Iowa Route 163 is a designation applied to an east-west surface street in the eastern half of Des Moines, and an expressway leading to the east and southeast, whose ultimate destination is Burlington.  The western terminus is at US Route 69 in the center of Des Moines. As Iowa Route 163 exits out of the eastern side of the Des Moines area, it becomes an expressway passing Pella and Oskaloosa.  At Oskaloosa, the four-lane expressway joins US Route 63 south.  At Ottumwa, Iowa Route 163 trades US Route 63 for US Route 34; it is here where Iowa Route 163 starts its concurrency with US Route 34 that lasts for the rest of its length.  Iowa Route 163 and US Route 34 spend the rest of their time in Iowa heading east to a bridge over the Mississippi River at Burlington, Iowa.  The eastern end of Iowa Route 163 is on that bridge at the Illinois border.

My photo of an Iowa Route 163 marker comes from the north side of Ottumwa, where US Route 63's main alignment is duplexed with Iowa Route 163. The diamond interchange home to this route sign assembly has ramps splitting off of Iowa Route 163 to reach the north-south surface road carrying Iowa Route 149 and the Business alignment of US Route 63.  The business alignment of US Route 63 has its northern end at this point. The signage shown faces south for northbound traffic. I took this photo on the morning of July 1, 2017, after waking up from a night spent in Ottumwa. This was part of the trip across eastern Iowa.
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