National Center for Wood Transportation Structures

About the research

The Iowa Automated Permitting System (IAPS) is an online oversize/overweight (OS/OW) permitting system for the motor carrier industry based on Bentley System’s SUPERLOAD. The IAPS began production operations in December 2013. As of 2017, among the 100,000 permits issued by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) annually, about half of them were issued automatically. In May 2019, Governor Reynolds signed Senate File 629, a bill for an act relating to permits for vehicles of excessive size and weight and providing for fees. The Iowa Legislature requested that the Iowa DOT report on the IAPS to allow electronic processing of OS/OW permits for non-primary roads. This processing includes the application, review, routing, approval, and payment(s) to the appropriate jurisdiction(s).

The goal of this work was to report to the legislature on the implementation options in performing OS/OW permitting for local public authorities (LPAs) using the IAPS. The objectives of this project included the following:

• Review the current IAPS system capabilities
• Develop implementation options for consideration by the Iowa DOT
• Identify the barriers, possible solutions, and required resources to implement the options proposed