Iowa LTAP has moved from CTRE to the Institute for Transportation
Iowa SUDAS: It's just good for you
SUDAS timeline
2005: Central Iowa Committee officially transfers ownership of the manuals to Iowa SUDAS Corporation, making statewide ownership of the standards for urban public works improvements truly statewide.
2004: The SUDAS program offically became Iowa SUDAS Corporation, a nonprofit entity, dedicated to establishing a mechanism for statewide ownership. SUDAS memberswho previously served as a steering committee, now make up the Board of Directors.
2001: Statewide Urban Design and Specifications (SUDAS) Program was established to convert the Central Iowa Commitee’s Urban Design Standards and Urban Standards Specifications into a statewide set of design and specifications manual.
1995: Governor Branstad’s Blue Ribbon Transportation Task Force selected statewide specifications as a method to maximize the benefits of each dollar spent from the Road Use Tax Fund in pursuit of adequate, safe, and efficient transportation.
1989: Development of the Central Iowa Urban Standard Design and Specifications Manuals, a set of common urban standards for public improvements.
Communities of all sizes benefit from the use of uniform designs and specifications. How? For one thing, using the same specifications encourages more contractors to bid. That means communities save money. Contractors are also less likely to make mistakes when they work with the same consistent specs and designs.
The Iowa Statewide Urban Designs and Specifications (SUDAS) will eventually be the acceptable standards for Iowa DOT urban primary highways and city and county federal-aid projects let through the Iowa DOT.
Iowa DOT and SUDAS staff are currently working to identify the differences and inconsistencies between the two specifications. When the differences are corrected and the two specifications are maintained cooperatively, the specifications will complement each other.
Although SUDAS Director Larry Stevens can’t say for sure how many communities are using SUDAS manuals, anecdotal reports indicate that the manuals are growing in popularity across the state. Since the SUDAS program began at CTRE in 2002, approximately 1,100 specifications manuals and 575 design manuals have gone into circulation.
Constant improvements
SUDAS is also involved in research to create new and improved urban designs and specifications based on the latest techniques and newest materials. For example, SUDAS is
- Completing a research project on utility cuts that’s being incorporated into design and specification revisions and includes pavement patching standards.
- Developing a design guide and construction specifications for NPDES site runoff control and stormwater quality initiatives.
- Continuing to work with Iowa DOT and Snyder & Associates to identify inconsistencies and differences between the SUDAS and Iowa DOT specifications and develop recommended changes to both specifications to rectify the differences.
- Developing subgrade and subbase design standards and modifying construction specifications.
- Creating local agency roadway lighting design standards.
Volunteer assistance
More than 300 engineers around the state have stepped up to donate significant time and effort to the SUDAS program. They serve on the board of directors, on the executive committee, on six district committees, and on 14 technical committees.
In the coming year these volunteers will be doing the following:
- Revising the seal coat and slurry seal specifications and drafting new specifications for cold in-place asphalt recycling.
- Identifying and determining the feasibility of separating technical and contractual components.
- Revising various asphalt repair and rehabilitation specifications.
- Reviewing jointing design standards, revising PCC pavement specifications and figures, and revising PCC repair and rehabilitation specifications and figures.
- Revising sanitary and storm sewer structure specifications and figures.
- Revising the structural design of the pipe design section.
- Revising water main specifications and figures.
For more information
To learn more about SUDAS, check out its website: http://www.iowasudas.org/. Or contact Beth Richards, program coordinator, 515- 294-2869, brich@iastate.edu.
