REVIEW OF INCONSISTENCIES BETWEEN SUDAS AND IOWA
DOT SPECIFICATIONS


MAY 2006
SUBMITTED TO:
Iowa Highway Research Board
Iowa Department of Transportation
Center for Transportation Research and Education
Project Number: TR-524
By:
Wade A. Greiman, P.E.
Snyder & Associates, Inc.

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Introduction
The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Standard Specifications for Highway and Bridge
Construction were originally developed with highway construction in rural areas. As the state
continues to develop, an ever-increasing portion of the projects administered by the Iowa DOT
take place in urbanized areas. Most of this urban work involves construction on Primary
Highways and Federal-Aid roadways through developed portions of counties and/or cities.
Given the rural nature of the existing Iowa DOT specifications, it is often necessary to include
supplemental specifications or special provisions on State projects in urban areas. In order to
reduce the frequency of this, the Iowa DOT specifications need to be expanded in areas such as
water main, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, utility accesses, trenching, traffic signals, etc., which are
not typically encountered on rural projects. Given the increasing number of projects that involve
urban work, it has been suggested the Iowa DOT utilize the Iowa Statewide Urban Specifications
for Public Improvements as the construction specifications for urban roadway projects.
The Iowa Statewide Urban Specifications for Public Improvements were developed by a group of
central Iowa communities with a goal of providing uniformity in construction methods and
materials. While the Urban Specifications began in central Iowa, their use has grown and are
now used in hundreds of communities across the State of Iowa through the Statewide Urban
Design and Specifications (SUDAS) program administered by the Center for Transportation
Research and Education (CTRE) at Iowa State University.
Based, in part, on the success seen in central Iowa, the SUDAS Specifications are being used and
adopted by cities and counties across the state in increasing numbers. This widespread use has
resulted in increased construction efficiency for contractors and cost savings to jurisdictions due
to the consistency of construction practices being implemented from project to project and the
familiarity of the documents by the parties involved in the development and construction of the
projects.
As the name “SUDAS” implies, the specifications were developed for public improvement
projects located within urbanized areas. With that focus of the specifications, many jurisdictions,
including the Iowa DOT, have determined the need to utilize portions of the SUDAS
specifications on Primary Highway and Federal-Aid projects within urbanized areas. This project
of reviewing the Iowa DOT and SUDAS specifications section by section was established to
respond to the needs of these many jurisdictions. This project also includes the development of
recommendations for possible changes allowing the SUDAS specifications to be utilized by
incorporation or reference with the Iowa DOT specifications while avoiding inconsistencies.
The utilization of the SUDAS specifications on urban Iowa DOT projects appears to be an
obvious solution to the insufficient urban specifications within the Iowa DOT standard
specifications. Many obstacles must first be overcome to prevent confusion to both the contractor
and engineer, ensure consistency from project to project, and to maintain the rural and urban
strengths and characteristics of the two manuals. This project outlines those obstacles and
recommends a “plan of attack” to address the task of combining the two documents.
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http://iowadot.gov/operationsresearch/re.../tr524.pdf