Interstate 80 (Iowa)

Interstate 80
Iowa's Interstate Highways with I-80 highlighted in red.
Route information
Maintained by Iowa DOT
Length:	306.268 mi (492.891 km)
Existed:	September 21, 1958 (1958-09-21) – present
History:	Under construction: 1958–1972
Major junctions
West end:	I-80 at the Nebraska state line
	I-29 in Council Bluffs I-680 near Neola I-35 / I-235 near Des Moines I-380 near Iowa City I-280 in Davenport I-74 in Davenport
East end:	I-80 at the Illinois state line
Location
Counties:	Pottawattamie Cass Adair Madison Dallas Polk Jasper Poweshiek Iowa Johnson Cedar Scott
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business Future Iowa Primary Highway System Interstate U.S. State Secondary Scenic ← Iowa 78 Iowa 81 →

Interstate 80 (I-80) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey. In Iowa, the highway travels west to east through the center of the state. It enters the state at the Missouri River in Council Bluffs and heads east through the southern Iowa drift plain. In the Des Moines area, I-80 meets up with I-35 and the two routes bypass Des Moines together. On the northern side of Des Moines, the interstates split and I-80 continues east. In eastern Iowa, it provides access to the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Northwest of the Quad Cities in Walcott is Iowa 80, the World's Largest Truckstop. I-80 passes along the northern edge of Davenport and Bettendorf and leaves Iowa via the Fred Schwengel Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi River into Illinois.

Before I-80 was planned, the route between Council Bluffs and Davenport, which passed through Des Moines, was vital to the state. Two competing auto trails, the Great White Way and the River-to-River Road, sought to be the best path to connect three of the state's major population centers. The two trails combined in the 1920s and eventually became U.S. Highway 32 (US 32) in 1926. US 6, which had taken the place of US 32, became the busiest highway in the state. In the early 1950s, plans were drawn up to build an Iowa Turnpike, to be the first modern four-lane highway in the state, along the US 6 corridor. Plans for the turnpike were shelved when the Interstate Highway System was created in 1956.