Current Organization Activities
New Applications
Project Scheduling
Project Scheduling is now being used by around 560 people, which are located in the Central and Field
offices in the Iowa DOT. There are 6 databases that communicate with the Project Scheduling System.
They are Five Year Program, PES/LAS, Contractor Pay System, Parcel Tracking System, TPMS System,
and GIMS. There have been many enhancements added to the Project Scheduling System, such as, tracking
Mitigation projects, Utilities, Project Costs, Parcel Information on a Project, Contract Information, and much
more. We have also been sending emails through a number of computer programs to communicate with the
necessary parties. This feature and others has greatly improved the efficiency of managing a project and
keeping everyone on track managing the project. We are about to publish the web page for all the Utility
Companies and contact information on the Iowa DOT website. Contact: Mark Swenson –
Mark.A.Swenson@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1446
Laboratory Information Management System
This system will be used to track tests performed on material used in construction projects. Testing
information will be made available to contractors and suppliers as well as DOT construction and materials
staff. The Material Acceptance List has been put into production. This is a multi-year development effort to
develop this system. Contact: Mahbub Khoda – Mahbub.Khoda@dot.iowa.gov - (515)-239-1649
Resource Management System
This system will be used to track the activities involved in maintaining roads and bridges. Time spent and
material used will be tracked by location of the activity in the state maintenance areas. The first phase –
Daily Work Log – is complete and in production. It is written Visual Basic .Net. The second phase has
already started which involves collecting labor, equipment, and material costs associated with disaster
declarations. The Winter Application part of phase two has been completed and was put into production last
Fall. This is a multi-year development effort to develop this system. Contact: Will Zittritch –
William.Zittritch@dot.iowa.gov - (515)-239-1396
Right of Way Information Management System
This system will be used to track the parcels purchased for the right of way of a new roadway. This system
is a redesign of the current Parcel Tracking System, which is a host based system, and has been in use for the
past sixteen years. This system will work closely with the Project Scheduling System. Contact: Jim Brooks
– James.Brooks@dot.iowa.gov - (515)-239-1316
Web BIAS 2000
This system will be used to enter bid items into the Project Scheduling System and from there to the Letting
System (PES/LAS). The items and their quantities are also imported into MicroStation and are placed on
the plan sheets. It will utilize a web interface that will be used by consultants to enter bid items and
quantities for projects that they are designing. Contact: Wayne Mander – Wayne.Mander@dot.iowa.gov –
(515)-239-1836
Pavement Management System
Work is underway to covert this system from the SAS database to Oracle. Additional functionality is being
added to this system along with this conversion. Contact: Chris Brakke – Chris.Brakke@dot.iowa.gov -
(515)-239-1882
It is expected that the development of these large systems will span a time period of three to five years.
Linear Referencing System
This is a multi-year project which creates a traversable centerline and location referencing for all roadways
in Iowa. The maintenance application was recently put into production which allows staff to maintain
centerlines that can be the central resource for geographically accurate location of roads that will be used by
offices throughout the agency. Projects are currently being developed which use reference posts and latitude
and longitude to locate culverts, snow routes and improvement projects. Contact: Eric Abrams –
Eric.Abrams@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1949
Iowa Aviation Weather System
The Iowa Aviation Weather System consists of 40 Automated Weather Observation Systems located at
airports around the state. These feed weather observations each minute to the host system that stores them in
the IDMS database. Current observations for all airports may be viewed at each airport where observations
are being collected. Every twenty minutes a current weather observation for each airport is transmitted to
the National Weather Service. We have installed new systems at 3 airports in the past year. Contact: Mike
Marr – Michael.Marr@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1468
Geographical Information Management System (GIMS)
GIMS system stores attributes of the existing road, structure and rail crossing inventory for all public roads
in Iowa. The system was migrated to Oracle from IDMS an integrated with MicroStation in 1998. In 2005
a supplemental Oracle Spatial table was added to assist GIS users to analyze GIMS data.
GIMS is now going through a complete overhaul to leverage Iowa's LRS (Linear Referencing system) as
Iowa DOT's base centerline. Iowa's LRS system went production in fall of 2006. Contact: Eric Abrams –
Eric.Abrams@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1949
Web Map Services (WMS)
Iowa DOT will be implementing a Web Map Service system in fall to early winter 2007. This system will
allow users of DOT GIS data to view and query this data without downloading it to their desktop. Visit
gis.iowadot.gov for GIS data currently available. Contact: Eric Abrams – Eric.Abrams@dot.iowa.gov –
(515)-239-1949
Google Maps
After a year of research Iowa DOT will be implementing using Google Maps to display spatial data. This is
a multiple phase project with user education, development of Oracle Spatial to KML tool kit and
deployment. Data candidates will be chosen and their data deployed in the next 12 months. Check
gis.iowadot.gov for updates. Contact: Eric Abrams – Eric.Abrams@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1949
AASHTO PES/LAS/DSS
We are converting our Letting System (PES/LAS) to use the Oracle database in place of the DB2 database
which it is currently using. DSS is also part of the conversion from DB2 to Oracle. Contact: Roger
Bierbaum – Roger.Bierbaum@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1414
Drivers System
After three years in development, we have implemented a new Driver System, which includes the business
processes around driver license issuance, records, and accidents. This rich client/server based system
replaces the host system that we have been using since 1981. This system shares common customer
functionality with the Vehicle System, in that they both share some of the same tables to keep track of
customer information. Contact: Shirley Andre – Shirley.Andre@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-237-3121
Shared Software
LaserLux
We are sharing our LaserLux programs with the State of Minnesota. These programs upload the data from
the LaserLux van and store it in an Oracle database. The data from the Oracle database is used to create
reports.
Infrastructure
Iowa DOT’s current infrastructure includes an IBM mainframe with 2TB of disk storage, 2 TB tape storage
and 1.5 TB of optical storage. The server infrastructure includes 320 Windows servers, 125 Virtual
Windows servers in a VM/ESX environment, and 150 TB SAN storage. Iowa DOT’s infrastructure supports
4000 Users and 3400 Workstations.
The Iowa DOT network connects approximately 350 remote locations using ATM, Frame Relay, ISP based
VPN, and Ethernet WAN technologies. The Iowa DOT network provides services to all Iowa DOT sites, as
well as 99 County Courthouses, the citizens of the State, as well as the traveling public via free Rest Area
Internet access. Contact: - Barb Espeland – Barb.Espeland@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1583