Secondary Accident Data Fusion for Assessing Long-Term Performance of Transportation Systems, 2007

Secondary accident statistics can be useful for studying the impact of traffic incident management strategies. An easy-to-implement methodology is presented for classifying secondary accidents using data fusion of a police accident database with intranet incident reports. A current method for classifying secondary accidents uses a static threshold that represents the spatial and temporal region of influence of the primary accident, such as two miles and one hour. An accident is considered secondary if it occurs upstream from the primary accident and is within the duration and queue of the primary accident. However, using the static threshold may result in both false positives and negatives because accident queues are constantly varying. The methodology presented in this report seeks to improve upon this existing method by making the threshold dynamic. An incident progression curve is used to mark the end of the queue throughout the entire incident. Four steps in the development of incident progression curves are described. Step one is the processing of intranet incident reports. Step two is the filling in of incomplete incident reports. Step three is the nonlinear regression of incident progression curves. Step four is the merging of individual incident progression curves into one master curve. To illustrate this methodology, 5,514 accidents from Missouri freeways were analyzed. The results show that secondary accidents identified by dynamic versus static thresholds can differ by more than 30%.

Evaluation of a Bridge Constructed using High Performance Steel, May 2006

Of the approximately 25,000 bridges in Iowa, 28% are classified as structurally deficient, functionally obsolete, or both. Because many Iowa bridges require repair or replacement with a relatively limited funding base, there is a need to develop new bridge materials that may lead to longer life spans and reduced life-cycle costs. In addition, new and effective methods for determining the condition of structures are needed to identify when the useful life has expired or other maintenance is needed. Due to its unique alloy blend, high-performance steel (HPS) has been shown to have improved weldability, weathering capabilities, and fracture toughness than conventional structural steels. Since the development of HPS in the mid-1990s, numerous bridges using HPS girders have been constructed, and many have been economically built. The East 12th Street Bridge, which replaced a deteriorated box girder bridge, is Iowa’s first bridge constructed using HPS girders. The new structure is a two-span bridge that crosses I-235 in Des Moines, Iowa, providing one lane of traffic in each direction. A remote, continuous, fiber-optic based structural health monitoring (SHM) system for the bridge was developed using off-the-shelf technologies. In the system, sensors strategically located on the bridge collect raw strain data and then transfer the data via wireless communication to a gateway system at a nearby secure facility. The data are integrated and converted to text files before being uploaded automatically to a website that provides live strain data and a live video stream. A data storage/processing system at the Bridge Engineering Center in Ames, Iowa, permanently stores and processes the data files. Several processes are performed to check the overall system’s operation, eliminate temperature effects from the complete strain record, compute the global behavior of the bridge, and count strain cycles at the various sensor locations.

TOPSpro Data Dictionary, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006

The passage of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 [Public Law 105-220] by the 105th Congress has ushered in a new era of collaboration, coordination, cooperation and accountability. The overall goal of the Act is “to increase the employability, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by participants, and, as a result improve the quality of the workforce, reduce welfare dependency, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the Nation.” The key principles inculcated in the Act are: • Streamlining services; • Empowering individuals; • Universal access; • Increased accountability; • New roles for local boards; • State and local flexibility; • Improved youth programs. The purpose of Title II, The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 is to create a partnership among the federal government, states, and localities to provide, on a voluntary basis, adult education and literacy services in order to: • Assist adults become literate and obtain the knowledge and skills necessary for employment and self-sufficiency; • Assist adults who are parents obtain the educational skills necessary to become full partners in the educational development of their children; • Assist adults in the completion of a secondary school education. Adult education is an important part of the workforce investment system. Title II restructures and improves programs previously authorized by the Adult Education Act. AEFLA focuses on strengthening program quality by requiring States to give priority in awarding funds to local programs that are based on a solid foundation of research, address the diverse needs of adult learners, and utilize other effective practices and strategies. To promote continuous program involvement and to ensure optimal return on the Federal investment, AEFLA also establishes a State performance accountability system. Under this system, the Secretary and each State must reach agreement on annual levels of performance for a number of “core indicators” specified in the law: • Demonstrated improvements in literacy skill levels in reading, writing, and speaking the English language, numeracy, problem solving, English language acquisition, and other literacy skills. • Placement in, retention in, or completion of postsecondary education, training, unsubsidized employment or career advancement. • Receipt of a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent. Iowa’s community college based adult basic education program has implemented a series of proactive strategies in order to effectively and systematically meet the challenges posed by WIA. The Iowa TOPSpro Data Dictionary is a direct result of Iowa’s pro-active efforts in this educational arena.

Performance Report for Fiscal Year, 2005

I am pleased to present the performance report for the Iowa Department for the Blind for fiscal year 2005. This report is provided in compliance with sections 8E.210 and 216B.7 of the Code of Iowa. It contains valuable information about the services the Department and its partners provided for Iowans during the past fiscal year in the areas of vocational rehabilitation, library services, and resource management. Major accomplishments of the year included new food service opportunities in the Randolph-Sheppard program, extensive remodeling of the Adult Orientation and Adjustment Center, and continued national prominence in vocational rehabilitation as measured by the U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration, which on June 13, 2005 released data on federal standards and indicators for the year ended September 30, 2004. Earnings ratios and the percentage of employment for vocational rehabilitation clients of the Department remain among the best in the nation. This is corroborated by a report released in September, 2005 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which tested and summarized datasets compiled by the U.S. Department of Education for the nation’s 80 vocational rehabilitation agencies. Overall, we met or exceeded 26 of 32 results targets included in this report. Key strategic challenges, developments, and trends are also discussed in the "Department Overview" that follows. Sincerely, Allen C. Harris Director, Iowa Department for the Blind

Performance Report for Fiscal Year, 2006

I am pleased to present the performance report for the Iowa Department for the Blind for fiscal year 2006. This report is provided in compliance with sections 8E.210 and 216B.7 of the Code of Iowa. It contains valuable information about the services the Department and its partners provided for Iowans during the past fiscal year in the areas of vocational rehabilitation, library services, and resource management. Major accomplishments of the year included successful administration of a federally-funded mentoring program (Pathfinders) that matches young adults ages 16-26 who are blind or visually impaired with mentors who also have vision loss, installed a state-of-the art digital recording studio in the library, and continued national prominence in vocational rehabilitation. Earnings ratios and the percentage of employment for vocational rehabilitation clients of the Department remain among the best in the nation, as measured by the U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration, which on July 3, 2006 released data on federal standards and indicators for the year ended September 30, 2005. Overall, we met or exceeded 15 of 20 results targets included in this report. Key strategic challenges, developments, and trends are also discussed in the "Department Overview" that follows. Sincerely, Allen C. Harris Director, Iowa Department for the Blind

Performance Report for Fiscal Year, 2007

I am pleased to present the performance report for the Iowa Department for the Blind for fiscal year 2007. This report is provided in compliance with sections 8E.210 and 216B.7 of the Code of Iowa. It contains valuable information about the services the Department and its partners provided for Iowans during the past fiscal year in the areas of Vocational Rehabilitation, Independent Living, Library Services, and Resource Management. The Department determines its competitive success in a number of ways. We look at the federal standards and indicators to learn our ranking in relation to the performance of other public rehabilitation agencies. We compare our library's production and circulation figures with those from previous years to determine trends. We set our own standards for success by looking at such factors as the number of successful case closures, average hourly wage at case closure, skills training provided, and compliance with regulations. Results show that the Department is working positively toward achieving its strategic goals of increasing the independence and productivity of blind Iowans and improving access to information for blind Iowans. Major accomplishments of the year included the selection of our Library as the only agency authorized to distribute educational materials using the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) to students in Iowa. Our Independent Living program received the Shining Star award at the Governor's Conference on Aging for its work with and outreach to older blind Iowans. The Department, the Iowa Braille School, and the Department of Education implemented new cooperative efforts to improve the coordination and delivery of services to blind and visually impaired students in Iowa. Finally, earnings ratios and the percentage of employment for vocational rehabilitation clients of the Department remain among the best in the nation, as measured by the U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration, which on June 27, 2007 released data on federal standards and indicators for the year ended September 30, 2006. Overall, we met or exceeded 11 of 16 results targets included in this report. A discussion of the Department's services, customers, organizational structure, and budget appears in the "Department Overview" that follows. The success of the Department's programs is evident in the success achieved by blind Iowans. It is reflected in the many blind persons who can be seen traveling about independently, going to their jobs and to the community and family activities in which they participate. Sincerely, Allen C. Harris Director, Iowa Department for the Blind

Annual Performance Report IDEA Part C FFY 2008-2009

This is the annual performance report for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C, which was submitted on February 2, 2010 to the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The report provides data on the State's Early ACCESS system and the 10 Regional Grantees' performance in 14 national indicators.

Higher Standards Lead to Better Results, Data Download, Iowa Department of Corrections, February 2010

Like many businesses and government agencies, the Iowa Department of Corrections has been measuring our results for some years now. Certain performance measures are collected and reported to the Governor as part of the Director’s Flexible Performance Agreement used to evaluate the DOC Director. Updates of these measures are forwarded to DOC staff on a quarterly basis. In addition, the Iowa Department of Management requires each state agency to report on certain performance measures as part of Iowa’s effort to ensure accountability in state government. These measures and their progress are posted to www.ResultsIowa.org

From Empirical Bayes to Full Bayes: Methods for Analysing Traffice Safety Data, October 25, 2004

Traffic safety engineers are among the early adopters of Bayesian statistical tools for analyzing crash data. As in many other areas of application, empirical Bayes methods were their first choice, perhaps because they represent an intuitively appealing, yet relatively easy to implement alternative to purely classical approaches. With the enormous progress in numerical methods made in recent years and with the availability of free, easy to use software that permits implementing a fully Bayesian approach, however, there is now ample justification to progress towards fully Bayesian analyses of crash data. The fully Bayesian approach, in particular as implemented via multi-level hierarchical models, has many advantages over the empirical Bayes approach. In a full Bayesian analysis, prior information and all available data are seamlessly integrated into posterior distributions on which practitioners can base their inferences. All uncertainties are thus accounted for in the analyses and there is no need to pre-process data to obtain Safety Performance Functions and other such prior estimates of the effect of covariates on the outcome of interest. In this slight, fully Bayesian methods may well be less costly to implement and may result in safety estimates with more realistic standard errors. In this manuscript, we present the full Bayesian approach to analyzing traffic safety data and focus on highlighting the differences between the empirical Bayes and the full Bayes approaches. We use an illustrative example to discuss a step-by-step Bayesian analysis of the data and to show some of the types of inferences that are possible within the full Bayesian framework.

From Empirical Bayes to Full Bayes: Methods for Analyzubg Traffic Safey Data, October 25, 2004

Traffic safety engineers are among the early adopters of Bayesian statistical tools for analyzing crash data. As in many other areas of application, empirical Bayes methods were their first choice, perhaps because they represent an intuitively appealing, yet relatively easy to implement alternative to purely classical approaches. With the enormous progress in numerical methods made in recent years and with the availability of free, easy to use software that permits implementing a fully Bayesian approach, however, there is now ample justification to progress towards fully Bayesian analyses of crash data. The fully Bayesian approach, in particular as implemented via multi-level hierarchical models, has many advantages over the empirical Bayes approach. In a full Bayesian analysis, prior information and all available data are seamlessly integrated into posterior distributions on which practitioners can base their inferences. All uncertainties are thus accounted for in the analyses and there is no need to pre-process data to obtain Safety Performance Functions and other such prior estimates of the effect of covariates on the outcome of interest. In this light, fully Bayesian methods may well be less costly to implement and may result in safety estimates with more realistic standard errors. In this manuscript, we present the full Bayesian approach to analyzing traffic safety data and focus on highlighting the differences between the empirical Bayes and the full Bayes approaches. We use an illustrative example to discuss a step-by-step Bayesian analysis of the data and to show some of the types of inferences that are possible within the full Bayesian framework.

Performance of Strip Seals in Iowa Bridges, Project TR-437, January 2001

A pilot study was conducted on the premature failures of neoprene strip seals in expansion joints in Iowa bridges. In a relatively large number of bridges, strip seals have pulled out of the steel extrusions or otherwise failed well before the expected life span of the seal. The most serious consequence of a strip-seal failure is damage to the bridge substructure due to salt, water, and debris interacting with the substructure. A literature review was performed. Manufacturers’ specifications and recommendations, practices in the states bordering Iowa, and Iowa DOT design and installation guidelines were reviewed. Discussions were held with bridge contractors and the installation of a strip seal system was observed. Iowa DOT bridge databases were analyzed. A national survey was conducted on the use and performance of strip seals. With guidance from the Iowa DOT, twelve in-service bridges with strip-seal expansion joints were selected for detailed investigation. Effective bridge temperatures and corresponding expansion-joint openings were measured, DOT inspection reports were reviewed, and likely cause(s) of premature failures of strip seals were proposed. All of the seals used in the twelve bridges that had the most serious failures were in concrete girder bridges. Experimental results show that for a majority of these serious failures, the joint opening at 0° F predicted by the Iowa DOT design equations, the joint opening at 0° F extrapolated from the experimental data, or both, are larger than the movement rating of the strip seal specified on the bridge plans. Other likely causes of premature failures of seals in the twelve bridges include debris and ice in the seal cavity, a large skew and the corresponding decrease in the movement rating of the seal, improper installation, and improper setting of the initial gap.

Iowa Calibration of MEPDG Performance Prediction Models, 2013

This study aims to improve the accuracy of AASHTO Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) pavement performance predictions for Iowa pavement systems through local calibration of MEPDG prediction models. A total of 130 representative pavement sites across Iowa were selected. The selected pavement sites represent flexible, rigid, and composite pavement systems throughout Iowa. The required MEPDG inputs and the historical performance data for the selected sites were extracted from a variety of sources. The accuracy of the nationally-calibrated MEPDG prediction models for Iowa conditions was evaluated. The local calibration factors of MEPDG performance prediction models were identified to improve the accuracy of model predictions. The identified local calibration coefficients are presented with other significant findings and recommendations for use in MEPDG/DARWin-ME for Iowa pavement systems.

Iowa Calibration of MEPDG Performance Prediction Models: Tech Transfer Summary

This study aims to improve the accuracy of AASHTO Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) pavement performance predictions for Iowa pavement systems through local calibration of MEPDG prediction models. A total of 130 representative pavement sites across Iowa were selected. The selected pavement sites represent flexible, rigid, and composite pavement systems throughout Iowa. The required MEPDG inputs and the historical performance data for the selected sites were extracted from a variety of sources. The accuracy of the nationally-calibrated MEPDG prediction models for Iowa conditions was evaluated. The local calibration factors of MEPDG performance prediction models were identified to improve the accuracy of model predictions. The identified local calibration coefficients are presented with other significant findings and recommendations for use in MEPDG/DARWin-ME for Iowa pavement systems.

Development of Performance Properties of Ternary Mixtures and Concrete Pavement Mixture Design and Analysis (MDA): Effect of Paste Quality on Fresh and Hardened Properties of Ternary Mixtures, TPF-5(117), 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cement paste quality on the concrete performance, particularly fresh properties, by changing the water-to-cementitious materials ratio (w/cm), type and dosage of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), and airvoid system in binary and ternary mixtures. In this experimental program, a total matrix of 54 mixtures with w/cm of 0.40 and 0.45; target air content of 2%, 4%, and 8%; a fixed cementitious content of 600 pounds per cubic yard (pcy), and the incorporation of three types of SCMs at different dosages was prepared. The fine aggregate-to- total aggregate ratio was fixed at 0.42. Workability, rheology, air-void system, setting time, strength, Wenner Probe surface resistivity, and shrinkage were determined. The effects of paste variables on workability are more marked at the higher w/cm. The compressive strength is strongly influenced by the paste quality, dominated by w/cm and air content. Surface resistivity is improved by inclusion of Class F fly ash and slag cement, especially at later ages. Ternary mixtures performed in accordance with their ingredients. The data collected will be used to develop models that will be part of an innovative mix proportioning procedure.

Development of Benchmark Data for the Iowa Department of Transportation Construction Offices, HR-381, 1996

This report describes the development of performance measures for the Iowa DOT Construction Offices. The offices are responsible for administering all transportation construction projects for the Iowa DOT. In conjunction with a steering team composed of representatives of the Construction Offices, the research team developed a list of eight key processes and a set of measures for each. Two kinds of data were gathered: baseline data and benchmark data. Baseline data is used to characterize current performance. Benchmark data is gathered to find organizations that have excellent performance records for one or more key functions. This report discusses the methodology used and the results obtained. The data obtained represents the first set of data points. Subsequent years will establish trends for each of the measures, showing improvement or lack of it.