Its route was created in 2019 from a section of I-680 in order to facilitate the movement of I-29 traffic around Council Bluffs in the event of Missouri River flooding.

The four-lane road curves east into the Loess Hills where the surrounding lands rise 300 feet (91 m) in elevation from the flood plain.

[5][6] In the initial drafts of the Interstate Highway System in 1947, an east–west road that would come to be known as I-80 was drawn across the center of Iowa, with its western entry into the state in the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area.

The second option routed I-80 to the southwest at Neola to Council Bluffs and then across the Nebraska–Iowa state line over the Missouri River into Omaha.

The head of the Iowa State Highway Commission at the time was Chris Larsen, a Republican from Sioux City.

Larsen used his position on the commission to protect the interests of northwestern Iowa; he vowed to not support the I-80 project at all if the Loveland extension was not included.

[11] In the early 1970s, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) decided that Interstates with a directional suffix, such as I-80N, would have to be renumbered.

Iowa DOT updated its online maps and announced that the signage would be changed just weeks after the official approval by AASHTO.