Iowa Route 27 is Iowa's designation for that state's portion of the Avenue of the Saints, a series of expressways meant to connect Saint Paul, Minnesota, with Saint Louis, Missouri.  Iowa Route 27 is duplexed with US Route 218 from the southeast corner of Iowa north to Cedar Rapids, along an expressway that turns into Interstate 380 north of Iowa City.  From Iowa City to Waterloo, Iowa Route 27 is concurrent with Interstate 380.  At US Route 20 on the south side of Waterloo, Iowa Route 27 diverts from Interstate 380 to US Route 20 west, to Iowa Route 58 north.  Iowa Routes 27 and 58 run together for several miles until an interchange at Cedar Falls, where US Route 218 and Iowa Route 27 rejoin to continue northward.  At Charles City, Iowa Route 27 and its status as an expressway will jump from US Route 218's northward pathing to US Route 18's westward routing past Mason City.  Just west of Mason City, at Clear Lake, Iowa Route 27 joins Interstate 35 north to the Minnesota border, to label the route needed to continue north to St. Paul, Minnesota. Iowa Route 27 is a signed as a north-south highway, and this is the logical approach even though the route has a sizeable east-west portion along US Route 18 from Clear Lake to Charles City.  A piece of Iowa Route 27 in the southeast corner of Iowa runs completely on its own without a concurrency, south of Donnellson.  That piece connects to Missouri Route 27 at the state border.

My photo for Iowa Route 27 comes from a southbound onramp to the highway from Iowa Route 92, at an interchange east of Washington, Iowa.  Since this is the part of Iowa Route 27 that's south of Iowa City and Interstate 80, Iowa Route 27 is concurrent with US Route 218 in this area.  This photo was taken during my first tour around Iowa, on June 30, 2017. I'm not entirely sure why this signage is posted at the start of the onramp, as it isn't a common Iowa practice to do so.  States on the west coast will indicate onramps like this, but they'll use a diagonal downward arrow pointing at the onramp pavement.
Back to the Iowa main page.
Back to the home page.