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. 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: Brian Smith - Brian.E.Smith@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1836
Pavement Management System
Work is continuing to convert this system from the SAS database to Oracle. Additional functionality is being added to this system along with this conversion. A geospatial road network for the Iowa Primary Roadway system has been developed for utilization of directional routing and traversal of the entire state network for cost-based analysis. The Pavement Mgt. Systems are also being combined with the Roadview Videolog system which has provided a web-based video of the State Highways for all users at the DOT for the past 10 years.
Work is also continuing with co-development of the PMIS system with the LIMS system for managing material information within the Roadway history within PMIS. One sub-system of the LIMS development has been completed for managing all the Approved Aggregate Sources information. This system tracks the quarries and sand or gravel pits which have supplied materials into the Iowa roadways. These quarry sources are also located and managed as geospatial locations.
One aspect of the Pavement Management is currently being replaced. The RoadRater testing attribute for measuring existing pavement strength is being replaced with the Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) test. This new testing procedure and data will be added into the existing system for managing and analyzing this information.
New technology is constantly being reviewed for the current Pavement Management System. These topics include automated distress testing and collection, video logging, and the addition of 3D LIDAR data being collected for the automatic collection of the Roadway metrics such as overhead clearances, widths, paint striping, sign locations and sizes. Contact: Chris Brakke – Chris.Brakke@dot.iowa.gov - (515)-239-1882
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 put into production November 2006 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 Linear Referencing Methods to locate DOT assets and ties to other existing systems like RMS. Contact: Peggi Knight–Peggi.knight@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1530 or 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. 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
Linear Referencing System
Iowa DOT is looking to expand use of it's linear referencing system by other states. Currently Iowa is working with Montana DOT and Illinois Toll way on pilots. Contact: Peggi.knight@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1530 or Eric Abrams – Eric.Abrams@dot.iowa.gov – (515)-239-1949
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