New roundabout opening at last
North-south traffic to begin using intersection Wednesday
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A new roundabout intersection just south of the Fort Dodge Regional Airport will be partially opened to traffic this week.
The juncture of Nelson Avenue and 170th Street, which was for years a conventional intersection with the two roads meeting at right angles, has been under construction since the spring.
Webster County Engineer Jamie Johll said the new roundabout will be opened to north and south traffic on Wednesday.
North and south traffic currently goes through the area on a temporary road that Johll said will be removed.
Then on Saturday the east side of the roundabout will be opened, allowing traffic to enter and exit 170th Street there.
Johll said the west side of the intersection will open in two to three weeks, allowing access to 170th Street there.
An old fighter jet will eventually be placed in the middle of the roundabout.
The F-84 Thunderstreak stood in front of the headquarters of the Iowa Air National Guard’s 133rd Test Squadron, just north of the roundabout, for decades. When the Test Squadron was decommissioned in 2025, the fate of the plane remained uncertain.
But in July, the 1954 vintage jet was lifted off the ground by an Iowa Army National Guard helicopter and was flown to the Air National Guard base in Sioux City for repainting.
Johll said the jet will probably be returned to Fort Dodge next spring.