Financial contributions are being secured in an effort to collect data for a major road project that includes Greene County.

The Highway 30 Coalition is looking to conduct an economic impact study with engineering firm Snyder and Associates for $97,000. The study would look primarily at two 40 mile stretches of the highway where a four lane road currently does not exist, including from Ogden to Carroll and from Lisbon to DeWitt. The study will focus on population, major employers, traffic safety, comparing two and four lanes, and other portions of corridors in the state that have benefitted from going from a two to a four lane highway. 

Highway 30 Coalition President Adam Schweers told the Greene County Supervisors at a meeting earlier this month about a letter from a Greene County resident who lost family members due to a traffic crash a few years ago on highway.

“It was a very telling letter about the concern of safety about the number of accidents and some of the fatalities that have occurred. Even though it’s a flat stretch of road there’s just so much coming and going off of the corridor because of the way in which grain bins are built, and agriculture is built, the railroad is there. There’s just a lot of different things being thrown at you and a four lane road would definitely help with that.” 

Schweers told the Jefferson City Council at their meeting this past Tuesday that he is requesting $15,000 from each of the four counties that would be involved in the study, including Greene, Cedar, Clinton and Carroll, along with the Coalition’s $20,000 and some contributions from major employers in the area. Earlier this week, the Greene County Development Corporation and Jefferson City Council agreed to participate, each at $5,000. The Greene County Supervisors have not yet made a decision. 

Jefferson City Administrator Mike Palmer says their contribution would come from the City’s economic development line item in their budget. He explains some of the benefits of having a four lane highway through Jefferson.

“Of course the casino sits on that and has a lot of traffic coming through it. But just all of our light industry on there. It would be a major route for trucking to come through here and to get out to the interstate to get across Iowa. It gives them an alternate route, rather than just going down I-80.”

Schweers has secured about $40,000 for the study and is hoping to get the rest by April so the six-month study can be completed and presented to the Iowa Department of Transportation for its consideration by the end of the year.