Lee County slows new speed limit law

LEE COUNTY -  Lee County just put the brakes on increasing speed limits under a new Iowa law that takes effect Wednesday.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 378 increasing the speed limit on Iowa’s highways from 55 to 60 mph. starting July 1.
However, Lee County Supervisors approved a resolution at Tuesday’s regular board meeting to allow Lee County Secondary Roads staff to implement the speed increases after they’ve done proper diligence to keep motorists safe on county highways.
“It’s my recommendation that we err on the side of safety,” said Lee County Engineer Ben Hull. “That being the safety of the traveling public, and we do intend to increase some of our roads to 60.”
He said Iowa code allows the Board of Supervisors to set the speed of secondary roads based on conditions that exist on those roads.
“There are concerns about this as to whether our roads are set up to safely handle 60 mph traffic and generally, they weren’t. They were set up for 55 mph.,” he said.
The things that go into that diligence include signage, paint on the roads, rumble strips, Stop Ahead signs, curve signs etc.
Hull said it’s impossible to comply with the law by midnight July 1.
He said the county has 173 miles of roadway affected by the law change. He said staff has to also consider geometry of the road, traffic volumes, and roadside development.
“I estimate there are 1,500 signs we need to re-evaluate, and 177 curves we need to evaluate,” he said.
“And the no passing zones actually maybe the toughest task. There may be about 380 no passing zones we need to evaluate -  so you get the idea.”
He said some counties aren’t doing the same diligence and some are just changing over the speed limit signs.
Hull said he met with Lee County Attorney Ross Braden and Supervisor Chair Ginger Knisley on the issue.

“The consensus of this group was that because the engineering environment on these roads if for the lower speed that we stick with that for now,” he said. “I’ve already got staff this week relocating Stop Ahead signs.”
Supervisor Tim Wondra asked if those counties and the state that are just changing signs are opening themselves to litigation if a crash occurs.
“What happens in those other counties when somebody gets in a wreck around a curve and someone comes out and looks and says the sign should have been moved back or it should’ve been striped better. Does that open the county to lawsuits,” he said.
Hull said that was a concern and precedent would dictate that action.
“We’re just going to err on the side of keeping people safe,” Hull said.
The county is starting on the roads that would be easiest to convert to 60 mph, but Hull couldn’t give a definitive answer on how long the transition will take place. He said there will be a lot of study involved and additional painting and sign replacement. He said there will likely be three to four months of solid work, not including other daily department needs.
Hull said the county also doesn’t have the equipment to repaint lines.
“That could be $10 worth of paint on a curve, but $5,000 in mobilization,” he said.
The state had estimated in the course of studying the bill that it would cost the state about $850,000 with half of the cost being state improvements, and the other half would be county costs. $425,000 divided among 99 counties is about $4,000 per county. Hull said he’s already spent that in staff time just looking into the changes.
Supervisor Garry Seyb said he’s read a number of articles and heard reports of the project not costing taxpayers that much.
“I’m going to say this is going to be wildly more than that. In Lee County who knows, but we’re going to track this,” Seyb said saying this move is just another unfunded mandate out of Des Moines.
“No one talked to us about this. I don’t even know if they asked the state DOT. The decision was made that this is what we’re going to do, but the cost factor is going to be way different than what they are saying," Seyb said.
The resolution passed 5-0 and Lee County’s county roads will stay at 55 mph as county staff transitions the roadways.