Iowa Department of Transportation seeks bids on $700M in road projects

DES MOINES - Iowa Department of Transportation will seek bids on $700 million in road construction projects this fiscal year, pushing nearly $100 million more into the road program than last fiscal year, which also set a record at the time.

The boost comes at the same time lawmakers are trying to figure out how to raise money for an estimated $215 million backlog in critical infrastructure repairs.

“Once you look at our (road) program and then start balancing the dollars out, once you get in to 2016, 2017, 2018, our programs will probably be around $460 million to $480 million” if there is no additional revenue for the department, Iowa Department of Transportation Director Paul Trombino said. “So that's where you see the difference.”

Trombino made his comments following a 30-minute budget hearing with Gov. Terry Branstad, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and the governor's top budget crunchers at the Statehouse.

It's one of several such hearings that began last week during which agency directors present their budget requests to the governor. Trombino asked for about an $874,000 increase in his spending plan for fiscal year 2015, which would bring his $353.7 million budget up to $354.8 million. The governor seemed impressed by the plan for the road program but otherwise said little about the dollar figures Trombino presented.

Trombino said the increase in road program spending was made possible because the DOT commission moved up some work already on the books. It's being paid for by a combination of the state's regular appropriation, holdover from the last road plan, savings from projects that came in under bid and a $22 million federal transportation redistribution.

“All of the dollars we don't spend, revert,” Trombino said. “We advanced some work, some of it's rehab work, some is bridge work.”

He said that although all the projects would be bid, it doesn't mean there's going to be $700 million in work completed. Still, “it should still be a record year," he said.

Asked about the possibility of raising money for the state's road fund through either a tax increase or some other mechanism, Trombino said he wasn't prepared to say what his advice to the governor would be.

Department of Transportation officials have hosted meetings across the state in recent weeks to discuss ways to raise money - short of a fuel tax increase - for the department. Some of the ideas being floated are eliminating the tax break farmers get on the red-dyed fuel they get for off-road vehicles and increasing fees.

“We're still collecting feedback,” he said.