Iowa Highway 281 (Iowa 281) is a state highway in north-central

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

. Iowa 281 begins at the eastern city limits of Waterloo and ends at

Iowa Highway 150 Iowa Highway 150 (Iowa 150) is an state highway in eastern and northeastern Iowa. It begins at U.S. Route 218 (US 218) in Vinton and ends at US 52 and Iowa 24 in Calmar. From Vinton, it heads north and east towards Ur ...

south of

Oelwein Oelwein is a city in Fayette County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,920 at the time of the 2020 census, a decrease of 11.5% from the 2000 census. The largest community in Fayette County, it is located at the junction of State Highways ...

Route description

Iowa Highway 281 begins at the eastern city limits of Waterloo along what is Independence Avenue in Waterloo. It heads due east for until it reaches an intersection with Black Hawk County Roads D20 (CR D20) and V51 (CR V51). CR V51 connects Iowa 281 to an interchange with U.S. Highway 20 located to the south. At the intersection, Iowa 281 turns to the north, while CR D20 continues to the east. Iowa 281 travels north for , passing through Dunkerton and crossing Crane Creek. It turns to the east, south of the Bremer County line and crosses the

Wapsipinicon River The Wapsipinicon River (, locally known as the Wapsi) is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 starting n ...

. From the Wapsipinicon, it takes an S-curve to the north and east and enters Fairbank in Buchanan County, where it crosses the Little Wapsipinicon River. East of Fairbank, Iowa 281 takes another S-curve which places the highway on the Buchanan County / Fayette County line. Iowa 281 heads east along the county line until its end at

south of

History

Originally, Iowa Highway 281 was a spur route from U.S. Highway 20 to Dunkerton. In 1957, when US 20 was rerouted to the south, Iowa 281 was extended along the former alignment of US 20 to US 63 in Waterloo. In 1980, it was extended along County Road V3C in Black Hawk and Buchanan Counties and took over the routing of Iowa Highway 190, which was a spur route connecting Fairbank to

south of

. On the 1986 Iowa DOT map, Iowa 281 was routed south of D20 along V51 to the new US-20 freeway, but by 1986, Iowa 281 was again routed west of V51 along D20 to the eastern city limit of Waterloo.

Major intersections

References

External links

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281 __NOTOC__ Year 281 ( CCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Probus and Tiberianus (or, less frequently, year 1034 ...