This report is about Iowa's portion of the Avenue of the Saints, from mid-July, 2002.

While on my way home from Norfolk to the Twin Cities, I took a slight detour both to avoid Chicago's morning rush and to check out A.O.S. progress north of Waterloo. Only took US 218 between Waterloo and Plainfield, but there's a few things worth noting, if they haven't been mentioned yet.

- 4-laning is complete and open now on US 218 from CR C33 (north end of Waverly bypass) north about 4 miles to the south end of the future Plainfield bypass. Old roadbed is now the southbound lanes, and looks like it could still use an overlay. This section, as with the Waverly bypass, is signed 65 MPH.

- Traffic gets abrubtly shunted from the 4-lane to the old 2-lane at what will be the south end of the Plainfield bypass. Pavement work was well underway, though it looked like ramp and bridging still had some work left. IA 188 interchange was too far away (and my time was getting a bit tight, trying to make Rochester for a meeting) for close inspection.

- US 218 traffic is detoured between Plainfield and Nashua. The detour route, from south to north, is IA 188, CR V14, and IA 346.

- Not A.O.S. related, but traffic on US 18 between Bassett and New Hampton is detoured to CR B57. On top of this, the CR B57 bridge over the Waspsipimcon River is down to 1 lane, controlled by a traffic signal. The reason for the detour was not immediately apparent when I crossed US 18 at CR V18.

- Northern Iowa tally: 4 new miles of 4-lane, 2 detours, and a 1-lane bridge ON one of the detours.

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