Iowa Highway 22
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Iowa Highway 22 |
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| Length: | 98 mi (158 km) | ||||||||
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| West end: |  IA 21 in Thornburg |
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| East end: |  US 61 in Davenport |
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Iowa Highway 22 is a 97-mile west-east state highway that traverses primarily rural areas in east-central Iowa.
To locals, Iowa Highway 22 is most notable as one of two main highways connecting Muscatine and Davenport (U.S. Highway 61 being the other). This 24-mile eastern section of highway follows the Mississippi River.
The highway's west end is near Thornburg, while the eastern terminus is in southwestern Davenport, at U.S. Highway 61.
Cities along the route, west to east, include Thornburg, Keswick, Webster, South English, Wellman, Kalona, Riverside, Nichols, Muscatine, Buffalo and Davenport.
[edit] History
Iowa Highway 22 was designated in 1926, and followed what is now U.S. Highway 61 between Muscatine and Davenport, passing through Blue Grass; U.S. 61 followed the Mississippi River route at the time. The highway was extended to Thornburg in 1931.
For years, several sections of Iowa Highway 22 was either gravel or had a bituminous surface. One of these sections - the section between Muscatine and Blue Grass - was paved in 1957, the same year U.S. 61 and Iowa Highway 22 switched routes; U.S. 61 now went through Blue Grass, while Iowa Highway 22 now followed the Mississippi River through Buffalo.
The last segment - between U.S. Highway 218 east of Riverside to Iowa Highway 405 north of Lone Tree, was upgraded from bituminous to paved in 1988.
