City Bridge Program
On an annual basis, the Iowa DOT extends funding for the replacement or rehabilitation of city-owned bridges that have been classified by an engineering inspection as poor. Bridges are assigned priority points based on criteria shown on the Priority Point Worksheet. Once a city requests that an eligible bridge be considered for funding, it is ranked annually until an offer of funding is made and accepted by the city or the city requests that the bridge no longer be considered for funding. The majority of funds for this program are federal-aid and vary according to the current federal funding methodology and availability of funds. For more information, refer to I.M. 1.100, Highway Bridge Programs for Cities and Counties.
The federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 of one calendar year through September 30 of the next. For example, Federal Fiscal Year 2024 (FFY25) runs from October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024. Since City Bridge Funds are awarded for the next Federal Fiscal Year, funding awarded in the FFY24 program are available starting October 1, 2023. Cities with questions should contact Micah Loesch in the Local Systems Bureau at 515-509-5117 or via email at micah.loesch@iowadot.us.
- FFY26 City Bridge Candidate Award List.This spreadsheet shows the bridges that were on the City Bridge Candidate List in the most recently closed funding cycle. Highlighted bridges were offered funding.
- Qualifying Bridge List (QBL) – Cities Only.This spreadsheet shows the structures that qualify for Highway Bridge Program funding as detailed in I.M. 1.100. To assemble this listing, the DOT extracts information from SIIMS at the end of each calendar year. The data is then passed to FHWA. FHWA reviews the data and returns a finalized list to the DOT in approximately June of each year. Therefore, cities can expect that the data contained in this sheet may be a year old or more depending on when the last inspection was done on a structure and entered into SIIMS.
Iowa DOT Funding Guide. Basic information on all of the different federal and state funding programs that are available to local public agencies in Iowa.
Helpful Federal-aid Reminders for Cities. As several of the Local Public Agency (LPA) funding programs return to utilizing Federal-aid funding, we wanted to provide a few helpful Federal-aid reminders and links. This is not an all-inclusive list, and we strongly recommend reading the Federal-aid Project Development Guide and Iowa DOT Instructional Memorandums for Local Public Agencies as a refresher for the additional steps needed in developing Federal-aid projects. Please contact Local Systems with questions/concerns.
Road/Street Equipment Inventory. This information is being provided to assist cities and counties in locating equipment owned by other cities or counties that may be bought, sold, leased, or shared.