Fueled by gas tax, Iowa eyes largest transportation plan ever

State transportation officials have crafted a spending plan for Iowa's transportation system that ranks as the largest in state history, thanks to the first gas tax increase in 25 years.

The Iowa Department of Transportation presented its $3.2 billion five-year plan covering 2016-20 to the Iowa Transportation Commission during its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

That's about 20 percent higher than the previous year's, which was $2.7 billion.

'It is pretty historic because it took a long time to get here with the gas tax increase, and it's not just the dollars but what we can do with it,” said Amy Reasner, a commissioner from Cedar Rapids.

'When you look at the highway component, we are spending a tremendous amount of money on infrastructure - maintaining it, growing it and making it better all across the state.”

Iowans can comment on the plan until it is considered for approval at the June 9 commission meeting. The plan can be viewed here and comments can be direct to Dan Tebben at 515-239-1148 or don.tebben@dot.iowa.gov.

The highway program is the largest element of the five-year plan, which is updated annually. The plan also pays for improvements to aviation, transit, railroads and trails.

The plan starts to tackle a backlog of critical needs, which had been building for years. User fees that pay for transportation improvements - gas tax revenue is the largest component - had been stagnating as people drive less and use more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Gov. Terry Branstad approved a 10 cent per gallon tax increase earlier this year. The extra revenue covers virtually all the $215 million annual shortfall of critical projects around Iowa, said Stuart Anderson, Iowa DOT director of the planning, programming and modal division.

The tax revenue is divided with the state taking a little less than half, while cities and counties split the remainder.

The extra $501 million under state control is split into three primary categories, Anderson said:

' An extra $80 million for addressing pavement and bridge conditions

' An extra $50 million for one and two year projects addressing safety or operational issues

' The bulk of the rest for expanding key corridors to four lanes.

Corridor projects added to the five-year plan include expanding Highway 30 to four lanes in Tama County from 2018-20, and improving the interchange at Highway 30 and 218 in Benton County in 2018. The Highway 30 expansion in Tama leapfrogged the expansion of Highway 30 in Benton County because of increased truck traffic and safety concerns from hillier terrain, Anderson said.

Expansion of Highway 20 to four lanes in northwest Iowa and work on Highway 61 from Burlington to Mediapolis also are in the plan.

Other, smaller projects in the area involving paving and other safety issues include:

' Iowa 1 in Washington County at Iowa 22 in Kalona

' Iowa 13 in Linn County, from north of County Home Road to south of Central City.

The gas tax law requires the DOT to identify where the money is going, and that is included at the back of the five-year plan document.

The timetable remains on schedule for several high-dollar projects in previous five-year plans, including the extension of Highway 100 in Linn County, a Highway 30 bypass of Mount Vernon and Lisbon, the replacement of the Interstate 80-380 interchange.

All told, Iowa will be investing about $767 million in highway improvements in the first year of the plan. This pot of money is made up of $356 million from the gas tax and registration fee-funded primary road fund, an estimated $307.8 million in federal funds, and $170.6 million in TIME-21 money, which is a separate state funding stream established in 2008 for the maintenance and construction of certain primary highways.

'This program is larger than we've had in the past due solely to the action of Gov. Branstad and the Iowa Legislature,” Anderson said. 'As a result of the bill, we have a little over $500 million to allocate in the plan.”

Iowans can comment on the DOT's five-year plan until June 9.

' Online: The plan can be viewed at this website.

' Contact: Comments can be directed to Dan Tebben at (515) 239-1148 or don.tebben@dot.iowa.gov.