Said commission shall:
1. Devise and adopt standard plans of highway construction and furnish the same to the counties and provide information to the counties on the maintenance practices and policies of the department.
2. Furnish information and instruction to, answer inquiries of, and advise with, highway officers on matters of highway construction and maintenance and the reasonable cost thereof.
3. Reserved.
4. Make surveys, plans, and estimates of cost, for the elimination of danger at railroad crossings on highways, and confer with local and railroad officials with reference to elimination of the danger.
5. Assist the board of supervisors and the department general counsel in the defense of suits wherein infringement of patents, relative to highway construction, is alleged.
6. Make surveys for the improvement of highways upon or adjacent to state property when requested by the board or department in control of said lands.
7. Record all important operations of said commission and, at the time provided by law, report the same to the governor.
8. Incur no expense to the state by sending out road lecturers.
9. Order the removal or alteration of any lights or light-reflecting devices, whether on public or private property, other than railroad signals or crossing lights, located adjacent to a primary road and within three hundred feet of a railroad crossing at grade, which in any way interfere with the vision of or may be confusing to a person operating a motor vehicle on such highway in observing the approach of trains or in observing signs erected for the purpose of giving warning of such railroad crossing.
10. Order the removal or alteration of any lights or light-reflecting devices, whether on public or private property, located adjacent to a primary road and within three hundred feet of an intersection with another primary road, which in any way interfere with the vision of or may be confusing to a person operating a motor vehicle on such highway in observing the approach of other vehicles or signs erected for the purpose of giving warning of such intersection.
11. Construct, reconstruct, improve, and maintain state institutional roads and state park roads, which are part of the state park, state institution, and other state land road system as defined in section 306.3, and bridges on such roads, roads located on state fairgrounds as defined in chapter 173, and the roads and bridges located on community college property as defined in chapter 260C, upon the request of the state board, department, or commission which has jurisdiction over such roads. This shall be done in such manner as may be agreed upon by the state transportation commission and the state board, department, or commission which has jurisdiction. The commission may contract with any county or municipality for the construction, reconstruction, improvement, or maintenance of such roads and bridges. Any state park road which is an extension of either a primary or secondary highway which both enters and exits from a state park at separate points shall be constructed, reconstructed, improved, and maintained as provided in section 306.4. Funds allocated from the road use tax fund for the purposes of this subsection shall be apportioned in the ratio that the needs of the state institutional roads and bridges, park roads and bridges, or community college roads and bridges bear to the total needs of these facilities based upon the most recent quadrennial park and institution need study. The commission shall conduct a study of the road and bridge facilities in state parks, state institutions, state fairgrounds, and on community college property. The study shall evaluate the construction and maintenance needs and projected needs based upon estimated growth for each type of facility to provide a quadrennially updated standard upon which to allocate funds appropriated for the purposes of this subsection.
12. Prepare, adopt, and cause to be published a long-range program for the primary road system, in conjunction with the state transportation plan adopted by the commission. Such program shall be prepared for a period of at least five years and shall be revised, brought up to date, and republished at least once every year in order to have a continuing five-year program. The program shall include, insofar as such estimates can be made, an estimate of the money expected to become available during the period covered by the program and a statement of the construction, maintenance, and other work planned to be performed during such period. The commission shall conduct periodic reinspections of the primary roads in order to revise, from time to time, its estimates of future needs to conform to the physical and service conditions of the primary roads. The commission shall annually cause to be published a sufficiency rating report showing the relative conditions of the primary roads. Before the last day of December of each year, the commission shall adopt and cause to be published from its long-range program, a plan of improvements to be accomplished during the next calendar year. However, in years when the federal government is reauthorizing federal highway funding, the commission shall not be required to adopt and publish the annual plan of improvements to be accomplished until at least ninety days from the enactment of the new federal funding formula. This annual program shall list definite projects in order of urgency and shall include a reasonable year's work with the funds estimated to be available. The annual program shall be final and followed by the commission in the next year except that deviations may be made in case of disaster or other unforeseen emergencies or difficulties. The relative urgency of the proposed improvements shall be determined by a consideration of the physical condition, safety, and service characteristics of the various primary roads.
13. The criteria used by the commission for allocating funds as a result of any long-range planning process shall be adopted in accordance with the provisions of chapter 17A. The commission shall adopt such rules and regulations in accordance with the provisions of chapter 17A as it may deem necessary to transact its business and for the administration and exercise of its powers and duties.
14. For the four-year period beginning July 1, 1979, and for each subsequent four-year period, prepare, adopt and cause to be published the results of a study of all roads and streets in the state. The study shall be so designed to investigate present deficiencies and future twenty-year maintenance and construction needs of the roads and the ability of each applicable authority to meet the needs for the planning, construction, repair and maintenance of roads within their jurisdiction. The commission may gather information necessary to complete this study and shall be furnished assistance from any state agency as necessary to prepare, update and publish a report to be referred to as the "quadrennial need study" for the purposes of this chapter and chapter 312. The commission shall report the results of the study to the general assembly by January 1 of the last year in each four-year period and the study shall take effect the following July 1. This subsection does not preclude the commission from updating the quadrennial need study when necessary to reflect changes in road and street needs in the state.
14A. Annually recalculate the construction and maintenance needs of roads under the jurisdiction of each county to take into account the needs of a road whose jurisdiction has been transferred from the department to a county or from a county to the department during the previous year. The recalculation shall be reported by January 1 of the year following the transfer and shall take effect the following July 1 for the purposes of allocating moneys under sections 312.3 and 312.5.
15. Identify, within the primary road system, a network of commercial and industrial highways in accordance with section 313.2A. The improvement of this network shall be considered in the development of the long-range program and plan of improvements under this section.
[C97, § 1532; S13, § 1532; SS15, § 1527-s1, -s2; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, § 4626, 4631, 4632, 4633; C46, 50, 54, 58, § 307.5, 308.1, 308.3, 308.4; C62, 66, 71, 73, § 307.5; C75, 77, 79, 81, § 307A.2]
84 Acts, ch 1043, § 1; 86 Acts, ch 1245, § 1926; 88 Acts, ch 1019, § 1; 89 Acts, ch 134, § 4; 90 Acts, ch 1253, § 120; 92 Acts, ch 1100, § 2; 96 Acts, ch 1064, § 1; 96 Acts, ch 1126, § 2; 98 Acts, ch 1075, §7
Referred to in § 173.16, 312.2, 312.3, 312.4, 312.5, 313.4, 315.4
See also § 307.10
Time of filing report and period covered, § 7A.9
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