$71 million, nine counties, and a receipt four years in the making.
Back in 2021, Chuck Grassley stood behind a bipartisan infrastructure bill and made a specific, checkable promise: Iowa would get $431 million to fix its bridges. That’s the kind of promise politicians make constantly and rarely have to answer for later. Grassley’s getting the receipt anyway, and it’s a good look.
This week, $71 million of that money hit the ground in nine counties — Black Hawk, Boone, Butler, Clinton, Humboldt, Jackson, Lucas, Sioux, and Johnson. Say what you want about the size of the bill that funded it. The bridges are getting built.
Black Hawk County is getting the marquee project: $24 million to turn the Highway 58 and Greenhill Road intersection into a double-teardrop roundabout interchange, which is engineer-speak for an intersection that no longer requires prayer. Iowa City is right behind it, with $23.5 million to replace two aging Iowa River crossings on Highway 1 with a single modern span.
Then there’s the $24 million spread across seven bridges in Boone, Butler, Clinton, Humboldt, Jackson, Lucas, and Sioux counties — seven quiet, unglamorous fixes that rural Iowa has needed and deserved for a long time. No single ribbon-cutting, no dramatic before-and-after photo. Just seven bridges that grain trucks and school buses can now cross without anyone holding their breath.
Grassley made a bet in 2021 that Iowa’s infrastructure needs were worth the price tag, bipartisan warts and all. Four years and $71 million later, that bet’s paying out in the counties nobody writes press releases about. That’s a low bar for a senator to clear — vote for something, then make sure it actually shows up — and it’s remarkable how few of them manage it. Grassley did. Write it down.
