Do you have the next big idea in transportation research? Share it now to be considered before Iowa DOT’s Spring Research Cycle ends June 30th. 

Even if you don’t have a submission of your own, you can help others improve their ideas by voting or adding your comments.

Currently, ideas that were submitted in the Spring will be open for feedback until July 25, 2023. You can review, rate and comment on ideas in Open Feedback right now!

With three research cycles throughout the year, ideas are always in progress at Iowa DOT research. 
 
Check out the annual research calendar to see the year-round process and check the Ideas site often to find out what new ideas have been submitted and to provide your own!

The new Spring Research Cycle opened on March 1, bringing a new chance to see your research ideas become reality.   
 
Yours may be the next great transportation-related idea; submit it now and give it the best chance to grow into a fully developed project!   
  
Submitting an idea at the start of the new research cycle means it will have the most time in the discussion and evaluation phase – a critical step toward helping it succeed.  
  
With more feedback and engagement, ideas become better, making them more likely to be selected for further development.   
  
Even if you don’t have a submission of your own, you can help others improve their ideas by voting or adding your comments. Feedback for the spring cycle will remain open until July 25, 2023.   

You can head to the Ideas site now to review, rate, and comment ideas that were submitted in the fall. 
 
You can also visit our website to learn how the whole process works throughout the year -- Check it out and see what ideas are growing at Iowa DOT Research! 

With the new spring season comes another chance to share the next great transportation-related idea! When the new research cycle opens on March 1, submit your idea to give it the best chance to blossom into a fully developed proposal!   
 
The start of the new research cycle is the best time to submit, since ideas will spend more time in the discussion and evaluation phase. 
 
With more feedback and engagement, ideas become better and more likely to be selected for further development.   
 
Even if you don’t have a submission of your own, you can still help others improve their ideas by voting or adding your comments. Feedback is a critical part of helping every idea succeed, and comments and suggestions for ideas submitted during the spring cycle will be accepted until July 25, 2022.   
 
Our annual research calendar illustrates the year-long cycle, and the Ideas site is the best place to learn more and get involved in Iowa‘s transportation research process. Check it out and help ideas grow!

Iowa’s Statewide Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) is currently soliciting ideas for innovations and technologies eligible for STIC Incentive Funds. Projects eligible for STIC funding under this current solicitation include, but are not limited to, projects that advance the implementation of Every Day Counts (EDC) Innovations. For information on ideas eligible for STIC funds and a link to the current EDC Innovations eligible for funding, please visit https://ideas.iowadot.gov/subdomain/stic-incentive-funds/end/ideas?qmzn=...

STIC Incentive Funds are available up to $125,000 per federal fiscal year for awards. 

The Iowa Highway Research Board will rank STIC ideas in April. Selected ideas will be submitted to FHWA for funding consideration. The STIC will work with DOT offices and Local Public Agencies to fully develop the selected project into an application to be submitted to FHWA for funding.

For additional information, please visit FHWA's STIC Incentive Program Guidelines.

For additional information on Every Day Counts 6, please visit FHWA's EDC-6 Website.

From now until March 15, Iowa’s Statewide Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) will be collecting ideas for innovations and technologies eligible for STIC Incentive Funds. Unlike other types of funds that aim to advance research, STIC incentive funds must be used to accelerate the adoption of innovative techniques and technologies.  

Each federal fiscal year, Iowa may apply for up to $100,000 in STIC funding, and the Iowa DOT provides an additional $25,000 that is required as a state-funded match. Examples of projects that may be eligible for these funds include guidance and specification development, peer exchanges to help states share their knowledge, and other activities that help innovations become standard practice. For more information on eligible ideas, please visit the current campaign website.  

The Iowa Highway Research Board, which serves as Iowa’s STIC, will rank the STIC submissions in April. Selected ideas will then be submitted to FHWA for funding consideration.

For additional information, please visit FHWA's STIC Incentive Program Guidelines. 

Since our summer research cycle opened on July 1, Iowa DOT has received submissions addressing a range of transportation issues, from advanced imaging technologies that could make roadways safer (pictured) to strategies for engaging the next generation of transportation professionals.   
 
You can read more about all of the recently submitted ideas on Iowa DOT’s Research Ideas website.   
 
Help these ideas achieve their full potential by sharing your feedback. Your input can make the submissions better and improve their chances of being selected for further development.  
 
Share your insight or submit your own idea for consideration in the summer cycle by October 31, 2021. 

Earth Day, which takes place annually on April 22, reminds us to evaluate our collective impact on the environment and to consider the steps we can take to reduce our footprint.  

Here at Iowa DOT Research, we are constantly on the lookout for ways to protect our natural resources.

One of the things we can do is protect our watersheds. Culverts, like the one pictured here, are designed to help water flow beneath a road, railroad, or other type of structure. When a culvert is situated in an erosion-prone location, sediment can wash in and quickly build up – disrupting the flow and causing damage upstream. 

Culvert monitoring and maintenance is an important part of Iowa DOT’s work, but it’s not the only solution. 

Dedicated to keeping our waterways clean, Iowa DOT went back to basics in 2009 to reassess every aspect of traditional culverts in an effort to find room for improvement. This work, which involved testing a variety of culvert formations over several years, culminated in an all-new culvert design that restricts sediment from entering and virtually eliminates the need for cleaning. The efforts also resulted in a prestigious national award in 2016. 

To build on these achievements, Iowa DOT has partnered with three other state departments of transportation – Mississippi, New Mexico, and Utah – to address these ongoing challenges related to culverts. By sharing the costs of research, participating states can explore alternative culvert designs and other mitigation strategies for far less than each would spend on its own.  

Learn more about Iowa DOT’s other environmental efforts, including reducing erosion at construction sites and creative recycling solutions.

When a winter storm hits, time is of the essence as soon snow and ice can accumulate quickly and make for hazardous driving conditions.  

To help determine where snow-clearing and deicing treatments are needed most, Iowa DOT uses high-tech systems that monitor pavement surfaces and collect weather data. But conditions can vary, even between monitored locations. 

To make informed maintenance decisions even when data is unavailable, Iowa DOT led a coalition of 18 other states to investigate how still images taken by highway cameras might help.  

By manually labeling more than 20,000 images depicting wintry road conditions, researchers developed computer algorithms that can accurately differentiate between precipitation types and identify visibility challenges and ground conditions that may impact safety on the road’s surface. 

Learn more about this project in Iowa DOT’s new research brief, and check out other Iowa DOT research efforts on the News & Publications page. 

With the opening of the fall research cycle on November 1 comes a new opportunity to submit your transportation-related ideas! 
 
Early in the new cycle is always the best time to submit for maximum exposure -- it allows more time for discussion and evaluation and a better chance for further development.  
 
Even if you don’t have a submission of your own, you can help others improve their ideas by voting or adding your comments. Feedback for this fall cycle will remain open until March 25, 2022. With three research cycles throughout the year, ideas are always in progress at Iowa DOT research. 
 
Check out the annual research calendar to see the year-round process and check the Ideas site often to find out what new ideas have been submitted and to provide your own!

Iowa DOT Research is constantly looking for ways to keep Iowa’s transportation system on the cutting-edge of safety, mobility, sustainability, and technology.

Before a project can begin, it must follow a thorough development process. Here’s how it works and how you can help:
 

1. Submission. Research topics can be submitted by anyone (within or beyond the department) at any time through our Research Ideas website.
    
2. Discussion and Evaluation. While ideas are in the open feedback state, anyone can provide written comments or vote on a proposed topic and help make it better.
   
   This state takes place three times per year, according to the annual research calendar.
   
   After the open feedback period closes, Iowa DOT Research Department staff and other stakeholders review the topics and all of the input received to gauge interest and determine which ideas should move forward.
    
3. Development. Next, the Project Development Group, consisting of two to five team members, takes the originally submitted idea and builds it into a more robust request for proposal (RFP).
   
   The RFP is posted to the Research Request for Proposal page and anyone who has subscribed to these notifications will receive an email.
   
   After the RFP submission period has ended, the Project Development Group reviews all of the responses and chooses the one that will earn the project.
   
   The winning proposer is notified and funding for the project is requested.
    
4. Active Project. Contracts are drawn up and signed, and the research begins!

A visual timeline details the entire process.

Roads and bridges are top of mind when most people think about transportation. But at Iowa DOT Research we’re just as passionate about other modes of transportation and the opportunities for innovation each kind presents.  

Regardless of whether products are moved by air, rail, water or road, it’s our job to discover more efficient and cost-effective ways to get them to Iowans across the state. 

Two special weeks coming in September – National Truck Driver Appreciation Week from September 12-18, and Rail Safety Week from September 20-26 – provide the perfect opportunity to spotlight our work in freight.  

As part of the Innovations in Freight Data Workshop, Iowa DOT collaborates with other states and industry experts to gain cutting-edge insight on data collection and application. This knowledge helps us make critical safety and operational decisions affecting travelers and transporters every day.  

Iowa DOT is also an active member of the Mid-America Freight Coalition, an organization of experts working to improve the efficiency, reliability and safety of transport. In partnership with other midwestern states, we coordinate our planning, operations and infrastructure improvements to meet the growing freight demands. 

So whether the products you rely on are coming by plane, train, ship, or truck, know that Iowa DOT Research is working behind the scenes to help them arrive quickly and safely. 

A new Iowa DOT Research engineering study has recalculated the load ratings for bridges built according to specific standard plans in the state.

Such studies are conducted every few years in Iowa to keep up with changing laws and other demands. They help keep road users safe by ensuring that heavy vehicles are properly permitted and travel along approved routes and that legal loads are properly restricted when necessary.
   
The project team gathered data for hundreds of bridges that were built using Iowa DOT’s standard plans and used cutting-edge software to create a series of tables that engineers across the state can use to report and verify a bridge’s load capacity. The load ratings also give state and federal decision-makers more information on the bridges in Iowa’s inventory.

Learn more about the project and what it means for road users in Iowa through the new research brief and final report.
 

A construction specification is just like a recipe: It spells out the types and quantities of ingredients and the steps that should be followed to make a great product every time.   

Asphalt pavements are made by measuring and combining a precise formulation of aggregates, binder, and additives to suit the road’s anticipated traffic volume and other considerations. This mixture is then placed on the roadway and methodically compacted with heavy equipment to smooth the surface and squeeze out the right amount of air.  

In 2016, an Iowa DOT research project investigating the necessary amount of compaction led to several changes to Iowa’s asphalt pavement specifications. The next phase of that project, which concluded in 2021, sought to verify that the updated specifications do indeed result in better-performing pavements. Evaluating three types of asphalt specimens that were made using the old specifications and comparing them with samples made with the new specifications, researchers found that the new specimens were more resistant to rutting, fatigue cracking, and low-temperature cracking. 

When built with the new specifications, Iowa’s roads will likely need less maintenance and repair – a win for taxpayers and all road users alike. 

Learn more about the project in Iowa DOT’s new research brief. 

Though specialized geotextile fabrics have been used in the construction of concrete highways in the United States for more than a decade, their long-term influence on the pavements has not been well understood.  

With a shared interest in learning more, Iowa DOT and 34 other states jointly commissioned a research project to study three different types of geotextiles and their long-term effects on concrete pavements.   

Using sections of Iowa’s Buchanan County Highway D-16 for testing, researchers evaluated stress and deformation of the concrete and compared road sections constructed with each of the geotextile fabrics and sections built using traditional methods.   

The resulting data gives the states greater insight when it comes to deciding which projects are well-suited for using geotextiles and demonstrated the reliability of the on-site testing techniques.  

Learn more about this project in Iowa DOT’s new research brief, and check out other Iowa DOT research efforts on the News & Publications page. 

Thanks to a $1 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Iowa DOT is implementing new construction methods to partner with county road departments across the state to replace aging infrastructure.

The funds come from FHWA’s Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration program, which helps states improve safety and efficiency of roads and bridges using cutting-edge materials, techniques, and technology.

Iowa DOT qualified for the AID grant with its plan to use "bridge bundling," ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) as a joint material and the use of pre-fabricated box beam components and other efficiencies to save time and money.

Another goal of the project is for local public agencies to become familiar with UHPC and its many benefits. 

Working closely with several Iowa counties, Iowa DOT first evaluated county bridges of similar size and condition across the state.

The agency had previously developed design standards for box beams (pictured) using funding from the Iowa Highway Research Board and input of more than 50 county and industry experts. 

A group of Iowa DOT and county stakeholders identified 14 Iowa bridges across the state eligible for this project.

The project includes using a materials contract with added options bidding to bundle the new box beams and the UHPC materials to maximize the number of possible bridges built with the grant funds.

Eight of the 14 bridges were included in the final contract. 

Reconstruction on five of the bridges will be complete by fall of 2020, with the remaining three finished in 2021. 

A series of videos highlight the building process at different sites across the state.

Recognizing that every transportation research project has the potential to strengthen Iowa's infrastructure and save lives, time, and resources, the Iowa Highway Research Board (IHRB) has announced a limited-time campaign to solicit innovative Ideas and technologies that explore longer-range advances in any aspect of highway transportation. 

Ideas must be "high-risk, high-reward" in nature or basic research that can be further developed to provide new fundamental and substantive advances in highway transportation. 

Examples of previous IHRB-funded projects that started as Innovative Project awards include Corn Based Deicers, Bio-based Polymers for Use in Asphalt, and Self-Cleaning Box Culverts. 

A limited number of proposals from this campaign will be invited to present at the IHRB meeting on December 14 for consideration. Each idea is eligible to receive a maximum award of $60,000. 

For more information, visit the Campaign Site and submit your idea by noon on November 1.

In and around work zones, drivers are asked to alter their behavior – by slowing down, changing lanes, or taking other precautionary steps to keep everyone safe.  

To promote awareness of the life-saving measures drivers should take and to increase safety for all road users, the Federal Highway Administration established National Work Zone Awareness Week, which will take place this year from April 26-30. 

While this special week helps highlight the seriousness of work zone safety, for Iowa DOT it’s an issue that’s top of mind every day. 

Over the years, dozens of people have been killed in work zones along Iowa’s roadways. To improve these statistics, Iowa DOT, along with the state departments of transportation in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, started a pooled fund in 1999 to share the costs of research specifically focused on making work zones safer. 

Now, after more than 20 years and 100 research projects, the pooled fund has drawn additional support from other state DOTs while Iowa DOT remains at the helm.  

Recently, the group developed the Smart Work Zone Activity app, which gives real-time updates for construction work zones. Thanks to this app, Iowans have more timely and accurate work zone information to make better-informed decisions regarding their travel and safety. 

Learn more about Iowa’s commitment to work zone safety.