Iowa State Rail Plan sets a course for rail transportation in Iowa

April 28, 2017

There is a great deal of untapped potential on Iowa’s rail transportation system. That’s just one of the major findings of the Iowa State Rail Plan.

The recently finalized plan updates a previous 2009 effort. Amanda Martin, of the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Office of Rail Transportation, said, “Every state DOT is required by the Federal Railroad Administration to prepare a rail plan. Here in Iowa, we don’t own any of the railroads or the infrastructure that railroads operate on, but we support rail safety and serve in an advocacy role to promote rail.”

Personnel Updates for April 7 – April 20, 2017

April 27, 2017

Information provided by the Office of Employee Services

Khyle Clute named 2016 Outstanding Design Employee

April 26, 2017

“I wonder what happens if…??” That’s the way Khyle Clute approaches his work in the methods section of the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Office of Design. That way of thinking is also one of the reasons Clute was nominated by three co-workers and chosen to be the 2016 Outstanding Design Employee. 

Clute, a transportation engineer who started his Iowa DOT career in 2008, says working in the methods section brings a host of challenges and opportunities. The section traditionally has been a support system for highway designers, working on defining standards and details for roadway plans. Clute sees the boundaries of that traditional definition expanding.

Message Monday - Work zones, orange you glad you slowed down?

April 24, 2017

In all of 2016, 13 people died in crashes in Iowa work zones. Twelve of those killed were motorists and one was a construction worker. Already in 2017, we’ve lost two construction workers in these types of crashes. One of the leading causes is people who don’t pay attention and slow down when they see the signs signaling a work zone. Work zones are carefully set up to protect both the motorists and the workers, but the best laid plans aren’t effective if they aren’t followed.

The next time you are traveling through a work zone, take a deep breath, slow down, and have a little patience with those folks who are trying to make your future trips safer, smoother, and more enjoyable.

Personnel Updates for March 24 – April 6, 2017

April 20, 2017

Information provided by the Office of Employee Services

Skype for Business is an easy way for DOTers and customers to stay connected

April 17, 2017

How do you connect with your co-workers and customers? Many of us automatically turn to the telephone, email, or Yammer. While these tools are great, the addition of Microsoft Office 365® has provided us with Skype® for Business as a new option with expanded opportunities to collaborate easily and many times, more effectively. For the purposes of this blog, we’re going to refer to this tool simply as Skype.

Just like the other Office 365 applications (e.g., Outlook® and Yammer®), you can set Skype to launch automatically when you log on to your computer. You might be asking why we need another communication tool. Roger Parker, Information Technology Division’s Office of Systems Support director, said, “Skype offers our employees a quicker and more collaborative way to stay connected. New employees coming the Iowa DOT often come from organizations using these collaborative tools every day. To attract and retain great people, we need to up our game. For those of us who have been around awhile and who used the previous instant messenger application, this works very similarly, but it has updated features like video chat and file and screen sharing.”