74 in Davenport
East end	I-80 at the Illinois state line
Location
Country	United States
State	Iowa
Counties	Pottawattamie Cass Adair Madison Dallas Polk Jasper Poweshiek Iowa Johnson Cedar Scott
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business Future Iowa Primary Highway System Interstate US State Secondary Scenic
← Iowa 78 → Iowa 81

Interstate 80 (I-80) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey. In Iowa, the highway travels west to east through the center of the state. It enters the state at the Missouri River in Council Bluffs and heads east through the southern Iowa drift plain. In the Des Moines metropolitan area, I-80 meets up with I-35 and the two routes bypass Des Moines together. On the northern side of Des Moines, the Interstates split and I-80 continues east. In eastern Iowa, it provides access to the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Northwest of the Quad Cities in Walcott is Iowa 80, the world's largest truck stop. I-80 passes along the northern edge of Davenport and Bettendorf and leaves Iowa via the Fred Schwengel Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi River into Illinois.

Before I-80 was planned, the route between Council Bluffs and Davenport, which passed through Des Moines, was vital to the state. Two competing auto trails, the Great White Way and the River-to-River Road, sought to be the best path to connect three of the state's major population centers. The two trails combined in the 1920s and eventually became US Highway 32 (US 32) in 1926. US 6, which had taken the place of US 32, became the busiest highway in the state. In the early 1950s, plans were drawn up for the construction of an Iowa Turnpike, to be the first modern four-lane highway in the state, along the US 6 corridor. Plans for the turnpike were shelved when the Interstate Highway System was created in 1956.

Construction of I-80 took place for over 14 years. The first section of the Interstate opened on September 21, 1958, in the western suburbs of Des Moines. New sections of the highway opened up regularly over the next 12 years, even though construction in eastern Iowa was completed in 1966. The final piece of I-80 in Iowa, the Missouri River bridge to Omaha, Nebraska, opened on December 15, 1972. By the 1980s, I-80 had fallen into disrepair in Iowa and across the country. Federal funding was freed up in 1985 to allow reconstruction of the highway.