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State rail project funding approved for Clear Lake, Davenport, Clayton

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The Iowa Transportation Commission approved grants and loans for three rail development projects at its meeting today.

DOT Rail Development Manager Laura Hutzell says a rail project in north Iowa to bring freight service to Clear Lake was awarded a loan of $655,000.

“It actually goes from Emory, Iowa to Clear Lake, Iowa. There’s a rail line up there that is doing some rehab. There’s a section of track that is currently being used to store empty cars and they are going to strengthen a couple of bridges on the rail line,” Hutzell says. The idea is create a place to unload freight and get it moving along the track.

“Open up some acreage west of Emory, Iowa that hopefully will be developed for some freight transloading and some industrial development there,” she says. There are no promised jobs tied to the Clear Lake project. The Sterilite Corporation in Davenport won a grant of a little more than one million dollars for some rail line access.

“Sterilite, which is the largest manufacturer of household plastics in North America is building an approximately two-and-a-half million square foot manufacturing and distribution center,” Hutzell says. “And they have an industrial park there — know as the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center — and that is where it will be located.” She says the money will pay for some rail improvements to help move the products.

She says they will build a spur track and a few turnouts to help meet the demand. Hutzell says there are around 100 jobs tied to the state funding. The Pattison Sand Company in the eastern Iowa town of Clayton was awarded a $700,000 loan and a $252,000 grant for rail service improvements.

“Pattison sand is Iowa’s only Frack sand producer. They had 21 jobs with this project. They actually applied to us last year as well….so this is phase two,” Hutzell explains. She says they will use the money to help move the sand.

“They are looking to do an addition of 3,300 track feed — adding approximately 75 rail car spots — as well as a rail scale to their site in Clayton,” according to Hutzell. The rail funding works similar to money given for roadway projects. If job creation is tied to the money, the companies have to prove they created the jobs.

Hutzell says they have around three years to fulfill the job requirements and they monitor the companies to see that they follow through. If they don’t create the number of promised jobs, they could have to pay back some of the money.

School districts trying everything they can to find bus drivers

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The Dubuque School District is advertising for bus drivers with yard signs.

Iowa school kids are back in class and one of the biggest challenges some districts are facing now is finding enough people to keep wheels on the buses going round and round.

Max Christensen, the executive officer for school transportation at the Iowa Department of Education, says many other states have the same issue.

“From coast-to-coast and border-to-border, there’s concern with trying to fill that seat behind the steering wheel on those school buses,” Christensen says. He says Iowa schools are doing all they can to get out the word.

“A lot of school districts are parking buses in parking lots at malls or grocery stores and that sort of thing and putting banners on them advertising that school bus drivers are wanted,” Christensen says. “One school district in northeast Iowa is using a new tactic that I’ve never seen before…it’s kind of low tech. They are actually using yard signs to advertise for school bus drivers.”

He says they have around 9,000 school bus drivers in the state and around 1,000 leave each year. Christensen admits the challenges involved in driving a school bus may deter some people.

“Being a school bus driver is not an easy task. You are driving down the road with a big vehicle and you’ve quite a number of students behind you — upwards of 40 or 50 students sitting behind you,” Christensen explains. Trying to drive the bus and control the kids at the same time is sometimes somewhat challenging.”

But he says you don’t just hop on the bus and drive away. He says there’s training for you and there’s licensing through the DOT along with drug, background and alcohol tests before you can take the wheel. Bus driving generally requires a split shift in the morning and afternoon, which rules out a lot of people who have other jobs.

“They work very well for stay-at-home mothers or retired people, somebody like that,” Christensen explains. “It’s also very good income for a lot of college students. I know in a lot of college towns, college students drive a lot of school buses. It just depends on your personal schedule whether it will fit. For those it works well for — it’s really a pretty good income.”

He says the driver shortage has caused some districts to offer more pay. “I’ve seen upwards of anywhere from 18 or 19 upwards fo 25 dollars an hour — which is really pretty good money to drive a school bus,” according to Christensen. ” If it works for you, that’s certainly good extra income,” Christensen says.

He suggests you check with your local school district if you might have the interest and time to drive a school bus. “Regardless or where you are at in Iowa, I think just about every district will take a look at you if you want to come in and drive a school bus. The shortage is just that severe,” Christensen says.

“School Bus Fleet” magazine recently reported that a school district in Muncie, Indiana canceled the first two days of school because they had a shortage of bus drivers. The state of Hawaii had to consolidate and eliminate some of its bus routes due to a lack of drivers, as did a school district in Oklahoma.

 

 

AAA expects gas prices to increase following Texas hurricane

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One analyst predicts gasoline prices in Iowa could rise between 10 and 25-cents a gallon over the next week or two because of Hurricane Harvey.

Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for AAA-Iowa, says oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were shut down as a precaution as the massive storm approached and they’ll reopen soon. The problem is — the historic storm is still causing big troubles inland.

“The storm is hovering over Houston and the southeastern part of Texas where a lot of refineries are,” Weinholzer says. “They obviously will not restart until it’s safe to do so.” The storm, which is blamed in several deaths, is causing widespread flooding in Texas and Louisiana and may force the evacuation of 30,000 people. The significant disruption to those key oil producing areas will be felt far away, even in Iowa.

“While there will be absolutely no shortage of fuel, there will be a tightening of supply,” Weinholzer says. “That will have an impact not only on the national prices and the regional prices in Texas but it will ripple up through much of the United States.” Gas prices in Iowa are now averaging $2.30 a gallon while nationwide, it’s $2.37 a gallon.

“I would expect those numbers to increase anywhere from a dime to a quarter over the next couple of weeks,” Weinholzer says, “because, of course, we also have increased demand for the rest of the nation that’s heading into the Labor Day weekend.”

While the storm’s impact won’t be as devastating as Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago, Weinholzer says it will still likely affect gas prices into mid or late September.

DOT director says new plate designs not considered after criticism of finalists

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DOT Director Mark Lowe talks with reporters about the new plate designs.

Eleven days after unveiling the three finalists, the winner of the voting for the new state license plate design was revealed Monday, and it is an updated version of what’s on most cars in the state right now.

Iowa Department of Transportation Director Mark Lowe says they’ll begin the work to get the new plate into production.

“We will submit that final design to 3-M that produces the backing for our plates and we will make sure that we get a final production value for that. So, we will make sure the image is right, the color is right, and we will start on a plan to wind down our existing inventory,” Lowe says.

He says it shouldn’t take long to go through the inventory of the current plate design as they have a system that allows the to save money by not having a large number of plates on hand. He says they will plan on winding the inventory down and then shift over to the new plates — which he says will probably be in early 2018.

The three designs drew some criticism for being too bland and prompted the DOT designer to respond on Facebook that people were being to harsh in their criticism. Lowe says the negative feedback didn’t make them think about looking at other designs.

“No, we never considered reopening it,” Lowe says, “I was on the whole really very pleased with the designs we had. We had some very firm things in our mind we had to meet that the folks who were looking at more full-color designs just weren’t aware of.” Lowe says they had to make the plates so the numbers were visible and they worked well with the materials being used. And he says they felt they had enough positive input to override the negative.

“The other piece was we were very pleased with the response. More than a quarter million votes cast — very positive comments at the state fair booth — a constant flow of people coming to vote and participating in it,” Lowe says. “And from that perspective we thought with some natural questions about design and some designs we really couldn’t accommodate, we thought it was very positive and we were very pleased with it.” Lowe isn’t sure where the plate will show up first, as that depends on how many plates the counties have available.

“I think that you could see some counties start to see them a little bit earlier than others just because they will be in a little different place with their inventory and being able to make that change,” Lowe explains. “As prison industries makes that change over and we start shipping out plates — it will occur in a close period of time — just not the same time for every county.” Lowe says a set of plates costs the state $3.64 to make and ship out to the counties.

The City and Country Reboot design had 113,299 of the poll’s 291,095 total votes. The Flying Our Colors plate was in second with 110,352 votes, and the The Great Wide Open plate finished way behind with 67,444 votes.

Redesign of current Iowa license plate chosen to become new plate

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This design won the vote to become the new state license plate.

The Iowa Department of Transportation says the new license plate design that is a remake of the current design is the winner in the voting.

That City and Country Reboot plate won the voting at the Iowa State Fair and online by just short of 3,000 votes to edge out the Flying Our Colors design that feature the colors of the state flag and an eagle. The wining plate received 113,299 of the poll’s 291,095 total votes, compared to the second place plate at 110,352 votes.

The third proposed plate design that was called “The Great Wide Open” failed to hit six figures in votes with 67,444 votes cast in its favor.

The three plate designs.

Governor Kim Reynolds released a statement that says, “Iowans made their voices heard in the selection process for our state’s next license plate design. “I’m glad so many were able to help select a meaningful design that should serve as a point of pride for our state and showcase our unique culture to the rest of the country.”

“I’m pleased we were able to include the public in the selection process,” DOT director Mark Lowe said in a news release. “People lined up at our booth to vote throughout the fair, and many more people voted online. It was fun and gratifying to see so many people positively engage, and I’m happy that the end result is a colorful, positive design that’s still easy to read and meets its public safety purpose. Many people commented that this design represented everyone in the state, and we know Iowa is a great.”

 

Toyota and Mazda considering Iowa as site for new car factory

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State economic development officials confirm two Japanese automakers are considering Iowa as a possible location for a major new manufacturing plant.

Iowa is among 11 states trying to lure the joint venture by Toyota and Mazda. The $1.6 billion plant would employ up to 4,000 workers.

Tina Hoffman, communications director for the Iowa Economic Development Authority, says it would be a huge boost for Iowa to land such a facility.

Hoffman says, “This is a fabulous opportunity for our state and it’s one that we are doing our best to really put our best food forward and show all the reasons why that facility could be really important to Iowa’s economy and better yet, to really benefit the company if they were to locate here.”

One of several factors in Iowa’s favor is the fact many manufacturing plants are already in Iowa that create a host of parts and components for the automotive industry.

“Certainly, having those supply chain companies all right here and in place is a benefit to the company,” Hoffman says. “It will be something that we tout along the way.” Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is John Deere, best known for its agricultural equipment. Over the decades, Iowa has been home to several automakers, including the Velie Motors Corporation in the Quad Cities, which was in operation from 1908 to 1928. There was also a parts and body production plant for Ford’s Model T in Des Moines during the same time frame, which closed in 1932.

“You don’t have to look in history to see that Iowa is a manufacturing state,” Hoffman says. “While we don’t manufacture cars, we certainly manufacture many, many other products. In fact, the largest sector of our economy is advanced manufacturing so a facility like that would be right at home here in the state.”

Iowa’s unemployment rate is among the nation’s lowest, which could be interpreted as a negative for trying to land a plant that would need a skilled workforce of 4,000, but on that element, Hoffman remains upbeat.

“Our employees are hard workers, they know how to manufacture great products,” Hoffman says. “This plant would be right at home here in Iowa.” Reports say Toyota/Mazda hopes to have the plant operating by 2021. No potential locations for the plant in Iowa are being released.

New state paper map has 200 changes from last printing

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Even though most of us have electronic maps on our smart phones, Iowans continue picking up and using the trusty ole’ paper state road map you have to unfold.

Mark Hansen, a transportation planner at the Iowa Department of Transportation, says the 2017-2018 edition of the Iowa map is now available and it features about 200 changes from the last edition, most of them to roads.

“We have the new Grand Prairie Parkway interchange that was added west of the Des Moines metro area,” Hansen says. “We have Iowa 100 that was added in the Cedar Rapids area and we had the rerouting of US 71 in the Sac City area.”

The latest map also reflects two Iowa towns that have unincorporated: Center Junction in Jones County and Mount Union in Henry County.

“They are still on the map, we just changed the symbology from an incorporated area to an unincorporated area,” Hansen says. “Essentially, they go from a double circle to a single circle.” Even in this era of Google Maps you can easily maneuver with your thumb and forefinger, he says hundreds of thousands of Iowans continue demanding the old-school maps for their glove boxes.

“We’re finding that people still like to have the paper map to go along with their GPS navigation devices because sometimes their devices aren’t up to date or the devices route them the wrong way,” Hansen says. “Having the paper form allows them to travel across the state and plan their entire route.” The maps are printed every two years and this latest run featured 1.6 million Iowa road maps, about the same as in past years.

“The maps are available at the welcome centers, the rest areas, the DOT district offices,” Hansen says. They’re also available online at www.iowadot.gov/maps

Enforcement of new ‘texting while driving’ law complicated

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As of this Saturday, a motorist in Iowa can be pulled over if a police officer suspects the driver is paying attention to a screen inside the vehicle rather than the road.

Many new state laws take effect July 1, including the new crackdown on “texting while driving.” Legislators, though, acknowledge it’ll be difficult for law enforcement to write tickets.

The new law still lets people use an electronic device to talk or to navigate with some sort of GPS app. Representative Gary Worthan of Storm Lake said during House debate this spring that the law specifically prohibits police from seizing the phone without a warrant.

“If the person is stopped, they can say: ‘Well, I was just dialing a phone number,'” Worthan said. “The officer, to prove otherwise, would have to…get a search warrant from a magistrate before they could seize that phone or go to the phone company and get records.”

According to Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City, the new law is just an “incremental” step.

“I think it’s hard to explain what we’re doing here to the average Iowan,” Bolkcom said during senate debate.

Former Governor Branstad and a coalition of safety advocates had urged legislators to pass a “hands-free” law instead. The ticket for motorists who admit to texting, Snapchatting or even playing a game while driving is $30. Court fees will be tacked onto that.

Lawmakers like Worthan cited data indicating “lane departures” are causing more accidents and officials suspect the trend is due to the use of smart phones.

Groundbreaking marks the start of the Interstate 74 bridge project

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The I-74 Bridge over the Mississippi River.

A long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony is taking place this afternoon in Bettendorf.

The ceremony is jointly organized by the departments of transportation of both Iowa and Illinois. It officially kicks off the reconstruction of the Interstate-74 bridge between Bettendorf and Moline, Illinois. The governors of both states will participate along with local officials.

Last month, the Iowa DOT awarded a $322 million contract – the largest in its history — to a Wisconsin company to build the bridge. It will have two 3,400 feet spans, each with two large arches. Construction is expected to begin next month. The work will take about three years.

(By Phil Roberts, Davenport/photo from the DOT traffic camera)

Travel for July 4th holiday expected to hit a record

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Traffic on I-80 in central Iowa.

Next weekend will be the busiest Independence Day weekend for travel in history, according to predictions.

At the start of the year, AAA-Iowa spokeswoman Gail Weinholzer says they made a projection about gasoline prices that didn’t end up coming true, to the benefit of consumers.

Weinholzer says, “We were projecting that gas prices could peak out around $2.70 during the heart of the summer because that’s when demand is at its highest as everybody’s taking their road trips.” Gas prices nationwide and in Iowa are much lower.

In Iowa, the average price is $2.19 a gallon, which is down six-cents from a year ago and it’s the cheapest price for this date since 2005. OPEC announced in January plans to reel in oil production by three-to-four percent and also convinced 11 other nations to cut supplies. Given that, Weinholzer says our current situation with low prices beat all the odds.

“We’ve seen American oil rigs in fracking fields more than make up the difference,” Weinholzer says. “We’ve got far more supply than we actually have demand and this is the high-demand season of the year for summer road trips.” Factors like low gas prices, strong employment, rising incomes and higher consumer confidence all come into play, but she says gas prices are often one of the biggest deciding factors.

“Not only are gas prices down but airfares are down as well,” Weinholzer says. “We’re going to see more people driving, about a 3% increase, we’re going to see more people flying, nearly a 5% increase, and more folks using other modes of transportation, buses, trains and boats.”

Nationwide, AAA predicts a record-breaking 44.2 million Americans will take to the roads, skies, rails and waterways over the four-day weekend, that’s an increase of 1.3 million from last year’s holiday.