Paved Shoulders on Primary Highways in Iowa: An Analysis of Shoulder Surfacing Criteria, Costs, and Benefits, 2001

The value of providing paved shoulders adjacent to many higher volume roadways has been accepted in many states across the country. Iowa’s paved shoulder policy is considerably more conservative than neighboring states, particularly on rural four-lane and high-volume two-lane highways. The objectives of this research are to examine current design criteria for shoulders employed in Iowa and surrounding states, compare benefits and costs of alternative surface types and widths, and make recommendations based on this analysis for consideration in future design policies for primary highway in Iowa. The report finds that many safety and maintenance benefits would result from enhancing Iowa’s paved shoulder and rumble strip design practices for freeways, expressways, and Super 2 highway corridors. The benefits of paved shoulders include reduced numbers of certain crashes, higher capacity potentials, reduced maintenance, enhanced opportunities for other users such as bicyclists, and even possible increased longevity of pavements. Alternative paved shoulder policies and programming strategies are also offered, with detailed assessments of the benefits, costs, and budget impacts.

Angle Parking on Iowa's Low Volume Primary Extentions in Small Towns, January 2003

On-street parking has been considered problematic by engineers for many years. In fact, numerous studies have concluded that diagonal or angle parking in particular is potentially more of a safety concern than parallel or no parking at all. It is a common position of many states, including Iowa, to discourage or completely prohibit angle parking on primary road extensions in urban areas. However, with the acceptance of “context sensitive design” and traffic calming techniques, policies for on-street parking are receiving re -consideration in many agencies including the FHWA. This study was undertaken to analyze operational and safety histories in the state of Iowa where various types of on-street parking have existed for many years, concentrating in particular on smaller communities. Specifically of interest was a comparison of diagonal parking locations to other types with regard to related crash histories. If possible, it was intended to develop guidelines to assist Iowa Department of Transportation designers in the consideration of parking requirements for road improvements through small communities. In this regard, several criteria were analyzed to determine possible contribution to crash history including road width, clearance to parked vehicles, traffic volumes, community population, and length of parking area. None of these factors, with the possible exception of population, displayed a clearly definable relationship to crash history. However, when average crash rates for various parking types were compared for non-intersection crashes, differences in rates between areas with diagonal parking and those with parallel parking were almost negligible. In fact, those observed rates were less than sample locations with no parking at all. These results seem to indicate that indeed there may exist no compelling justification for blanket prohibition of angle parking along Iowa’s primary extensions in all urban areas. Rather, a case-by-case investigation with each project design of the most applicable parking type would seem appropriate in smaller communities.

Volume of Traffic on the Primary Road System, 2002

The Office of Transportation Data, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, prepares this biennial traffic report. This report is used by federal, state, and local governmental agencies in determining highway needs, construction priorities, route location and environmental impact studies, and the application of appropriate design standards. The general public uses this information in determining the amount of traffic that passes a given area as they make their development plans and propose land use changes. The above reflects only a few of the many technical uses for this data.

Road Use Tax/Fund Primary Road Fund Budget: Reversions, September 11, 2008

Pursuant to Iowa Code Section 307.46(2) - This is the Iowa Department of Transportation's report on the use of reversions.

Iowa Influenza Surveillance Network Final Report 2007-2008

The Iowa Influenza Surveillance Network (IISN) was formally established in 2004, though surveillance has been conducted at the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) for more than ten years. The IISN is comprised of four primary surveillance systems- sentinel health care providers, hospital-based, laboratory-based, and school-based. Sentinel health care providers are part of the U.S. Influenza Sentinel Provider Surveillance System. All systems, except certain sentinel sites, report October-March. Schools and long-term care facilities report data weekly into a Web-based reporting system. Schools report the number of students absent due to illness and the total enrolled. Long-term care facilities report cases of influenza and vaccination status of each case. Both passively report outbreaks of illness, including influenza, to IDPH.

2008 Road Use Tax Fund-Primary Road Fund, September 22, 2009

Pursuant to Iowa Code Section 307.46(2), the following report is submitted on the use of reversions. The Iowa Department of Transportation spent $500,000 of the Fiscal Year 2008 Road Use Tax Fund/Primary Road Fund budget reversion in Fiscal Year 2009 for storage area network software.