Comparison Between Leaded and Nonleaded Gasoline as Used in Iowa State Highway Commission Vehicles, HR-1002, 1972

The overall objective of this experimental program was to obtain quantitative comparisons between leaded and nonleaded gasolines as used in a variety of Iowa State Highway Connnission vehicles. These quantitative comparisons were to be made in terms of exhaust emissions, maintenance costs and fuel economy.

Soil Stabilization with Lime, Iowa Highway Research Board Bulletin No. 25, 1961

This is the fifth publication in a series of compilations of the reports on research completed for the Iowa State Highway Commission. This research was done for the Iowa State Highway Research Board Project HR-1, "The Loess and Glacial Till Materials of Iowa; an Investigation of Their Physical and Chemical Properties and Techniques for Processing Them to Increase Their All-Weather Stability for Road Construction." The research, started in 1950, was done by the Iowa Engineering Experiment Station under its project 283-S. The project was supported by funds from the Iowa State Highway Commission. The principal objectives of the project may be summed up as follows: 1. To determine by means of both field and laboratory studies the areal and stratigraphic variation in the physical and chemical properties of the loess and glacial till materials of Iowa. 2. To develop new equipment and methods for evaluating physical and chemical properties of soil where needed. 3. To correlate fundamental soil properties with the performance of soils in the highway structure. 4. To develop a scientific approach to the problem of soil stabilization based on the relationships between the properties of the soils and those of the admixtures. 5. To determine the manner in which the loess and glacial till materials of Iowa can be processed for optimum performance as highway embankments, sub-grades, base courses, and surface courses.

Iowa Highway Programs, Finances, and Progress, 1951

(a) Iowa has a total of 101,620 miles of rural roads, both primary and secondary. (b) On January 1, 1951, a total of 68,869 miles of these rural roads were surfaced - mostly with gravel and crushed stone. (c) Additional roads are being surfaced at the rate of 2676 miles per year. (d) Iowa's highway program provides for a surfaced road to every reasonably located rural home and a paved or other type of dustless surface on all primary roads. (e) Iowa's highway funds come 26.0 per cent from property taxes, 63.5 per cent from road use taxes, 10.5 per cent from Federal aid. (f) Annual income under present laws, available for highway construction, is approximately For primary roads ----------------- $24,000,000 For secondary roads---------------- $41,967,000 (g) Iowa's highway improvements are being paid for as built. No new bonds are being issued. (h) Unobligated available farm to market road funds are rapidly being placed under contract. (i) The letting of highway contracts is increasing rapidly. (j)- Iowa's highway program is estimated to cost $945,000,000 and will require twenty years to build. These are the highlights of Iowa's highway program. The details will follow in succeeding paragraphs.

Iowa Highway Programs, Finances, and Progress, 1952

(a) Iowa has a total of 101,620 miles of rural roads, both primary and secondary. (b) On January 1, 1952, a total of 71,493 miles of these rural roads were surfaced - mostly with gravel and crushed stone. (c) Additional roads are being surfaced at the rate of 2662 miles per year. (d) Iowa's highway program provides for a surfaced road to every reasonably located rural home and a paved or other type of dustless surface on all primary roads. (e) Iowa's highway funds come 26.0 per cent from property taxes, 63.5 per cent from road use taxes, 10.5 per cent from Federal aid. (f) Annual income under present laws, available for highway construction, is approximately For primary roads------------------$23,000,000 For secondary roads---------------- 41,967,000 (g) Iowa's highway improvements are being paid for as built. No new bonds are being issued. (h) The surplus of farm to market road funds created during and immediately following the War have now been placed under contract, with only a minimum working balance remaining in the fund. (i) Iowa's highway program was estimated to cost $945,000,000 and to require twenty years to build, by the 1948 Legislative Committee. This estimate would now have to be increased due to price increases and higher required standards. These are the highlights of Iowa's highway program. The details will follow in succeeding paragraphs.

Iowa Highway Program, Finances and Progress, 1954

(a) Iowa has a total of 101,451 miles of rural roads, both primary and secondary. (b) On January 1, l954, a total of 77,024 miles of these rural roads were surfaced - mostly with gravel and crushed stone. This is 5,53l miles greater than on January l, 1952. (c) Additional roads are being surfaced at the rate of 2766 miles per year. (d) Iowa's highway program provides for a surfaced road to every reasonably located rural home and a paved or other type of dustless surface on all primary roads. (e) Iowa's highway funds come 25.4 per cent from property taxes and special taxes......................................$29,708,546.67 63.7 per cent from road use taxes.......... 74,581,080.30 10.6 per cent from Federal Aid (1952 Act).. 12,424,000.00 0.3 per cent from miscellaneous receipts.. 287,922.86 ---- ------------- 100.0 $117,001,549.83 (f) Annual income under present laws, available for highway construction, is approximately, For primary roads $29,420,000.00 For secondary roads $44,328,000.00 In 19_3, $7,299,000 of secondary road construction funds was transferred to the maintenance fund. (g) Iowa's highway improvements are being paid for as built. No new bonds are being issued.

Iowa Highway Research Report No. 2, 1950-1951

During the fiscal year, July 1, 1950 to June 30, 1951, the Iowa State Highway Commission expanded its research program by adding to the work under way during the previous fiscal year, fifteen substantial projects recommended to the Commission by the Iowa Highway Research Board. The major portion of the projects under way in the previous fiscal year have been active in this fiscal year. All of the additional projects have gotten under way during this fiscal year. This year, as in the past, the work has been performed partly by Commission forces and partly by outside agencies such as the Institute of Hydraulic Research at Iowa City, the State University of Iowa, Iowa State College, the Iowa Geological Survey and the United States Geological Survey. The major portion of the fifteen new projects has been assigned to these outside agencies.

Pilot Study on Improving the Efficiency of Transportation Projects Using Laser Scanning, 2003

Laser scanning is a terrestrial laser-imaging system that creates highly accurate three-dimensional images of objects for use in standard computer-aided design software packages. This report describes results of a pilot study to investigate the use of laser scanning for transportation applications in Iowa. After an initial training period on the use of the scanner and Cyclone software, pilot tests were performed on the following projects: intersection and railroad bridge for training purposes; section of highway to determine elevation accuracy and pair of bridges to determine level of detail that can be captured; new concrete pavement to determine smoothness; bridge beams to determine camber for deck-loading calculations; stockpile to determine volume; and borrow pit to determine volume. Results show that it is possible to obtain 2-6 mm precision with the laser scanner as claimed by the manufacturer compared to approximately one-inch precision with aerial photogrammetry using a helicopter. A cost comparison between helicopter photogrammetry and laser scanning showed that laser scanning was approximately 30 percent higher in cost depending on assumptions. Laser scanning can become more competitive to helicopter photogrammetry by elevating the scanner on a boom truck and capturing both sides of a divided roadway at the same time. Two- and three-dimensional drawings were created in MicroStation for one of the scanned highway bridges. It was demonstrated that it is possible to create such drawings within the accuracy of this technology. It was discovered that a significant amount of time is necessary to convert point cloud images into drawings. As this technology matures, this task should become less time consuming. It appears that laser scanning technology does indeed have a place in the Iowa Department of Transportation design and construction toolbox. Based on results from this study, laser scanning can be used cost effectively for preliminary surveys to develop TIN meshes of roadway surfaces. It also appears that this technique can be used quite effectively to measure bridge beam camber in a safer and quicker fashion compared to conventional approaches. Volume calculations are also possible using laser scanning. It seems that measuring quantities of rock could be an area where this technology would be quite beneficial since accuracy is more important with this material compared to soil. Other applications for laser scanning could include developing as-built drawings of historical structures such as the bridges of Madison County. This technology could also be useful where safety is a concern such as accurately measuring the surface of a highway active with traffic or scanning the underside of a bridge damaged by a truck. It is recommended that the Iowa Department of Transportation initially rent the scanner when it is needed and purchase the software. With time, it may be cost justifiable to purchase the scanner as well. Laser scanning consultants can be hired as well but at a higher cost.

Asphalt cement concrete pavement recycling, Cass and Montgomery Counties : final report for Iowa DOT project HR-1018, Federal Highway Administration demonstration project no. 39, contract no. DOT-FH-15-336, 1986

This demonstration project consisted of three adjacent highway resurfacing projects using asphalt cement concrete removed from an Interstate highway which had become severely rutted.

2017-2021 Iowa Transportation Improvement Program

This document describes planned investments in Iowa’s multimodal transportation system including aviation, transit, railroads, trails, and highways. This five-year program documents $3.5 billion of highway and bridge construction projects on the primary road system using federal and state funding. Of that funding, a little over $500 million is available due to the passage of Senate File 257 in February 2015. As required by Senate File 257, this program includes a list of the critical highway and bridge projects funded with the additional revenue. Since last year’s program, a new federal surface transportation authorization bill was passed and signed into law. This authorization bill is titled Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The FAST Act, for the first time in many years, provides federal funding certainty over most of the time covered by this Program. In addition, it provided additional federal funding for highway and bridge projects.

Highway Performance and Time-Sensitive Industries, 1998

This report addresses delays to freight shippers. Although the focus is on just-in-time (JIT) businesses, the authors also note that non JIT businesses also suffer delays that impact their productivity. The table of contents lists the following headings: chapter 1 - introduction - a trial application: the Des Moines metropolitan area; structure of the report; chapter 2 - reliability at the forefront of freight transport demand - manufacturing and inventory; just-in-time operations in the U.S.; transportation consequences; summary; chapter 3 - JIT operations in Iowa - survey and sample; trucking activity and service; just-in-time truck transportation in Iowa; assessment of factors affecting truck transportation service; summary and conclusions; chapter 4 - travel time uncertainty induced by incidents - a probabilistic model for incident occurrences and durations; calculation of delay; trial application; conclusions; and chapter 5 - conclusions and recommendations - conclusions; recommendations.

Distribution of Wheel Loads on Highway Bridges, 1968

The purpose of the research was to develop a more realistic design criteria for distribution of wheel loads on highway bridges. A comprehensive study was made of the· static load distribution in a broad range of short and medium span bridge types used by today's designers.

U.S. Highway 20 Corridor Development Study, Task A Report, 1992

This Task A Report summarizes the initial activities of the U.S. 20 Corridor Development Study. Task A constitutes a review of the portion of existing U.S. 20 from the Nebraska state line on the south side of Sioux City to the junction with U.S. 169 south of Ft. Dodge. · Preliminary study findings for this 119 mile corridor are summarized below.

U.S. Highway 20 Corridor Development Study, Report B: Improvement Alternatives, Costs and Traffic, 1992

In February the U.S. 20 Corridor Development Study's Steering Committee met to review Report A. At that meeting the Committee selected seven alternatives to be evaluated from a cost and traffic perspective. This report, Report B, presents the cost and traffic evaluation of these seven alternatives. This Report B and its cost and traffic estimates will be reviewed at the next Steering Committee meeting. At that time it is possible that, based on the traffic and cost estimates, one or more of the alternatives will be eliminated from further consideration. After that meeting the Consultant will initiate the more in-depth analyses, including the economic feasibility

U.S. Highway 20 Corridor Development Study, 1992

This study examines the feasibility of making a major financial investment in the improvement of U.S. 20 between Sioux City and Fort Dodge, Iowa. This 119-mile (191-km) highway segment of U.S. 20 currently includes 97 miles (156 km) of 2-lane highway and 22 miles (35 km) of 4-lane highway (on the west end near Sioux City and a short section near Holstein). This 119-mile (191-km) segment is predominantly rural in nature, and serves a region of Iowa that has not been economically prospering. Local business leaders and residents have long desired major improvements to this highway segment, not only because of the safety and travel efficiency implications, but also because of the belief that the highway, as mainly a two-lane facility, is retarding the corridor area's economic growth and well being. The study was divided into five sequential tasks: (A) Evaluation of Existing U.S. 20; (B) Improvement Alternatives, Costs and Traffic; (C) Screening of Alternative Candidate Improvements; (D) Economic Feasibility Analysis; and (E) Interpretation and Comparisons.

The Governor's Transportation Task Force: Recommendations For Increasing Efficiency, Rough draft, 1995

The spirit behind the creation of the task force is one of good government. It rests upon the basic premise that taxpayers demand the best service possible for their tax dollars. Combine this demand for efficiency with Iowa's aging roadway system, and a projected increase in the state's vehicle miles traveled, the need to examine cost savings becomes apparent. Beyond the rational for good and efficient government, however, is a major concern for potential future reductions in Federal highway funds. Iowa is likely entering a period of needing an expanded transportation system with at best a static capacity for maintenance and construction.