A sign erected last Wednesday [June 14, 2023] south of the new intersection of highways 30 and 79 explains how to navigate the RCUT that is now in effect. All Highway 30 traffic has been moved to the new route.
Expressway, RCUT open
by Nathan Arneal
Published 6/21/23
To those of you who doubted the Highway 30 expressway would be opened in your lifetime: Congratulations. You made it.
The four-lane expressway, whose existence, route and funding has been debated for decades, opened to traffic Thursday.
At least partially. For most of the route between North Bend and Fremont, only the north two lanes are open. At County Road 10, 2.5 miles west of Highway 79, traffic is reduced from four lanes to two-lane, head-to-head traffic. Work on the southern two lanes continues, with most of the approximately 12 miles between CR 10 and Fremont still unpaved.
According to the Nebraska Department of Transportation, the full project with all four lanes are expected to be completed and opened late in the summer of 2024.
With this final portion of the Columbus-to-Fremont expressway opening, so is the Restricted Crossing U-Turn at the intersection of highways 79 and 30 a mile north of North Bend, though work on the RCUT is not complete yet.
Highway 79 can no longer cross directly over the new Highway 30. Vehicles traveling on 79 that wish to continue to do so must turn right onto the 30 expressway for about 1,000 feet, then make a U-turn and drive back to 79 before making a right turn back onto 79.
For now, traffic on Highway 30 wanting to turn left onto Highway 79 will have to utilized the U-turn as well. Eventually, after a median is constructed in the intersection, that traffic will be able to use a left-turn lane to turn directly onto 79.
The newly opened section of the expressway merges with the existing Highway 30 at the 30/275/77 junction north of Fremont by the Sapp Brothers station.
You can no longer get directly from the old Highway 30 to the new Highway 30 by Fremont, though a county road does connect the two.
Old Highway 30 is still open between North Bend and Fremont, with access to Fremont via 23rd Street. For the time being, that may be the best way to get from Fremont to North Bend as it avoids the ongoing construction on Highway 79 between North Bend and the expressway 1.5 miles north of town
Highway 79 is still closed on the north edge of North Bend as Main Street is being torn out and reconstructed, work that will continue late into the summer. The official detour follows the Highway 30 expressway west for 3.5 miles where it joins the old Highway 30 and heads back east into town, though drivers familiar with the area have found shorter alternative routes into town.
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