AMES, IA — The Iowa Transportation Commission recently approved the draft Fiscal Year 2023-2027 Iowa Transportation Improvement Program. The program documents investments in Iowa’s multimodal transportation system covering aviation, public transit, railroads, trails, and highways.

The program is developed and approved annually by the commission and includes specific highway and bridge projects anticipated to be constructed over the next five years on the state highway system made up of all Interstate, U.S., and Iowa signed routes. All other roads in the state are under the jurisdiction of individual cities and counties, and each local jurisdiction develops their own program of highway, road, street, and bridge construction projects.

The highway and bridge projects included in this draft program are funded with approximately $4.2 billion of state and federal funding forecast to be available over the next five years. Projects included in the program are consistent with the goals and objectives of the State Long-Range Transportation Plan and identified following a detailed evaluation of safety, traffic, congestion, condition, and other data. This assures the projects are those necessary to provide modern, safe, and efficient transportation of goods and the traveling public.

The commission prioritizes investments that improve the safety and condition of existing state highways and bridges, and this draft program includes over $3.3 billion of investments in that area. Significant investments in bridges have been made over the last 15 years, dropping the number of poor condition bridges on the state highway system from 256 in 2006 to 30 in 2022. This draft program includes more than $1.3 billion of additional bridge investments.

The interstate system connects all transportation systems in Iowa and facilitates the efficient movement of freight within, to/from, and through Iowa. This draft program invests in projects that add capacity where necessary, replace major river crossings, and modernize interchanges to improve safety and to handle future traffic demands such as:

• I-80 Middle Road Interchange reconstruction in Bettendorf
• I-35/80/235 Southwest Mixmaster modernization in Polk County
• I-380 improvement from 120th Street to U.S. 30 (including Wright Brothers interchange reconstruction) in Linn County
• Bridge replacement and widening of I-35 at the U.S. 30 interchange
• Acceleration and compression of the I-80 and Madison Avenue improvement project in Council Bluffs
• Addition of over 100 truck parking spots

Projects in this program that address safety and operational needs include:

• Resiliency work on Iowa 333 in Hamburg to improve access during times of flooding
• U.S. 75 North of Sioux Center to south junction with U.S. 18 to replace aging pavement
• Iowa 149 Des Moines River Bridge to Woodland Avenue in Ottumwa to replace aging pavement
• Iowa 58 Greenhill Road Interchange in Cedar Falls to replace an existing at-grade intersection
• U.S. 151 Interchange with County Road X-20 at Springville to replace an existing at-grade intersection
• U.S. 30 Interchange at 610th Avenue at Nevada to replace an existing at-grade intersection
• Super-2 improvements on U.S. 63 in Tama County to provide more passing opportunities

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law providing certainty of federal highway funding for most of the period covered by this 2023-2027 program and resulted in approximately 30 percent more highway-related funding by increasing funding for existing programs and also creating new programs.

IIJA has allowed additional projects to be included in the program. However, a significant portion of the additional revenue had to be allocated to already scheduled projects to offset the large increase in material and fuel costs due to the level inflation being experienced across the country.