The Iowa Highways Photo Gallery

Mason City and Clear Lake

Scenes along I-35
	Late in 1999, a freeway bypass opened south of Mason City as part of the Avenue of the Saints. It merges into I-35 via this incomplete cloverleaf interchange; what's unique about this one (for Iowa, anyway) is that the ramps merge into collector/distributor roads which then merge into the highways. This explains the two cars going in the same direction on two roads that are side-by-side. You can tell that the US 18 overpasses (this photo looks southward along I-35) are also collector/distributor roads by the wide gap between them; the gap is there to make room for a future westward extension of the US 18 freeway.
	The relocation of US 18 changed things at I-35 Exit #194. The big green signs here had only one shield on them until the bypass opened, but IA 122 replaced the bypassed segment of US 18 and was added on the signs as a result. In addition, another I-35 business loop was designated through Clear Lake, and it was added to the signs heading south.
	This junction sign is on US 18 eastbound approaching I-35 at Clear Lake. IA 122 and Business US 18 were added to the arrangement after the Mason City bypass opened, and IA 27 was added in September 2001. So a junction with one highway as late as 1999 is now a junction with four.
	These overhead big green signs are where eastbound US 18 becomes eastbound IA 122 and Business US 18 after mainline US 18 merges onto I-35. Instead of the standard cut-out circles that are typical of BGS, the sign on the right uses a regular square IA 122 reassurance marker — which was pasted right over the spot where a US 18 shield once was.
	Sign assembly on westbound IA 122 just before the interchange with I-35.
	Approaching the same interchange from the east, the ends of Business US 18 and IA 122 are noted at the northbound I-35 on-ramp. Business US 18 is posted sporadically through Mason City along IA 122 and US 65.

Scenes along US 18
	The only indication of Business US 18 on any freeway signs are on westbound US 18 at the interchange with US 65. It is not indicated on I-35 at all, probably since the signs at Exit #194 are already crowded. (Before 2001, "Federal Ave" was on the sign instead of "Downtown Mason City". Note that the font for "Rockwell," which was on the original sign, is different.)
	US 65 looking southbound at the interchange with US 18. Despite being a north-south highway, IA 27 was signed east-west through the length of the Mason City bypass in this September 2001 photo, but by the fall of 2002 the signage was changed to its correct north-south. This interchange also indicates the end of Business US 18.
	This freeway sign is along westbound US 18 approaching I-35. I-35 is in an oddly-shaped shield on this sign, which has the same unusual font that other signs on the US 18 bypass have.
	There was no mention of Clear Lake along westbound US 18 when the bypass opened, but by mid-2005, this secondary sign was put up.

Mason City
	Business US 18 leaves US 65 at the junction with IA 122 and follows the old US 18 westward to the junction with I-35. North of this intersection, heading toward Southbridge Mall, US 65 splits from Federal Avenue and follows Delaware and Washington Avenues around the downtown area.
	IA 122 between Mason City High School and North Iowa Area Community College used to be a four-lane undivided highway, but it was changed to function as a two-lane divided highway. The "median" in this case is painted yellow with diagonal stripes like those on the white sign.

Clear Lake
	An assembly with Business Loop I-35, US 18, and County Roads S25 (formerly IA 107) and S28 shields along westbound US 18 in Clear Lake.
	One of Clear Lake's north-south streets was named in honor of Buddy Holly, who (along with fellow singers Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper) lost his life in a plane crash near Clear Lake in 1959.

Left: IA 107 used to run all the way northward to US 18, but in 1987 it was truncated north of County Road B35 on the outskirts of Clear Lake. Highways with "hanging" ends are not uncommon; IA 85 ends before it enters Montezuma, IA 281 ends at the east city limits of Waterloo, and IA 122 currently ends at the east city limits of Mason City. In addition, before July 1, 2003, IA 183 and IA 191 both ended at the north city limits of Council Bluffs. Right: Looking southward from the same intersection, a "BEGIN" sign was put above an existing reassurance marker to indicate the new beginning of IA 107. All of IA 107 was decommissioned on July 1, 2003, so these signs are gone now. (See the IA 107 terminus photo page for additional photos.)