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Special traffic enforcement looks to cut deaths in final summer travel days

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Patrick Hoye, the chief of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, is warning motorists that the period between now and Labor Day is one of the busiest and most dangerous times of the year on Iowa roads.

“This time of year is, sadly, one of the most deadliest in Iowa,” Hoye said. “The past few years, August has been the deadliest month for people traveling in Iowa.” There were 36 people killed in traffic crashes on Iowa roadways last August. This year, there have been at least 14 traffic-related fatalities in August, with two full weeks left in the month.

A special traffic enforcement project was launched statewide today and will continue through the upcoming holiday as Iowa law officers try to improve roadway safety. “We are asking our law enforcement partners to step up their impaired driving efforts and of course, speeding and texting and driving are also major causations in crashes,” Hoye said.

Over the three-day Labor Day weekend last year, 10 people were killed in crashes on Iowa roads. According to Hoye, four of the 10 were alcohol related. “A lot of times, what goes with the social events that happen as the summer is closing out – a lot of those events will include alcohol and that’s why we’re seeing some of those higher alcohol fatality counts,” Hoye said.

So far this year, 191 people have died in crashes on Iowa roadways. A total of 329 people were killed in crashes across the state in 2017. That was down from 402 fatalities in 2016.

 

Transportation Commission cuts out rules governing traffic cameras

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Speed cameras in Cedar Rapids.

The Department of Transportation rules governing speed cameras that led to a lawsuit against the state are now off the books.

DOT Director of Traffic and Safety Steve Gent says the Transportation Commission took action at its meeting Tuesday. “The commission approved rescinding the automated traffic enforcement rules that the DOT worked with the Iowa Legislature to get in place to provide some oversight on the automated cameras around the state,” Gent says.

TheDOT  had ordered some cameras turned off under the rules issued in 2015. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on April 27th of this year that the doesn’t have the authority to stop cities from using traffic cameras along interstates. Gent says the commission took action to comply with the ruling.

“This is really just the paperwork of trying to rescind those rules once we got that ruling,” he says. The said the traffic cameras rules were designed to ensure the highways were safe — and that goal hasn’t changed.

“Going forward we’ll gladly work with any city or county that wants to put automated enforcement cameras out on the primary highway system,” Gent says. “Certainly they’ll be some minor things…we’ll make sure the roadway is safe, make sure when they are implementing a system putting devices on a system that they are using proper traffic control. Some of those general things to keep everybody safe.”

He says the cameras that hange over the roadway don’t create much concern after they are installed because they don’t move. The moveable cameras raise more safety concerns. “It’s either a vehicle with a camera in it or a trailer. But we’ll accommodate either type of those,” Gent says. Gent says any change in the regulation of the cameras is now up to lawmakers to decide.

“That is totally up to legislators. The Iowa DOT, we are always available to answer questions — but we will absolutely not take any proposals to the legislature,” according to Gent. Iowa Lawmakers have tried for several years to pass a ban or other types of regulation on the traffic cameras without any success.

 

Costly mistake by contractor will extend construction time on Highway 30 bridge

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DOT camera view of bridge piers at I-35 and Highway 30.

One of the largest and most expensive road construction projects in Iowa is being delayed because of a big mistake.

A flyover bridge is being built to serve as a new exit ramp to U.S. Highway 30 for motorists heading northbound on Interstate 35 at Ames. Iowa Department of Transportation engineer Scott Dockstader says the contractor, Minnesota-based Minnowa Construction, messed up.

“The bridge is being built right now and we have piers in the middle. Our contractor that’s constructing the bridge made a few mistakes with the elevation of the piers and more importantly, the anchor bolts that go into the piers to connect the beams aren’t positioned properly,” Dockstader explains.

Workers are now using jackhammers on the six piers that were built too high and will be pouring new concrete to correct the mistake. “To make those repairs they are chipping down the concrete to get down to those anchor bolt sleeves to get them positioned properly and while they’re there, they will fix the elevation error also,” Dockstader says.

Construction of the flyover bridge was originally estimated at 23 million dollars. The contractor, not taxpayers, will be on the hook for the costly error. Dockstader says Minnowa will forfeit a lot of money for each day the project runs behind schedule. “We have liquidated damages on the project of $5,500 per day,” Dockstader says. “We set this project up to be a two-year project, more than likely, because we have 240 working days. Any of these delays will count against those working days, so it’s very likely the contractor will be in liquidated damages at the end of the project.”

Around 40,000 vehicles pass through the intersection daily. The new flyover bridge was supposed to be ready for traffic by the end of this year. For now, because of the mistake, it’s unclear when the project will be finished. Dockstader says, when completed, the bridge will be much safer for motorists who currently exit I-35 northbound using a cloverleaf ramp.

 

DOT seeking federal funds to build advanced training center in Jasper County

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Map showing the location of the proposed TIM.

The Iowa Department of Transportation Highway Division is seeking federal funding to open a special facility in Jasper County that would train its employees and others who respond to traffic accidents and problems.

The plan would use 70 acres of land provided by Jasper County near the Iowa Speedway to create the $11.8 million Traffic Incident Management Center (TIM). The director of the DOT Highway Division, Mitch Dillavou, says the center will help them learn the best way to respond and clear accidents and other problems on the state highways.

“We want to start clearing these incidents as fast as you can, because the longer people sit in traffic, the longer something can happen. Every minute that goes by there’s another 2.8%  chance of another incident happening. And we want to improve the way that we clear up incidents,” Dillavou says.

The head of the Motor Vehicle Enforcement, David Lorenzen, says a test track of sorts would be build on the site that features real-life roadways. “Two lane, four-lane, intersections, gravel roads. We’ll put roundabouts, cul-de-sacs, anything that would create what we have in Iowa today,” Lorenzen explains.

Lorenzen says the need to be on top of issues has increased as the traffic volume has increased. “Our vehicle miles traveled are at an all-time high –33 billion vehicle miles traveled in Iowa — and that continues to increase. Trucking is increasing it. The system is really strained, so we’ve got to do the best we can on the system to keep it clear,” according to Lorenzen.

He says the site would allow them to do the training in realistic conditions. “All this training can be conducted at the speeds that we run on our roads today — that is why it is such a large facility,” Lorenzen says. “It would also law enforcement and emergency vehicles to train in emergency operations modes.” Lorenzen says they used to do some training at the Iowa Speedway, but the track gets income from testing by race teams that are now using it and that makes it cost prohibitive.

The DOT is seeking federal money to help fund the cost of construction, which includes laying out the highway sections. “There would be one building which would be a multiple use classroom, very generic building that could be split off into various uses,” Lorenzen says. “We’ve also recently had conversations with the Jasper County Conservation Board, they are directly next to the Sheriff’s office and they are building a learning center out there and they want to talk with us about if there was a way for some coop opportunities so they would not have to build a classroom.”

Lorenzen says police and sheriff’s departments are interested, as is the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy to use the facility for training. He says Tennessee had the only center of this type and then one was recently built in Colorado.

“So this would be the third one that we are aware of in the nation and we feel that it would have a pretty heavy draw from folks at least from the law enforcement end as a regional type draw because there’s just not a lot there. I know that fire folks are very interested in it too and some of those aspects,” Lorenzen says. Dillavou says they are seeking the full cost of the center in what’s called a BUILD grant.

They are hoping the $840,000r cost of the land will be considered as part of the state’s input for the project. Dillavou says the other states have used fees to help fund the ongoing costs of their centers, but that is something they would look into if the funding comes through and the center moves forward.

 

Many telling DOT to keep state rest stops open

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DOT camera view of I-35 rest stop parking near Story City.

Iowans are letting the DOT know what they think about a proposal to close down some state rest stops.

The leader of the DOT Highway Divisions, Mitch Dillavou, updated the Transportation Commission this morning. “We are getting a lot of comments — and that’s good,” Dillavou says.

The DOT released a draft plan last month that ranked the 38 full-service rest areas and listed 11 that could possibly be closed in the next 20 years. The agency asked for public input on the idea and Dillavou says so far, most people don’t like the idea of closing any rest areas.

“I would say that there’s a lot of support to keep ’em. Both from the trucking industry to people driving — even my own personal side of it. People like the convenience of the rest areas,” according to Dillavou. The proposal has gotten a lot of attention since it was first revealed by Radio Iowa and other media.

Dillavou made his comments after being asked about the issue during a workshop with the Transportation Commission prior to their regular meeting in Ames. “I thought we had a pretty laid out plan, it’s not that we are just going to go in and shut down all of these rest areas. We have the truck parking component to put in there too,” Dillavou says. “I would say there is a lot of support to keep the rest areas open.”

Commission chair John Putney of Gladbrook says he’s heard from a lot of people about the plan. “I think this is a very sensitive issue — not only from a public relations standpoint, but from a political standpoint,” Putney says. “I think this is something we have to have a very hard look at.”

Putney says he’s also heard a lot of support for the rest stops.”Some of the rationale I think has been that now we have all these truck stops and so on. People have told me, ‘you know when we travel we don’t stop at truck stops. We look forward to stopping at bonafide rest stops that we’ve created,'” according to Putney. “Like I said, I think it’s just something that needs a lot of hard study.”

The DOT plans to continue taking public input through September of 2019. A study on the availability and need for truck parking will be done by that time and will be used along with the public comments to determine how the DOT will proceed with the rest stop proposal.

 

 

Flash flooding is keeping car mechanics busy

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Thousands of cars in central Iowa have been hit by flash flooding.

Thousands of vehicles were damaged in flash flooding this past weekend in the Des Moines area.

Chris Good is a mechanic at Iowa Auto Repair in Urbandale. “My phone has not stopped ringing,” Good says. Many vehicle owners are calling to find out if it’s safe to try and start their car or if they should have it towed to a repair shop for inspection.

“If you got a couple inches of water on your carpet, that’s one thing, but if the car was underwater where the engine was underwater, then have it towed,” Good says. Some flood-damaged cars can be salvaged, but Good notes computers inside the vehicle are not sealed against the weather.

“Modern cars have 20 to 50 different computers,” Good says. “The electronics obviously do not like to get wet, they’re going to have corrosion in the wires and connectors.” Good expects most of the cars that took on water in the weekend flooding will be considered a total loss.

He’s warning used car shoppers to do their homework. “In the future, people who are looking to buy a used car really need to get it checked out ahead of time. These are going to start hitting the market,” Good says. Some vehicles may be repaired only cosmetically and placed for sale without any indication of the flood damage.

Good says there are several sites online for buyers to check, for free, if a vehicle has been affected by flooding. One such tool is offered by the National Insurance Crime Bureau: https://www.nicb.org.

 

AAA expecting travel to be up despite midweek July 4th holiday

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The Fourth of July falls on a Wednesday this year and many Iowans are either taking a long weekend before or after the Fourth — or they’re taking all of next week off.

Nick Jarmusz, spokesman for AAA-Iowa, says the motor club survey indicates it’ll be a vacation weekend like never before. “This is going to be the biggest Independence Day holiday travel period that we have on record,” Jarmusz says. “Nearly 47-million Americans will be traveling 50 miles or more from home during the six-day stretch around the holiday.”

The travel forecast is up 5% from last year. Based on the survey, the highways across Iowa and nationwide will be busy. “The vast majority are going to be traveling by car,” Jarmusz says. “It’s still a road trip auto weekend, although we are expecting quite a few air travelers, in fact, quite a few more air travelers than typical. We’re expecting an 8% increase in the number of folks who are traveling by air.” Even higher gasoline prices aren’t keeping people home for the holiday.

“We’re seeing nationwide and here in Iowa the highest gas prices that we’ve seen in the past three to four years,” Jarmusz says, “Still, it’s not nearly as high as what we saw as recently as 2014.” The statewide average price for gas is $2.70 a gallon. That’s up about 60 cents a gallon from a year ago, but the average price back in 2014 topped $3.50 a gallon. The current national average price is $2.85, about 15-cents a gallon higher than in Iowa.

July Third is already being referred to as Terrible Tuesday as the motor club predicts heavy traffic congestion in the late afternoon as commuters leaving work early mix with holiday travelers.

 

DOT asks for your input on which rest areas to close

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Map of current rest areas.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is asking for your help in determining which state rest areas along interstate highways are staying, and which ones will go away. DOT spokesperson Andrea Henry says this is the third phase of the review the rest area program.

“What we have done is come up with a draft plan of what we recommend to do with the rest areas in the next 20 years. As part of that plan…we put that out for public comment and let people look through that and give their feedback,” Henry explains.

The state has 38 full-service rest areas and 16 that are for parking only. She says they have looked at a variety of factors to see how the rest areas are being used. “Usage of the rest area — which includes how the normal everyday citizen is using that as well commercial drivers like truck drivers,” Henry says. “We’re looking at the ages of the facilities, we are looking at the services they provide, spacing between rest areas.” Henry says they took all the information and came up with a plan.

“We treated each one of the rest areas and then we ranked them to look at ones that we could potentially close and still be able to provide the same services or resting points for the traveling public, and made those recommendations for closures,” Henry says.

The best rated rest stops in alphabetical order are :I-80 Adair eastbound and westbound; I-380 Cedar Rapids Northbound; I-80 Davenport Westbound; I-35 Dows northbound/southbound; I-35 Northwood northbound/southbound; I-80 Tiffin Eastbound; I-29 Pacific Junction Northbound.

The lowest rated in alphabetical order are: I-80 Davenport eastbound; I-680 Loveland eastbound and westbound in Pottawattamie County; I-29 Missouri Valley northbound; I-29 Onawa northbound and southbound; I-35 Osceola northbound and southbound; I-29 Sergeant Bluff northbound; I-35 Story City northbound.

Henry says they would like to shut down the lowest rated rest stops in the next 20 years to ensure they have run out their useful life. Henry says they want to make sure they are getting the most use out of the reststops because it takes a lot of money to run them.

“They currently cost about $3.7 million per year for operations. That’s just to keep them going,” she says. “And then of course we have the improvements that we program. In the current five-year program that includes seven point-five million over the next five years.” Henry wants anyone who uses the reststops to look over the recommendations and give their opinion.

“You can go to our website — which is iowadot.gov/restareaplan. And on that are all of the background materials as well as that draft implementation plan. There is also a nice video on there that helps explain the process and our approach to the rest area system,” Henry says. Henry says they will be taking public comment through September of 2019. She says it stretches for more than one year to give time for a study of truck parking that’s underway to be completed.

“And then after that we will take all of those comments into consideration and look at the draft plan and draft a final plan,” Henry says. The rest areas were first constructed along the interstates in the 1960’s.

Federal officials originally recommended that there only be a 30 minute drive between a rest area or other available facility, and that was later changed to one hour. The availability of services along the interstates has changed as cities grew up around them and that has sometimes led to reststops that are no longer needed. The DOT closed two reststops on I-80 near Waukee after a survey in 2012 found they were not being heavily used.

 

Towable campers once again carry profits for Winnebago

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A Grand Design trailer from the company’s website.

The third quarter was another record-breaker for Winnebago Industries. Revenues for the Forest City-based recreational vehicle maker reached $562 million, an increase of 18% compared to third quarter last year.

President and CEO Michael Happe says even with rising input costs, the company continues to be successful with its motor home and towable RV lines.

“Despite increasing headwinds on the material cost side, our team drove strong top and bottom line results in Q3, with impressive growth relative to last year,” Happe says. “Our emerging towables business segment once again led the way in terms of market and financial performance, yet we also continue to see positive signs of our motorized business gaining traction on improved internal and external progress.”

Happe says both the Winnebago-branded and Grand Design-branded towable products continue to outpace the market and gain share. “Towable revenues increased 33-percent year over year, again showing strong organic growth from both branded businesses,” Happe says. “Backlog for towables for the quarter increased 15-percent year over year, which supports our positive outlook and expectations for future growth in our towables segment. We continue to see growth in the overall towable RV market, and are pleased that Winnebago Industries continues to take both retail and wholesale market share with both of our brands.”

Happe says the company is always forward-thinking in its watch of the nation’s economic conditions despite having another quarter of record revenues. “Though we are always on high alert for developments on the economic front, such as rising interest rates, rising fuel prices, and monitoring consumer sentiment,” he says, “it is undoubtedly an interesting time in American and global business as there is increasing volatility in these macroeconomic factors, not all of which is triggered by normal supply-and-demand elements.” Happe says the improved RV portfolio and strategic investments continues to benefit the company. That includes the purchase of the iconic recreational boating manufacturer Chris-Craft earlier this month, which will provide a new revenue platform within the outdoor lifestyle market.

(By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City)

 

Citations to start going out once again from speed cameras in Des Moines

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Speed cameras in Cedar Rapids.

The city of Des Moines plans will start sending out tickets again next week for those caught on cameras going too fast along a section of Interstate 235.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on April 27th of this year that the Department of Transportation doesn’t have the authority to stop Des Moines and other cities from using traffic cameras along interstates. Des Moines Police Department spokesman, Sergeant Paul Parizek, says there was a lot of discussion before deciding to resume sending out tickets on June 25th.

“We know there is going to be some blow-back from the community and we needed to evaluate whether or not the impact on public safety and the value of those cameras is worth what we want to do,” Parizek says. Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Muscatine sued the state after the DOT ordered some of the cameras to be shut down — saying they were not making the roadways safer. Parizek says the cameras were still recording speeds — even though they stopped sending out tickets back on April 26th of 2017.

“We saw a significant increase in the number of speeders that were above 71 miles-per-hour in that one-year period. I think it was close to well over a 100 percent increase. And top speeds of over 100 miles-an-hour,” Parizek says. “So that kind of answered the question for us — yeah these do have an impact on voluntary compliance.” He did not have the numbers on how many more accidents there were at that time.

“I guess we’re of the mindset that we don’t want to see that, so whatever we can do to change it or to prevent it we are gonna do….we don’t want to see people getting hurt or getting killed before we do something simple to prevent those things,” according to Parizek. The cities make millions of dollars from the cameras and that sparked the debate on whether they are there for safety or to bring in revenue.

“If people think it’s a money grab, the only thing we can say about that is. if you don’t want to give us your money, don’t speed,” Parizek says. “And these limits are set for a reason — and that reason is safety.” Parizek says they’ve learned something else from using the traffic cameras.

“People are pretty fickle when it comes to technology,” he says, “They love it if it helps them out, but if it cramps their style or slows them down in life, they are not big fans of it.” Parizek says the technology not only improves the safety of drivers — it also keeps officers safe when they don’t have to pull cars over on the busy interstate.

Parizek says the shoulders of the interstate are pretty narrow and not safe when two cars are pulled over. “So, this is a good way for us to do more with less.”

Numerous attempts by the legislature to ban the cameras have failed, but the sergeant doesn’t think that debate is over.

“I would bet my next paycheck that the Iowa State Legislature is going to address the speed camera issue one more time next year,” Parizek says. A spokesperson for the city of Cedar Rapids says the city has not made a decision on sending out speed camera tickets again. She says the city council will discuss it with the public first and them move forward.

The cameras in Des Moines go will start sending out violations at 12:01 a-m on the 25th. Anyone going more than 71 miles-an-hour in the 60 miles-an-hour speed zone, will be sent a citation. The fines remain the same; $65 for speed violations of one to 15 miles above the posted speed limit, $75 for violations 16-20 miles over the posted speed limit and $80 plus $2 for every mile-an-hour above 21 miles-an-hour over the posted speed limit.