4. Iowa Freight Advisory Council
• Est. 2012
• Public and private freight stakeholders
• Goal
– Through education, discussion and review, the FAC will
assist and advise the Iowa DOT on freight mobility
policies, programs, and investments.
• Provides input on Iowa State Freight Plan and
other freight planning initiatives
• Meets quarterly
5. Iowa Freight Advisory Council
• Membership
– Agriculture/agribusiness
– Barge companies
– Federal agencies
– Metropolitan planning
– Railroads
– Regional planning
– Rural development
– State agencies
– Supply chain and logistics
– Trucking
– U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers
• General meeting topics
– Emerging industry trends
– Freight white papers
– State Freight Plan
– State Rail Plan
– Emerging technologies
– Legislation
– Trends and issues
– Facility tours
6.
7. Iowa Travel Analysis Model (iTRAM)
• Statewide travel demand model
• Includes freight commodity flow model
– Utilizes FAF, CFS, and waybill data
– Forecasting future freight rail demand
– Impacts of intermodal terminals, multimodal facilities
– County-to-county freight flows
– Outputs utilized by MPOs/RPAs
8. Statewide Freight Transportation
Network Optimization Strategy
• Combined effort with Iowa Economic
Development Authority
• Purpose
– To identify and prioritize investment opportunities for
an optimized public and private freight network to
lower transportation costs for Iowa businesses
• Demand-based supply chain model
• Implementation strategies (State Freight Plan)
• FASTLANE grant
– Cedar Rapids Logistics Park
10. Objectives
• Identify strategic goals
• Identify and document the economic importance of freight
• Document freight trends and issues
• Present freight-related forecasts
• Inventory existing assets
• Identify critical freight networks
• Describe conditions of the system and develop
performance measures
• Identify the State’s decision making process
• Present freight strategies and improvements
• Develop a freight investment plan
11. Critical Freight Networks
• Iowa Multimodal Freight Network
• National Highway Freight Network
– Primary Highway Freight System (PHFS)
– Critical Urban Freight Corridors (CUFCs)
– Critical Rural Freight Corridors (CRFCs)
– Remainder of the Interstate System
• National Multimodal Freight Network
12. Iowa Multimodal Freight Network
• Air
– 2 airports handle over
99% of air cargo
• Highway
– Roads with 30% truck
traffic, over 1,000
trucks per day, or over
1,000 oversize/
overweight permits
per year
• Railroad
– 5 million tons per mile
or greater
• Waterway
– 2 marine highways
13. National Highway Freight Network
• Primary Highway Freight
System
– Federally designated
• Critical Urban Freight
Corridors (CUFCs)
(next slide)
• Critical Rural Freight
Corridors (CRFCs)
– Designated by the State
DOT (150 miles available)
– Prioritized corridor
continuity
– Selected the non-
Interstate corridor with
most total truck traffic
• Remainder of Interstate
System
14. National Highway Freight Network
• Critical Urban Freight
Corridors (CUFCs)
– Designated by the
State DOT in
consultation with
MPOs (75 miles
available)
– Sent maps of freight
facilities and NHFN to
each MPO
– Requested prioritized
list of critical freight
corridors from each
– Designated top 3
priority corridors from
each MPO
15. National Multimodal Freight Network
• Air
– Top 100 national
cargo airports
• Highway
– NHFN (not shown)
• Railroad
– All class I railroads
• Waterway
– All marine
highways
16. Freight Strategies and Improvements
• Strategies
– Multimodal
– Freight Advisory Council
– Internal discussions
• Improvements
– Air (Des Moines International and Eastern Iowa Airports)
– Highway (Value, Condition, and Performance matrix)
– Railroad (Iowa railroad companies)
– Waterway (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
17. Top 5 Priority Freight Strategies
1. Optimize the freight transportation network to minimize cost
and travel time and improve supply chain efficiency
2. Target investment on the interstate system at a level that
reflects the importance of this system for moving freight
3. Advance a 21st century Farm-to-Market System that moves
products seamlessly across road, rail, and water to global
marketplaces
4. Explore opportunities for increasing value-added production
within the state
5. Target investment to address mobility issues that impact
freight movements
18. Value, Condition, and Performance
Matrix (VCAP)
1. Freight Mobility Issue Survey
• Populate initial improvement list
2. Value – Iowa Travel Analysis Model (iTRAM)
• How much the location improves efficiency of the network
3. Condition – Infrastructure Condition Evaluation (ICE) tool
• Composite rating of seven condition and traffic criteria
4. Performance – INRIX Bottleneck Ranking tool
• How often bottlenecks occur
5. Average the three rankings
6. Truck traffic counts
• Tiebreaker if necessary
1 2 3 4 5 6
20. Freight Investment Plan
• National Highway Freight Program funding
• $13 million - $18 million per year through 2020
• 90% of allocated funding – projects on NHFN
– VCAP #1 – Council Bluffs Interstate System
– VCAP #3 – I-74 bridge replacement (Davenport)
– VCAP #7 – I-80/I-380 interchange (Iowa City)
• 10% flexible funding
– Linking Iowa’s Freight Transportation
System (LIFTS) program
21. Linking Iowa’s Freight
Transportation System (LIFTS)
• 2016 pilot program ($2.7 million)
– 25 grant requests ($17.2 million), 6 were awarded
– Projects included studies, rail improvements/capacity
enhancements, and transloading improvements
• National Highway Freight Program (NHFP)
– 10% may be used for freight intermodal projects
• 2017 LIFTS program
– Utilize flexible 10% of annual NHFP funds
– Application based program for freight projects not
eligible for typical highway and railroad funding
– Currently developing guidelines, applications,
evaluation process, and timeline
23. Iowa State Rail Plan (2017)
• Guides Iowa DOT activities of:
– promoting access to rail transportation,
– helping to improve the freight railroad transportation
system,
– expanding passenger rail service, and
– promoting improved safety
• Profiles Iowa rail system
• Proposed freight rail and passenger rail improvements
and investments
• Rail Service and Investment Program
24. Freight Plan/Rail Plan Engagement
• Combined effort
• Stakeholder groups
– Freight Advisory Council (11 meetings)
– High Leverage Stakeholder Committee (2 meetings)
– Rail Advisory Committee (2 meetings)
– Issue Based Workshop (1 meeting)
– Freight Mobility Issue Survey (targeted 6 groups)
• Provided input on development of all plan sections
26. Iowa State Transportation Plan (2017)
• Freight considerations and issues
integrated throughout plan
• Improvement needs and strategies
identified for all modes
– Strategies and needs incorporated from
State Freight Plan and State Rail Plan
– Seven-layer highway needs analysis;
VCAP analysis utilized for freight needs
28. Bi-State Regional Commission
(Quad Cities)
• Bi-State Region Freight Plan (2015)
– 5 counties (Iowa and Illinois)
– Freight profiles
– Commodity flow analysis tool
– Recommended investments and strategies for the
region
• Freight Forum
http://bistateonline.org/
29. East Central Intergovernmental
Association (Dubuque)
• Eight County Freight Peer Exchange
• Eight County Freight Plan (under development)
– Four Iowa counties; four Illinois counties
– Freight profiles
– Commodity flow analysis tool
– Recommended investments and strategies for the
region
http://www.ecia.org/
30. Des Moines Area MPO
• Des Moines Freight Roundtable
– Est. 2004
– Assists with the efficient movement of freight in
the Greater Des Moines Region
– Meets bi-monthly
– Public and private
freight stakeholders
– Containerlocator.com
https://dmampo.org/
31. Contact Information
Sam Hiscocks, Freight Coordinator
Samuel.Hiscocks@iowadot.us
515-239-1004
Andrea White, Statewide Planning Coordinator
Andrea.White@iowadot.us
515-239-1210
www.iowadot.gov/systems_planning/freight/freight-home-page
