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The Des Moines area could be getting a brand-new interstate – and nobody will even have to build a single mile of roadway.

The Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is sending a letter to the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) to request that the IDOT undertake an operational analysis study of the U.S. Highway 65/Iowa Highway 5 bypass as a first step to determine if the existing corridor can be redesignated as an interstate highway.

The possible interstate – which would likely not require any construction – would close the loop of interstates around the city, while opening up economic development opportunities for the southern suburbs and possibly decreasing current interstate congestion, according to proponents of the plan. But many questions surround the redesignation process and cloud the chances that the project will move forward, IDOT officials say, simply because this is the first redesignation request the agency has dealt with.

“I don’t have any idea, time-frame-wise, how long that would take; I don’t know how long a study will take; I don’t know what the issues are; I don’t know what the cost is. I mean, who is going to pay for it? Do the area businesses want it to change?” said Scott Dockstader, District I engineer for the IDOT. “So there is a lot of thought that would have to go into it.”

But, he said, the highways are at least close to meeting the highest level of design standards that interstates require, and that’s leading to the hope that members of the Purple Heart Highway Collaborative (PHHC) hold that their communities can reap the benefits the collaborative feels come with an interstate designation.

The PHHC is made up of representatives from the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the six cities (Altoona, Carlisle, Des Moines, Norwalk, Pleasant Hill, West Des Moines) and two counties (Polk and Warren) along the U.S. 65/Iowa 5 bypass, who are all working together to promote economic development along the highway.

The collaborative intends to keep the Purple Heart Highway distinction for the bypass even if the highway is designated an interstate, but there’s no doubt among supporters of the effort – make it an interstate, and economic development will follow.

“Part of the reason for this is along that whole stretch of road there is not a lot of development,” said David Maahs, the Partnership’s executive vice president for economic development. “So this is really a great opportunity to help jump-start that development with that designation.”

The Partnership knows the potential that exists on the southern part of the Des Moines metro area. Maahs said redesignating the bypass as an interstate would enhance the Partnership’s selling proposition, because of all the open sites that would suddenly have interstate access.

“When someone gets information about a site that says it is on a U.S. highway, I don’t think it carries the magnitude and weight as it would if it says it is on the interstate system,” he said. “There is a lot of undeveloped property along the beltway that would provide additional interstate frontage, business parks and sites for us to develop for the next 10-20 years.”

And that would be quite all right with Carlisle mayor and PHHC chair Ruth Randleman. She and officials from the other member communities hope to see their cities’ attractiveness increase.

“There are lots of businesses where transportation is vital to them. So they look at that closely when they pick a site – we hope it is a great selling point,” Randleman said. “If you add that interstate designation, I think it really ramps up the potential that people will see in our community.”

The MPO agreed, not just that Carlisle would benefit but the whole metro area, and that’s why it requested the operational analysis study.

“The idea that we would have another one of our freeway systems included in the interstate highway system, the mood is that that elevates the level of sophistication, it raises the attractiveness of the area by having this additional interstate highway system connectivity,” said Tom Kane, the MPO’s executive director.

It would also give Des Moines a true interstate ring, one that would be visible on a map or GPS navigation device, Kane said.

“It will make us look like a bigger metropolitan area,” Maahs said. “We will have that whole ring around the region, with I-235 going through the heart of Des Moines.”

Many metro areas around the country have an interstate ring – in some cases two or three – which provides convenient transportation for the region, Maahs said.

“So this is really our southern interstate loop for the Des Moines area,” Maahs said. “And it appropriately should be named an interstate – that’s our view.”

Carlisle is hoping for the ring because it will put the city on the map, said Randleman, whose community has been trying to further identify itself with a Des Moines region that has been prospering in terms of national awards and in comparison to other metro areas.

“I think it is going to help us look more a part of the metropolitan region,” she said. “I think it is just going to identify us with that. It is going to identify us with that transportation system; it is going to identify us with the access that system would provide.”

Randleman said her city has been making a conscious effort to be a vital member of the area by spurring growth in the southeast corner of Greater Des Moines.

“It would really help to have that interstate designation,” she said, “so that people understand that Carlisle, Iowa, is actually on that kind of a great transportation facility, you know?”

Officials do know, but many questions must first be answered by the operational analysis study, which Kane said comes at no cost to the MPO.

The study will explore the roadway’s design to determine if it meets interstate standards, determine what would need to be improved, estimate potential costs and analyze the minimum speed.

In order to be an interstate, Dockstader said, the roadway must have a minimum speed. Part of the bypass doesn’t have a minimum speed, so Dockstader said his staff will have to see what kind of concerns that raises for farm equipment and other slow-moving vehicles that currently use the roadway.

How long the analysis will take, though, is also a question. Kane felt it wouldn’t be a long, drawn-out process and results might be in hand by the end of the year, but Dockstader said he had no timeline because the IDOT has never done this type of study.

Even if an analysis came back that was supportive of designating the roadway as an interstate, more questions and roadblocks could hamper the process. The IDOT would then work through an extensive process with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) if officials decide they want to move forward.

The big reason for the “if,” as always, is the potential cost.

“The issue ultimately will be the cost of replacing all the signage,” Kane said. “If you think about it, all the U.S. 65 and Iowa 5 signs would have to disappear (and be replaced with interstate signs) and there would have to be discussion of where that money is going to come from.”

The interstate would likely be a three-digit number, but it would have to be determined whether 35 or 80 will be used as the final two digits. The redesignation wouldn’t affect the route numbers for Interstate 235 or the Interstate 35/80 portion of system. Dockstader said he had no concept at this point of how much it would cost to replace the signs, and Kane gave a very rough estimate of between $500,000 and $1 million.

As for who is going to pay that cost, would a city like Carlisle be willing to commit funds?

“Um, that is a little bit ahead,” said Randleman, with a chuckle. “I don’t know where that is going to land. Obviously between the IDOT, the FHWA, the MPO and between all the communities along the corridor, that is obviously something we are all going to have to address together. And we’ll be doing that.”

Though the redesignation of the bypass might provide economic benefits for the area, Dockstader said at this point he doesn’t see any additional benefits from the IDOT’s perspective. He said it would be investigated to see whether the designation increases or decreases funding opportunities. The IDOT currently maintains the bypass, so the designation wouldn’t change anything regarding maintenance.

“(The situation) is kind of new to us also, so it is just a matter of preparing that study to see if it makes sense to do it,” Dockstader said. “Everybody has to get down and look at the pros and cons and see if the costs are worth it.”

The city of Carlisle sure hopes so.

“There are always issues when you try to do something like that,” Randleman said. “So I’m sure there will be some bumps along the way and there will be some hurdles we’ll have to jump, but I think we can do it.”