The Iowa Department of Transportation re-closed a 10-mile section of Interstate-29 in western Iowa Sunday morning, prompted by flooding from the once-again rising Missouri River. A detour is in place.
Both directions of I-29 between exit 61 at Crescent and exit 71 at Loveland are closed again. Water is over the roadway in the northbound right lane, according to an Iowa DOT 511 camera.
“People [were] splashing quite a bit of water in that northbound right lane and it’s still rising,” Iowa DOT Traffic Operations Engineer Austin Yates said.
A 17-mile detour is in place. Northbound I-29 traffic is being detoured on eastbound I-80 in Council Bluffs to I-680 west and back to I-29 at Loveland. I-29 southbound traffic is being detoured on I-680 East at Loveland to I-80 west into Council Bluffs. I-680 into North Omaha will remain open. Yates said based on the river forecast, Iowa DOT is not expecting any impacts to I-680.
"We haven't been told to be worried about anything other than the Honey Creek area," Yates said.
The Missouri River at Omaha is predicted to crest near flood stage of 29 feet on Oct. 7. Yates said if the river forecast holds, the agency could reopen the section of I-29 Tuesday evening.
Transportation officials reopened the 10-mile section on Friday, because it “had one dry lane in each direction,” Yates said.
Impacts to I-29 are typically seen when the Missouri River at the Omaha gauge rises to 29 feet or higher. I-680 is affected at 31 feet or higher on the gauge.
