The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors, Thursday, approved a $3.1-million bid for improvements to the Lincoln Highway, from Council Bluffs to the HarrisonCounty line. According to the Omaha World-Herald, the road work comes just as the highway celebrates its centennial this summer. Work on the project is expected to begin in a couple of weeks, and will likely take most of the summer to complete. It includes patching, widening in some areas, and overlaying the entire stretch of road. 

The project has been in the works since the Missouri River flooded in 2011, causing damage to the Lincoln Highway and other roads in the area. The federal government is paying 80-percent of the cost for repairs and improvements. 

Officials say because travel on the road will be difficult and congested once construction begins, motorists may want to use alternate routes such as Interstate 29. The Lincoln Highway is the nation’s first transcontinental highway. Officials with the Lincoln Highway Association say as much as 85-percent of the road is still drivable in Iowa, though some of it is gravel.