Road work is ramping up across Missouri now that spring has taken full hold.
John Nelson is State Highway Safety and Traffic Engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation. He said there is really no off-season for road work in Missouri but that it significantly increases once the cold weather is gone.
“Springtime is kind of the time of year where that ushers in, you know, and lasts really well into the fall, maybe even into early winter. But this year, especially, you know, we’re talking about historic levels of road work in our state here in Missouri,” he told Missourinet.
That’s mainly due to the expansion of Interstate 70 to six lanes total across the state from St. Louis to Kansas City. Some of the roadwork on I-70 and elsewhere will be happening at night.
“We will often try to find times where we can either do that in the evenings or in off-peak hours again, just to minimize the exposure for the workers as well as the disruptions for those that are traveling,” Nelson said.
He said with that in mind, drivers need to take precautions and slow down when they come across work zones. Not paying attention can be deadly.
“It’s not just the highway workers, it’s really all of us traveling in the state,” he said. “Last year in Missouri, 23 people were killed in a Missouri work zone in a traffic crash, and most of those people actually are people that are in the vehicles coming through the work zones.”
Nelson also said 140 MoDOT workers have been killed in the line of duty throughout the agency’s history.
Every active work zone in Missouri can be found on MoDOT’s Online Traveler Map.
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