Iowa Highway 98 (Iowa 98) was a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

that ran from south to north in Van Buren County in southeastern

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 the ...

. It began at Clay Street in Leando, crossed the

Des Moines River The Des Moines River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwestern United States that is approximately long from its farther headwaters.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe Na ...

, and ended at Iowa 16 north of Douds. There have been two instances of Iowa 98 since Iowa's Primary Highway System was created in 1920. The first was a

spur route A spur route is a short road forming a branch from a longer, more important road such as a freeway, Interstate Highway, or motorway. A bypass or beltway should not be considered a true spur route as it typically reconnects with another or the s ...

connecting Eldon to what is now

U.S. Highway 34 U.S. Route 34 (US 34) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from north-central Colorado to the western suburbs of Chicago. Through Rocky Mountain National Park it is known as the Trail Ridge Road where it reaches elevation ...

(US 34). That route was absorbed into an extended Iowa 16 in 1944. At the same time, the second Iowa 98 was created from a vacated segment of Iowa 16. The highway was extended over the Des Moines River into Leando in 1954. It was turned over to Van Buren County at the end of 2017.

Route description

Iowa 98 began in the

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) of Leando at an intersection with Clay Street. East of the intersection, the road continued as Van Buren County Road V64 (CR V64) while Iowa 98 headed to the west. For the first of its routing, the two-lane highway ran parallel to and approximately from the

. The highway then turned to the north and crossed the river. On the northern banks, it entered Douds, which is also a CDP. Douds sprawls for , despite only having a population of 152 in the 2010 Census. Iowa 98 continued north for another until it reached Iowa 16. North of the intersection, the road continued again as CR V64. The entire route had an

annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

of 1060 vehicles.

History

There have been two iterations of Iowa 98, both of which have been intricately linked with Iowa 16. The first version of Iowa 98, Primary Road No. 98, was created with the primary road system in 1920. It was a

which connected Eldon to Primary Road No. 8, which later became

. In early 1936, Iowa 98 was extended to

Selma Selma may refer to: Places * Selma, Algeria *Selma, Nova Scotia, Canada *Selma, Switzerland, village in the Grisons United States: *Selma, Alabama, city in Dallas County, best known for the Selma to Montgomery marches *Selma, Arkansas *Selma, Cal ...

on a road that crossed the

twice, at Eldon and at Selma. The next year, that stretch of road was replaced by another that did not cross the river. In early 1933, Iowa 16 was extended west from

Iowa 1 Iowa Highway 1 (Iowa 1) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Iowa that extends from Keosauqua to Anamosa. It travels nearly , mainly through rich farmland and small communities. Iowa 1 provides an important link to Iowa City and ...

near

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

to Douds. Eleven years later, Iowa 16 and Iowa 98 were connected. Iowa 16 took over all of the former Iowa 98 through Selma and Eldon, while the second version of Iowa 98 was designated over the short spur to Douds. In 1953, Iowa 98 was extended south over the Des Moines River to Leando. On December 28, 2017, the Iowa Department of Transportation transferred Iowa 98 to the Van Buren County Secondary Roads Department. To cover the cost of maintenance, the DOT paid $2.31 million to the county.

Major intersections

References

External links

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