Mission

The mission of the DMAMPO Freight Roundtable is to work with the public and the private sector to maximize the Des Moines metropolitan area’s, central Iowa’s, and Iowa’s economic opportunity through development of and advocacy for an efficient transportation system to promote economic development and trade in the North American trade corridor centered on I-35/I-29 and connecting Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

The Freight Roundtable meets monthly and serves as a catalyst in promoting initiatives that enhance freight movement in and out of the Des Moines area resulting in economic growth.  Chaired by Scott Cirksena, City of Clive, Iowa, the Freight Roundtable offers elected officials the opportunity to interact directly and to coordinate with the private sector users of our transportation system to recognize, to understand, and to resolve transportation system investment decisions.

In Fiscal Year 2006, the Freight Roundtable participants discussed: Goods Movement Update Report; Intermodal Survey; Truck routes and Freight inadequacies; North American Supercorridor Coalition; Central Iowa Inland Port; Iowa Foreign Trade Zone; Port Authority; Iowa Railroad System; Des Moines International Airport Master Plan Update; Bondurant Rail Spur; Altoona Cold Storage Spur Line; Greater Des Moines Partnership Trip to Washington D.C., Trans-Iowa/Illinois Freight Corridor Study, and etc.

Contact: 

Dylan Mullenix,

Transportation Planner
6200 Aurora Avenue
Urbandale, Iowa 50322
(515) 334-0075  Fax: (515) 334-0098

Email: dmullenix@dmampo.org
Website: www.dmampo.org/Committees/freightroundtable.html

Goods Movement in Central Iowa and in the Des Moines Metro Area

The DMAMPO Freight Roundtable initiated the update of the Goods Movement in Central Iowa and in the Des Moines Metro Area – 2006 Update Report (Goods Movement Study Update Report) in Summer 2005.  The purpose of the Goods Movement Study 2006 Update Report is to provide updated information and analysis that complements the 2002 Goods Movement Study. 

Including prospects for changes in the freight transportation system, in international trade, and in the surveyed intermodal usage for exporting and importing of goods in central Iowa, the report identified seven recommendations as following:

• Greater Recognition of Freight and Its Transportation Needs
• Economy Diversity
• Coordination Across Jurisdiction Boundaries
• Execution Solution to Freight Transportation Inadequacies
• Collaboration between the DMAMPO and the Greater Des Moines Partnership
• Port Authority Promotion
• Funding Streams Coordination

Staff Contact: Dylan Mullenix, dmullenix@dmampo.org  For more information, go to the website: www.dmampo.org/PlanningActivities/goodsmovement.html

Trans-Iowa/Illinois Freight Corridor Study

As a response to the Upper Midwest Freight Corridor Study completed in Fiscal Year 2006, the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (DMAMPO) has been working on the Trans-Iowa/Illinois Freight Corridor Study as a joint planning effort involving the Area 15 Regional Planning Commission, the Central Iowa Regional Transportation Planning Alliance, and the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission.  The Iowa DOT also was a key contributor to the project.  These agencies are working together and in conjunction with a group of stakeholders from communities along the corridor to help develop the study. 

The study area included any county that intersects the 210 mile stretch of the U.S. 34, U.S. 63, and Iowa 163 corridor from Pleasant Hill, Iowa to Galesburg, Illinois.  The purpose of this study is to understand the freight carrying potential of the corridor in order to benefit local governments and private businesses moving goods in central and southeastern Iowa and west central Illinois.  In February and March 2007, the DMAMPO staff held three stakeholder meetings in communities along the corridor to discuss the final report.  Final acceptance of this report by Area 15, CIRTPA, DMAMPO, and SEIRPC Committees is anticipated in April 2007. 

Staff Contact: Dylan Mullenix, dmullenix@dmampo.org  For more information, go to the website: www.dmampo.org/PlanningActivities/goodsmovement.html

Concept of A Port Authority

The concept of a port authority can be considered together with the Foreign Trade Zone, although these two entities are different.  A Foreign Trade Zone is a geographic concept for the private sector to take advantage for customs and import duties and for promoting imports and exports, and to import goods and to resell these goods to either domestic or international markets.  A port authority is an operational entity, hiring employees to transport and allocate goods from barges or trains to intermodal facilities for unloading and loading on the trucks.

The DMAMPO Freight Roundtable researched the viability of creating a port authority locally and found that State of Iowa does not have specific legislation for creating a port authority.  The DMAMPO’s General Counsel concluded that the DMAMPO cannot function as a port authority because the MPO is not an operating entity.  The Iowa Code already has the Chapter 28E Agreement.  Chapter 28E is a very broad authorizing legislation for authorizing any agreement by political subdivisions in the state, such as cities and counties, to do things collaboratively with each other or with private sectors.  A Chapter 28E agreement gives each of the political subdivisions the power, by state law, collaboratively to come up with the operating entity.  The Freight Roundtable highly encourages having regional cooperation, with public and private involvement, for creating a port authority in this metropolitan area.

Staff Contact: Dylan Mullenix, dmullenix@dmampo.org  For more information, go to the website: www.dmampo.org/PlanningActivities/goodsmovement.html