Dubuque Awarded Million-Dollar Grant for Next-Gen Traffic Management

DUBUQUE, Iowa – The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration announced today it has awarded a $998,200 grant to the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) for a Dubuque project to develop an innovative, next-generation, traffic management and control system.

This Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration Grant was awarded for Dubuque’s Smart Traffic Routing with Efficient and Effective Traffic Signals (STREETS) project, a collaboration between the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA), City of Dubuque, and Iowa DOT. The AID Demonstration grant provides funding as an incentive for eligible entities to accelerate the implementation and adoption of innovation in highway transportation.

The goal of Dubuque’s STREETS project is to develop an automatic system that will use traffic-control strategies to enable dynamic traffic routing on 10 Dubuque traffic corridors to maximize existing roadway capacities in the Dubuque metro area. The total project cost is estimated at $5 million and will be funded through a combination of funds from various agencies.

“We are grateful for this federal support of local innovation and collaboration,” said Dubuque Mayor Roy D. Buol.  “The City of Dubuque is excited to pursue this project with our partners, ECIA and the Iowa DOT, to develop new traffic management technologies and practices that can become best practices for other communities.”

Buol added that Dubuque’s grant application received significant support from U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, U.S. Representative Abby Finkenauer, and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst.

The STREETS project intends to allow City of Dubuque staff to monitor traffic operations and intervene as necessary but does not require constant or significant manual operations. The project is expected to reduce equipment costs at individual intersections by providing signal timings through a centralized Adaptive (Dynamic) Traffic Control System. 

The STREETS project will use Dubuque’s existing system to reduce congestion and improve safety in the metro area by dynamically rerouting traffic on roads with extra capacities. This system, the first of its kind in the nation, will the give the City’s operators the ability to help drivers to reduce their commuting time by better utilizing existing road capacity. This project will also help identify future projects that will improve safety and reduce congestion in the Dubuque metro area. 

The STREETS project is a pilot project in the state of Iowa. Once implemented and tested, it is expected to be implemented in other parts of the state and could be used as a best practice for similar-sized communities across the country.

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