Iowa Highway 22 (Iowa 22) is a west–east state highway that traverses primarily rural areas in east-central Iowa. The highway begins near Thornburg at an intersection with

Iowa Highway 21 Iowa Highway 21 (Iowa 21) is a state highway that runs from north to south in central Iowa. It has a length of . Iowa 21 begins at Iowa 149 west of Hedrick and ends at a freeway interchange with U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) in W ...

and ends in southwestern Davenport, at U.S. Highway 61 Business.

Route description

Iowa Highway 22 begins west of Thornburg at Iowa Highway 21. It continues east through Keswick and Webster. Between Webster and South English, Iowa 22 is overlapped with

Iowa Highway 149 Iowa Highway 149 is a highway which runs from south to north in Iowa. It has a length of . Iowa 149 begins at U.S. Highway 34 in Ottumwa and ends at Williamsburg at Interstate 80. The first of Iowa 149 are overlapped by U.S. Highway 63 Bu ...

. It continues east from South English through

Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are conn ...

and Wellman before intersecting Iowa Highway 1 at Kalona. It proceeds east from Kalona to go through Riverside and then intersects U.S. Highway 218 and

Iowa Highway 27 O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad sc ...

. After crossing the

Iowa River The Iowa River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the state of Iowa in the United States. It is about longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 and ...

, it goes through

Nichols Nichols may refer to: People *Nichols (surname) *Nichol, a surname Places Canada * Nichols Islands, Nunavut United States * Nichols, California, an unincorporated community * Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, California * Nichols, Connecticut * Nich ...

, where a short overlap with Iowa Highway 70 begins. It then continues eastward and intersects U.S. Highway 61 at Muscatine. It goes around the west and north city limits of Muscatine before intersecting

Iowa Highway 38 Iowa Highway 38 (Iowa 38) is a state highway that runs through eastern Iowa. Iowa 38 begins at Iowa Highway 92 in Muscatine and ends at Iowa Highway 3 near Greeley. Route description Iowa 38 begins in Muscatine at an intersection w ...

and Business US 61 and turns south into Muscatine. It then turns east along a route next to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

and passes through Buffalo before intersecting Interstate 280 at Davenport. It then turns north to end at U.S. 61. To locals, Iowa Highway 22 is most notable as one of two main highways connecting Muscatine and Davenport ( U.S. Highway 61 being the other). This eastern section of highway follows the Mississippi River. The segment of the highway between Muscatine and Davenport is part of the Great River Road.

History

Iowa Highway 22 was designated in 1926, and followed what is now U.S. Highway 61 between Muscatine and Davenport, passing through Blue Grass; U.S. 61 followed the Mississippi River route at the time. The highway was extended to Thornburg in 1931. For years, several sections of Iowa Highway 22 was either gravel or had a

bituminous Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

surface. One of these sections — the section between Muscatine and Blue Grass — was paved in 1957, the same year U.S. 61 and Iowa Highway 22 switched routes; U.S. 61 now went through Blue Grass, while Iowa Highway 22 now followed the Mississippi River through Buffalo. The last segment — between U.S. Highway 218 east of Riverside to Iowa Highway 405 north of Lone Tree, was upgraded from

to paved in 1988.

Major intersections

References

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