Iowa community leaders have dreamed about it for decades and now it is finally complete: a high-speed, four-lane expressway project across northern Iowa.

The U.S. Highway 20 corridor extends 302 miles to link Sioux City with Fort Dodge, Waterloo, Dubuque and every town in between. The first three-mile section of expressway was completed in northwest Iowa in 1958, but it's taken 60 years for the remaining 299 miles to be constructed.

"We're ecstatic. Most people never thought they would see this in their lifetime — and neither did I," said Shirley Phillips of Sac City, president of the U.S. Highway 20 Corridor Association. The association is a highway lobbying group representing communities along the route. Phillips spent 28 years urging state and federal officials to support the project. It has taken so long that many of the expressway's original boosters died years ago.

Read the full article on the Des Moines Register website.