Part of Interstate 35 is closed just south of Ames due to flooding, and the Iowa D.O.T’s Tracey Bramble says another main roadway may be closing soon due to high water. Bramble says there is a preliminary plan to close Interstate 80 at Colfax but she says that closure is not eminent.
Thousands of cars, trucks and other vehicles use those two interstates daily and dozens of other Iowa highways are barricaded due to flooding.
Bramble says it’s easy to check out the closures and detours before you run into trouble on either of the interstates. She says detour routes are being set up which can be accessed from any phone at 5-1-1 or by logging onto the Iowa D.O.T road conditions website: www.511ia.org.
There will likely be plenty of grumbling inside the vehicles that are being steered off the interstate and onto detours, but Bramble says the delays should be kept to a minimum. “This is actually a little bit better situation than we had in 2008 because the closure sites, there are good detour routes that are not significant time crunches for people,” Bramble says.
“While it is going to be inconvenient, it will not be a catastrophe the way it was in 2008.” During those record floods two years ago, detours forced traffic heading from Davenport to Des Moines to go through Waterloo and Ames, making what was usually a three-hour drive closer to a six-hour haul.