MILO, Iowa—When it comes to road building, Iowa has big ambitions. The state’s largest city, Des Moines, is spending millions to repair or replace four downtown bridges. Planners also want to broaden the last section of U.S. Highway 20 into four lanes spanning the entire state.
But amid the orange traffic cones and construction signs, something surprising is happening to Iowa’s transportation system.
It’s actually getting smaller as state and county agencies quietly give up on maintaining many rural roads and bridges to spend on bigger, more essential projects in busier areas. The same pattern is playing out across the country, provoking growing fears in rural areas and elsewhere that the trade-off could make it even harder to eke out a living in many places where opportunity is already limited.
