And the work may be finished two months earlier than planned, according to an Iowa Department of Transportation engineer.

Tony Lazarowicz, a district engineer for the department, said contractors have a December 2018 deadline for finishing the work.

But he said they can collect extra incentive pay if they finish by October 2018. And he said it appears likely that they can do that.

”I think we’re feeling as confident as we can this far out that they should be able to earn it,” Lazarowicz said.

Shirley Phillips, the president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association, said its members are excited by the potential for an early completion date.

She added that according to the information she’s seen, favorable bid prices have enabled the state government to save $248 million on the job.

U.S. Highway 20 crosses northern Iowa from Dubuque to Sioux City.

The last stretch to be widened is from Moville in Woodbury County to Adams Avenue on the west side of Sac County, according to Lazarowicz. He said that work is divided into four smaller sections with a different contract for the work in each section. For example, one company has a contract to build the eastbound lanes between Moville and Minnesota Avenue in Woodbury County.

Lazarowicz said the four lane section between Minnesota Avenue and Correctionville in Woodbury County will be completed this year.

The expected 2018 completion of the project will cap an effort that started about 50 years ago.

On June 9, 2015, the Iowa Transportation Commission voted to push ahead with the last phase of the project. At that time, Lazarowicz said the project was being done ”at a very accelerated pace.”

Association members give much of the credit for their success at lobbying for the four-lane route to the late V.H. ”Buck” Boekelman, of Fort Dodge. He developed the strategy of attending every Iowa Transportation Commission meeting so that the group would always be in contact with the people making decisions about highways. Boekelman became such a fixture at commission meetings that on one occasion the panel’s chairman wouldn’t start the session until he was there.

Boekelman also led the group in advocating for an increase in the state’s tax on a gallon of gasoline. A 10-cents per gallon increase went into effect in March 2015, providing extra money needed to pay for the project.

In 2012, a four lane section between Iowa Highway 4 near Rockwell City in Calhoun County and U.S. Highway 71 near Early in Sac County opened. U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, described that section as the ”most essential link of all” because its completion served as a tipping point that made it certain the four-lane project would be completed.

In the summer of 2005, the four-lane section in Webster County debuted. Prior to that time, the highway was two lanes wide west of Fort Dodge.

Also in 2005, then- state Sen. Daryl Beall, D-Fort Dodge, successfully co-authored a law that directed the Department of Transportation to emphasize completion of four-lane highways between cities that have populations of more than 20,000 people. The measure didn’t specifically mention U.S. Highway 20. However, both Fort Dodge and Sioux City have populations of more than 20,000 people.

In 2002, a four-lane section was completed in Grundy and Hardin counties. That was the last two-lane section between Fort Dodge and Dubuque.