Last October, Iowa finalized plans ...

Last October, Iowa finalized plans for the implementation of a statewide bridge management rule (BMS) that will collect, store and analyze inventory and condition data and help establish histories for all public bridges in the state. Ultimately, the information will be used in financial analyses and in determining optimal bridge maintenance, repair and replacement strategies.

perform the operations indicated ined by the Iowa Bridge Management Technical Committee (BMTC) at the Iowa Department of Transportation, the plan encompasses nearly 26000 bridges. Bruce Brakke, BMTC chairman and bridge maintenance engineer for Iowa DOT, reports that the a whole should be fully operational by means of October 1998.

BMTC has already selecteded software for the project. According to Technology of recent origins a publication of Iowa State University's Transportation Center Iowa will use PONTIS, a program evolveed in 1992 by the state of California beneath a contract with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Data gathering for state-owned bridges is subject to ...