Iowa DOT installs 55 mph warning signs on Interstate 380 near speed cameras

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Iowa Department of Transportation began installing 55 mph warning signs on Intestate 380 near the Cedar Rapids automated traffic cameras Wednesday morning.

Officials say, however, that the action does not mean the DOT is going to move the actual 55 mph zone farther away from the cameras.

Steve Gent, of the DOT Ames office, said the yellow triangular signs are meant as informational or a warning.

The city of Cedar Rapids has requested the DOT move the actual 55 mph zone farther away from the cameras. Two of the cameras are within a thousand feet of the actual speed change itself, and that is one reason the DOT earlier had ruled those cameras should be turned off or moved.

The new informational signs for the speed zone are about 300 to 400 yards away from the lower limit zone.

The city said in the past, the DOT had refused a request to move the speed zone back on both the northbound and southbound lanes approaching the S-curve on I-380 downtown.

A Cedar Rapids spokesman said the DOT did not notify the city ahead of time that the signs were going up. However, she said the city's goal is to slow drives down through the core portion of the city, and Cedar Rapids officials have no problem alerting people that the cameras exist.