Concrete Paving Training & Field Reference for Preventing Common Problems, August 2006

To ensure that high-quality materials are used in concrete mixing, all materials delivered to the site should be inspected to ensure that they meet specification requirements. All materials should be delivered with the proper certifications, invoices, or bill of lading. These records should indicate when the shipment arrived, the amount and identification of material delivered, and the laboratory report certification number, invoice number, and ticket number.

A donde vamos ahora? : (where are we going now) : a report on the problems of the Spanish surnamed and migrant population in Iowa,1970.

This is an overview of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the duties of the Iowa State Advisory Committee. It contains a report concerning problems of the Spanish surnamed and migrant population in Iowa.

Iowa Driver’s License Renewal, August 3, 2007

One-on-one communication with driver’s license customers is the most valuable tool Driver Services employees use to help drivers stay independent and safe. Driver Services employees understand that a sense of remaining independent, in everything from running errands to shopping to visits with friends, family and doctors, depends on a driver’s license. There are times when Driver Services personnel, or even the drivers themselves, determine it’s time to stop driving. In those cases, people are given a free identification card. There are also times when the DOT must suspend a person’s driving privilege. This can be caused by vision problems, a medical condition or unsafe driving. If the driver cannot be relicensed, DOT personnel make the commitment to work with the individual by providing information about available transportation alternatives. We are providing this information to make the renewal process understandable and less stressful. We hope that by explaining why the DOT screens vision, requires medical information and requests drive tests, and describing how these all relate to highway safety, drivers will know what to expect. Personnel are available to answer questions or discuss concerns at any of the Iowa Department of Transportation or County Treasurer driver’s license sites. Please contact one of the driver’s license stations listed in this booklet.

Agency Fact Sheet, Department of Iowa Communication Network, FY2008

This document produced by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services has been developed to provide a multitude of information about executive branch agencies/department on a single sheet of paper. The facts provides general information, contact information, workforce data, leave and benefits information and affirmative action data.

Agency Fact Sheet, Iowa Communication Network, FY2004

This document produced by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services has been developed to provide a multitude of information about executive branch agencies/department on a single sheet of paper. The facts provides general information, contact information, workforce data, leave and benefits information and affirmative action data.

Curb it-Click it Electronic Communication Devices Prohibited Uses While Driving

This brochure explains Iowa's laws concerning the use of cell phones and other electronic communication devices while driving.

Coming into Focus A Needs Assessment and State Plan for Iowans with Brain Injury, November 1998

Coming Into Focus presents a needs assessment related to Iowans with brain injury, and a state action plan to improve Iowa’s ability to meet those needs. Support for this project came from a grant from the Office of Maternal and Child Health to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Iowa’s lead agency for brain injury. The report is a description of the needs of people with brain injuries in Iowa, the status of services to meet those needs and a plan for improving Iowa’s system of supports. Brain injury can result from a skull fracture or penetration of the brain, a disease process such as tumor or infection, or a closed head injury, such as shaken baby syndrome. Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of death and disability in children and young adults (Fick, 1997). In the United States there are as many as 2 million brain injuries per year, with 300,000 severe enough to require hospitalization. Some 50,000 lives are lost every year to TBI. Eighty to 90 thousand people have moderate to acute brain injuries that result in disabling conditions which can last a lifetime. These conditions can include physical impairments, memory defects, limited concentration, communication deficits, emotional problems and deficits in social abilities. In addition to the personal pain and challenges to survivors and their families, the financial cost of brain injuries is enormous. With traumatic brain injuries, it is estimated that in 1995 Iowa hospitals charged some $38 million for acute care for injured persons. National estimates offer a lifetime cost of $4 million for one person with brain injury (Schootman and Harlan, 1997). With this estimate, new injuries in 1995 could eventually cost over $7 billion dollars. Dramatic improvements in medicine, and the development of emergency response systems, means that more people sustaining brain injuries are being saved. How can we insure that supports are available to this emerging population? We have called the report Coming into Focus, because, despite the prevalence and the personal and financial costs to society, brain injury is poorly understood. The Iowa Department of Public Health, the Iowa Advisory Council on Head Injuries State Plan Task Force, the Brain Injury Association of Iowa and the Iowa University Affiliated Program have worked together to begin answering this question. A great deal of good information already existed. This project brought this information together, gathered new information where it was needed, and carried out a process for identifying what needs to be done in Iowa, and what the priorities will be.

Retrofit Methods for Distortion Cracking Problems in Plate Girder Bridges, TR-436, 2003

This report is formatted to independently present four individual investigations related to similar web gap fatigue problems. Multiple steel girder bridges commonly exhibit fatigue cracking due to out-of-plane displacement of the web near the diaphragm connections. This fatigue-prone web gap area is typically located in negative moment regions of the girders where the diaphragm stiffener is not attached to the top flange. In the past, the Iowa Department of Transportation has attempted to stop fatigue crack propagation in these steel girder bridges by drilling holes at the crack tips. Other nondestructive retrofits have been tried; in a particular case on a two-girder bridge with floor beams, angles were bolted between the stiffener and top flange. The bolted angle retrofit has failed in the past and may not be a viable solution for diaphragm bridges. The drilled hole retrofit is often only a temporary solution, so a more permanent and effective retrofit is required. A new field retrofit has been developed that involves loosening the bolts in the connection between the diaphragm and the girders. Research on the retrofit has been initiated; however, no long-term studies of the effects of bolt loosening have been performed. The intent of this research is to study the short-term effects of the bolt loosening retrofit on I-beam and channel diaphragm bridges. The research also addressed the development of a continuous remote monitoring system to investigate the bolt loosening retrofit on an X-type diaphragm bridge over a number of months, ensuring that the measured strain and displacement reductions are not affected by time and continuous traffic loading on the bridge. The testing for the first three investigations is based on instrumentation of web gaps in a negative moment region on Iowa Department of Transportation bridges with I-beam, channel, and X-type diaphragms. One bridge of each type was instrumented with strain gages and deflection transducers. Field tests, using loaded trucks of known weight and configuration, were conducted on the bridges with the bolts in the tight condition and after implementing the bolt loosening retrofit to measure the effects of loosening the diaphragm bolts. Long-term data were also collected on the X-diaphragm bridge by a data acquisition system that collected the data continuously under ambient truck loading. The collected data were retrievable by an off-site modem connection to the remote data acquisition system. The data collection features and ruggedness of this system for remote bridge monitoring make it viable as a pilot system for future monitoring projects in Iowa. Results indicate that loosening the diaphragm bolts reduces strain and out-of-plane displacement in the web gap, and that the reduction is not affected over time by traffic or environmental loading on the bridge. Reducing the strain in the web gap allows the bridge to support more cycles of loading before experiencing fatigue, thus increase the service life of the bridge. Two-girder floor beam bridges may also exhibit fatigue cracking in girder webs.

Problems of Bridge Supporting and Expansion Devices and an Experimental Comparison of the Dynamic Behavior of Rigid and Elastomeric Bearings, HR-105, 1965

The design of satisfactory supporting and expansion devices for highway bridges is a problem which has concerned bridge design engineers for many years. The problems associated with these devices have been emphasized by the large number of short span bridges required by the current expanded highway program of expressways and interstate highways. The initial objectives of this investigation were: (1) To review and make a field study of devices used for the support of bridge superstructures and for provision of floor expansion; (2) To analyze the forces or factors which influence the design and behavior of supporting devices and floor expansion systems; and (3) To ascertain the need for future research particularly on the problems of obtaining more economical and efficient supporting and expansion devices, and determining maximum allowable distance between such devices. The experimental portion was conducted to evaluate one of the possible simple and economical solutions to the problems observed in the initial portion. The investigation reported herein is divided into four major parts or phases as follows: (1) A review of literature; (2) A survey by questionnaire of design practice of a number of state highway departments and consulting firms; (3) Field observation of existing bridges; and, (4) An experimental comparison of the dynamic behavior of rigid and elastomeric bearings.

Implementation of a Pilot Continuous Monitoring System: Iowa Falls Arch Bridge, HR-1088, 2015

The goal of this work was to move structural health monitoring (SHM) one step closer to being ready for mainstream use by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Bridges and Structures. To meet this goal, the objective of this project was to implement a pilot multi-sensor continuous monitoring system on the Iowa Falls Arch Bridge such that autonomous data analysis, storage, and retrieval can be demonstrated. The challenge with this work was to develop the open channels for communication, coordination, and cooperation of various Iowa DOT offices that could make use of the data. In a way, the end product was to be something akin to a control system that would allow for real-time evaluation of the operational condition of a monitored bridge. Development and finalization of general hardware and software components for a bridge SHM system were investigated and completed. This development and finalization was framed around the demonstration installation on the Iowa Falls Arch Bridge. The hardware system focused on using off-the-shelf sensors that could be read in either “fast” or “slow” modes depending on the desired monitoring metric. As hoped, the installed system operated with very few problems. In terms of communications—in part due to the anticipated installation on the I-74 bridge over the Mississippi River—a hardline digital subscriber line (DSL) internet connection and grid power were used. During operation, this system would transmit data to a central server location where the data would be processed and then archived for future retrieval and use. The pilot monitoring system was developed for general performance evaluation purposes (construction, structural, environmental, etc.) such that it could be easily adapted to the Iowa DOT’s bridges and other monitoring needs. The system was developed allowing easy access to near real-time data in a format usable to Iowa DOT engineers.

Communicating Highway Safety: What Works, 2002

Few topics in transportation are of greater significance, now and in the future, than making today’s roads safe for those who use them. This study aims to assist the formulation of policy by examining the empirical evidence currently available on the ability of several forms of communication efforts and activities to increase knowledge about and affect attitudes and behavior toward highway safety practices. The objective of this effort is to provide a comparative synthesis of what works and what does not in highway safety campaigns across a large number of topical areas that have a mass media component. This was accomplished by conducting an extensive literature review to determine the current state of knowledge concerning what works and what has significant potential for wide use in future highway safety campaigns. An analytic framework for investigating highway safety campaigns was created. The framework includes (1) the types of media components, (2) the types of collaborations, (3) the context in which the campaign is intended to have impact, (4) the structure or procedural steps into which campaigns are organized, (5) the principles for what works in a campaign, and (6) the desired impact of a campaign on its target audience. The report reveals 25 characteristics of successful communication campaigns, strategies that stand a chance of achieving changes in knowledge, attitude, and behavior. The actual impact of mass communication remains unproven because of a perceived lag in the development of adequate evaluation techniques. Education by itself has not generally resulted in significant changes in the behaviors targeted, but education of the public and advocacy groups has often helped enact necessary legislation, transmit knowledge about the provisions and penalties of laws in ways that increase their deterrent effect, and generate public support for law enforcement programs. Even in such cases, however, when enforcement is inconsistent, public compliance frequently decreases with time. Approaches to traffic safety that emphasize the need for long-term individual- and community-based measures are found to be especially crucial for addressing complex problems like drinking and driving that are determined by a myriad of lifestyle and psychosocial factors.