CLINTON, COUNTY, Iowa-- Highway 30 is one of the main roads that gets people to and from the city of Clinton.
"It connects our community directly to Cedar Rapids, which is connected with Waterloo, and Ames, and Iowa City, and all those places," Mayor-Elect Scott Maddasion said on November 21, when we had Breakfast With... him on Good Morning Quad Cities.
Maddasion wants the Iowa Department of Transportation to make the highway two lanes in each direction from Cedar County to DeWitt. Right now, it's just one.
"Having that four lanes allows more commercial traffic to go that way," Maddasion said. "It's also more of a free flow traffic because right now, you could get stuck behind two semis, and you're going pretty slow along that road."
Maddasion says the expansion would be a huge piece of economic development for his community, even though Highway 30's already two lanes from DeWitt to Clinton, and this widening proposal is west of his city.
"It'll bring more commercial traffic, even more consumer traffic it'll bring through as well, which can help the tourism aspect of Clinton and the surrounding areas."
The Iowa DOT has proposed what's called a "Super-2" system, which would give Highway 30 passing and turn lanes, but it's not a full two lane system. Maddasion says he'll try to change the minds of I-DOT leaders, once he takes over in January of 2020.
Iowa DOT leaders could make a recommendation to the Transportation Commission as soon as next month, but there's no word on when they could approve this system.