Background

Interstate 29 is an important north/south route extending through the Midwestern United States. The 755.51-mile route begins in Kansas City, Missouri at a junction with Interstates 35 and 70 and continues through several major urban areas, including Council Bluffs and Sioux City, Iowa; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Fargo, North Dakota; and then on to the Canadian border near Pembina, North Dakota, where it connects with Manitoba Provincial Highway 75 via the short Manitoba Provincial Highway 29.

The portion of the interstate within Sioux City was first opened to traffic in 1961. Since 1961, no major roadway improvements have occurred, except for resurfacing projects that occurred in 1970 and 2002.

Realizing that the I-29 Sioux City corridor would soon be a half-century old, the Iowa DOT, in conjunction with the Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council (SIMPCO) and city of Sioux City, commissioned several studies to learn more about the functional needs of the corridor. These studies resulted in a final report in 1997 that drew attention to the need for numerous improvements to the corridor.