OPEN FOR TRAVEL

After months of work, Highway F-48 west of Newton and east of Colfax is back open. The Jasper County Engineer’s Office announced it is open unofficially Aug. 8.

“The road work should be completed, weather permitting by the end of the week,” the department released. “Markings will be completed soon, still waiting on a start date confirmation.”

Work started on the rejuvenation project of what is locally known as “Old Highway 6″ in mid-March. The 5.8 miles of roadway from the South Skunk River to the Newton city limits was the first phase of the project, which well see a total of 13.9 miles of highway addressed by the county.

“Although this key link between the Polk County line and the west city limits of Newton hasn’t seen any significant upgrades since the 1970s, we’re determined to change that with careful planning and stringent execution of a comprehensive resurfacing project,” the department said. “The resurfacing of this highway is a project that the Jasper County Engineer’s Office and Secondary Roads Department has made a priority. Due to the length of this highway, and a relatively short construction season here in Iowa, our current plan is to break this project into three phases over the next three years.”

Work completed included the removal of the existing pavement and replacing it with 8 inches of concrete at the Interstate 80 interchange, the rural section of Highway F-48 milled three inches and replaced with a 3/8-inch base course asphalt mix and a 1/2-inch surface course asphalt mix and a 2-foot shoulder and safety edge will be constructed within the rural section of this project. The urban section, from approximately 400 feet east of West 36th Street North to Thomas Jefferson Drive, was milled 3 inches and replaced with a 3/8-inch base course asphalt mix and a 1/2-inch surface course asphalt mix.

The second phase of the Highway F-48 West project will see work from the east city limits of Colfax to the South Skunk River. It is set to take place between June and August 2025. The final phase will complete the work from the Polk County line to the west city limits of Colfax and will start in June 2026 and finalized, weather permitting, by August 2026.