Ames will see major road improvements in coming years as a result of funds appropriated in the city budget for fiscal year 2000.

The two improvement projects, which were debated heavily at last week’s city council meeting, will create an interchange off of U.S. Highway 30 onto South Dakota Avenue and revamp the intersection of Grand Avenue and Lincoln Way.

The more expensive of the two projects, the new interchange at South Dakota Avenue, required the council to allocate $1 million from their general operating fund.

City Councilman Herman Quirmbach said using $1 million of the city’s own money on the project was not easy to approve.

“Coughing up with another million out of our account is never fun,” Quirmbach said. “But basically, it came down to that, even if we waited another year, the probability for outside funding was not high.”

Quirmbach said Ames’ size and relative quality of living make the town a poor contender for grant money.

“Left with the choice of using our own money or using our own money, we used our own money,” he said.

Quirmbach said the interchange project was of utmost importance to the city, and that’s why the council treated it with such urgency.

“The South Dakota interchange is very much tied into our land use plan,” he said. “The land use plan has identified a priority growth area in the city over the next 20 years as going to the southwest.”

Ames traffic engineer Scott Logan said the plans for the new interchange are in the final stages and will be completed in May. A justification report and an environmental impact study already have been approved by the Federal Highway Administration.

“Work on the actual project will probably start in May of 2000,” Logan said.

He said in addition to a new U.S. 30 interchange, the project would widen South Dakota Avenue from two lanes to three or four lanes all the way to the Todd Drive intersection.

“I think that an interchange at South Dakota will make it much easier for people to go to the east side of town, Des Moines or to Nevada,” Quirmbach said. “It just opens up the whole area.”

The new interchange also will decrease congestion in the city, Quirmbach said.

“It will hopefully take traffic off of Lincoln Way and maybe clear up some congestion in Campustown,” he said.

The city also plans to increase efficiency at the Lincoln Way and Grand Avenue intersection.

Half of the $700,000 project will be come from city bonds, and the other half will be funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Quirmbach said fixing the Lincoln Way and Grand Avenue intersection also was a high priority for the council.

“This is one of the two least fun intersections in town,” he said. “Right up there with Lincoln Way and Duff Avenue.”

Statistics show the Lincoln Way and Grand Avenue intersection saw 21 accidents last year, the most of any intersection in Ames.

Quirmbach said the growing prominence of the Lincoln Center has been creating problems on Lincoln Way between Grand and Duff Avenues.

“We have been worried about that stretch of road lately,” he said. “Within the last year, we put in a temporary traffic light at the entrance to the center, but that creates a lot of congestion because you get three lights right in a row between Grand and Clark Avenue.”

Logan said the project will extend Grand Avenue into the Lincoln Center parking lot, eliminating the need for the other entrance and the temporary stop light.

The project also will feature raised medians west and east of the Lincoln Way and Grand Avenue intersection, dual left-turn lanes and a right-turn lane.

“This project will improve efficiency, stopping times at lights and overall efficiency at this location,” Logan said. “It will also increase the capacity of vehicles that will be able to come through here.”