T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY This sign on a stretch of East Main Street Road on the outskirts of Marshalltown has already been changed from 55 to 60 miles per hour as the result of a new state law that took effect on July 1.

One of the most noteworthy new laws to take effect across the state of Iowa on July 1 was a default speed limit change for all two-lane county highways from 55 to 60 miles per hour unless it is otherwise designated. In Marshall County, the process of changing signs is underway, and to the relief of County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt, the conversion won’t cost as much as he had originally believed it would.

“After just kind of seeing how things are and information coming from the state and the way that they changed the law, it isn’t gonna cost quite as much for locals,” he said. “I guess the good thing about the way they changed it is that we only need to do board action for resolution on the roads that we’re gonna keep at 55.”

Geilenfeldt’s goal is to use 60 as much as he can, with only a few set to stay at a 55 mile per hour speed limit. And actually, many of the signs in the country aren’t actually marked at 55 — there are signs that read “end speed zone” once a driver leaves city limits. As a result, only about 20 to 30 signs will need to be changed in Marshall County with plans to place an overlay sticker on the current 55 sign.

“We make those in our shop. I don’t really have a cost estimate, but it’s not gonna be tens of thousands of dollars, no,” Geilenfeldt said.

The biggest issues he foresees are the roads with vertical and horizontal curves and limited site distance.

“If there’s curves that we have where there’s an advance curve sign that’s not speed plated, there’s a couple of those where I’d need to do advisory speeds on those because I didn’t need it at 55, but I may need it at 60,” he said. “The roads that are gonna stay at 55 are gonna be the ones that just geometrically, they cause more of a hazard that they need to not go to 60. The other thing that would possibly play in on certain roads is the frequency of residential entrances.”

Wiese Garden Road just northeast of Marshalltown is a prime example of an area Geilenfeldt plans to keep at 55 just because of the high number of homes.

“But I think the majority of our two-lane pavements are going to be the 60, and they won’t all be posted all over the place because 60 is the default speed. So it’ll kind of just have to come into use that way,” he said.

Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.