Free Republic

After years of concern about the number of traffic accidents that occur in road construction zones, Pennsylvania is doing something about it. Beginning Jan. 4, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike will begin a 60-day pilot program to formally test what’s called the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program. The program is designed to cause drivers to slow down in construction areas by setting up speed monitoring equipment in work areas. After the pilot program is finished, the two state agencies expect to deploy private contractors in white Jeep Cherokee SUVs at various sites throughout the state to...

A man wanted out of Pennsylvania was arrested Sunday morning in Smyth County, Virginia. Officials say a deputy was working radar in the construction zone near the 53-mile marker on Interstate 81 just after midnight, when a Ford pickup was traveling at a high rate of speed. The deputy attempted a traffic stop, but the truck accelerated and fled to exit 47, north on Highway 11, and eventually into a field at the end of Tranquility Lane. Officials say, after a brief standoff, in which the driver made multiple threats that he had a firearm, he was taken into custody....

I-4 Ultimate’s promise five years ago was that private financing and management would make Florida’s largest road reconstruction project better, faster and cheaper. Today, the 21-mile and $2.3 billion rebuilding of Interstate 4 through metro Orlando is slogging through rising costs to an uncertain finish date, with crews working day and night under the pall of repeated worker fatalities. Some of the issues: - The fifth death of a construction worker last month that preliminary findings say would have been avoidable with a more cautious approach to bridge building that SGL Constructors made mandatory this month. - Construction consortium I-4...

EL PASO, Texas - ABC-7 has learned the families of the young engaged couple killed when their semi-truck collided with a piece of construction machinery sticking out on Interstate 10 have settled their lawsuit against the company that was overseeing the construction site. The parents of Patrick Van Fossen and Keserie Paredes had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against JAR Construction, accusing JAR of causing the deaths of Van Fossen and Paredes on the early morning of Dec. 21, 2017. In July, ABC-7 reported that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, found numerous safety hazards at JAR's construction...

Two wrecks in as many days has us reminding you of the risks we face driving through construction zones on Interstate 35. The first accident happened early Thursday when an 18-wheeler hit a road worker on I-35 near the flyovers to US 183. And early Friday, police had to respond to a three-car chain reaction crash just a mile away on the interstate. And while police explained to reporters how they were going to handle the aftermath of the latest crash, a car behind the officer spun out of control, hit the curb and finally stopped facing the wrong direction....

When a school district deems its region’s main thoroughfare unsafe for school buses, that highway’s problems need fixed. Lots of Wabash Valley residents fear driving on the local stretch of Interstate 70. And with good reason. Fatal accidents — several involving semi tractor-trailers crashing into stopped or slowed traffic — have become frequent on I-70 between the Illinois-Indiana border and Indianapolis. Accidents along that 68-mile path outnumbered those on the 66-mile portion east of Indy to the Ohio border in 2016 and 2017, according to the Indiana University Public Policy Institute’s statistics. Distracted driving has been cited as a factor...

MT. VERNON, Ky. (WKYT) - There are more crashes on Interstate 75 than any other highway in Kentucky, and the number has increased significantly since 2010. Major work is being done on a stretch of the interstate highway to make it six lanes, especially in Rockcastle County. You will see orange cones and heavy machinery when you are driving in the area. "They're blasting all the time. Traffic is slowing. You got barrels, construction, vehicles coming in and out of locations. It's a dangerous stretch of road right now," Kentucky State Police Trooper Scottie Pennington said. Statistics back that claim...

Most newer concrete beams that hold up Utah highway bridges are around 145 feet long. But the Utah Department of Transportation is about to place six that are 40 percent longer — 203 feet — to help widen Interstate 15 in Lehi. They are longer than the iconic Cinderella’s castle in Walt Disney World (189 feet) is high, or the leaning tower of Pisa (185 feet). They also will be the third-longest single-component beams in the United States, slightly shorter than two in Orlando, Fla., and Seattle, said Lee Wegner, with Forterra Structural Precast, the West Valley City company that...

BURLEY — A multiple-vehicle crash sent four people to Idaho hospitals Oct. 30 east of Burley. Idaho State Police investigated the crash just before 3 p.m. on westbound Interstate 84 near the Interstate 86 junction. The crash included a truck and two semi-trailers, blocking eastbound and westbound lanes for two-and-a-half hours. John Greigg, 31, of Sonoma, Calif., was driving a 2018 Ford F250 east on I-84 near milepost 221.5. Kolton King, 49, of Layton, Utah, was driving west on I-84 in a 2017 Freightliner commercial vehicle pulling two trailers. Greigg attempted to make a U-turn from the eastbound lane of...

State police have released details on a four-vehicle crash that tied up traffic Thursday morning on Interstate 99 in Patton Township. According to the report, officers responded to the crash shortly before 9 a.m. to the 71.5 mile marker within the construction zone along the interstate. Troopers reported that James E. Bentz, 60, of Tampa, Fla., was traveling north into the construction zone when he struck a car driven by Christian L. Lamana, 25, of Milroy. Bentz allegedly stated he had been traveling faster than the posted speed and didn’t see traffic moving slower in the construction zone, police said....

Expansion of the Turner Turnpike between Sapulpa and Bristow is anticipated to be done by early next summer — months ahead of the initially announced estimated completion date.“This is a long-term project, and we ask the public for their patience because the end results are going to be tremendous,” said Oklahoma Turnpike Authority spokesman Jack Damrill.“We should have whatever is currently under construction substantially complete by summer,” he said. “Unless we have a terrible winter, we should have all six lanes open summer of 2019.”He said the project has been progressing “very nicely.” The 22-mile, $300 million project involves expanding...

It seemed like Frank Caputo had worked in construction with his family since he could walk, and at 61 years old, he had no plans of retiring anytime soon, his family said. “He would die with concrete on his hands, and he did,” said Lorraine Richards Caputo, his estranged wife. “His blood ran concrete. He was proud of his job. He was a good worker, and he did a damn good job.” Caputo was working Friday night on the northbound lanes of the Tri-State Tollway near Rosemont where two lanes had been closed for a construction project. Just before 10:20...

MILTON — A driver was killed early Friday after rear-ending a car on Interstate 10 that had stopped due to road construction. According to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol, at around 2 a.m. Friday three cars were traveling east on Interstate 10 at mile marker 20, approaching Avalon Boulevard. Two of the cars, one driven by 38-year-old Amaury Cisneros Morales of Orlando and another driven by 57-year-old Brian Cordes of Slidell, Louisiana, came to a complete stop due to a construction roadblock in the area. A Freightliner truck traveling behind Morales’ car failed to stop and rear-ended the...

Bath Township, MICHIGAN (WJRT) - (08/21/2018) - The Michigan Department of Transportation tweeted out photos of a motorcycle on I-69 missing its driver. MDOT is using the photos as reminder of the importance of driving safety in work zones as the busy construction season is wrapping up. Their Facebook Post, which has generated thousands of responses and shares, asks if you have lost a motorcycle driving on I-69 in Clinton County Monday. One of the photos, which appears to show tire imprints in wet concrete, serves as a reminder of why it's not a good idea to use closed lanes...

LAS VEGAS — Two Boise men were killed in a crash Wednesday near Las Vegas, media partner CBS 2 News reports. The Nevada Highway Patrol told station KSNV a semi-truck driver admitted he fell asleep before a five-vehicle crash on Highway 93. The crash happened just before 6 a.m., Wednesday at an active construction zone. According to highway patrol, the semi was filled with sand, so the driver could not stop in time, running over the car in front of him. The car was ripped in half, split down the middle. The two men inside were pronounced dead at the...

KIRKWOOD, N.Y. - New York State officials are warning of an alarming increase in reckless driving and crashes in highway work zones this year. The Department of Transportation and State Police held a news conference Wednesday at the Interstate 81 Welcome Center in Kirkwood to spread the message that drivers need to be more careful and considerate when traveling through construction zones. In particular, they want drivers to put down their phones and slow down. The DOT brought a damaged attenuator for a visual example. It was crushed earlier this year along Interstate 87 near Albany. An attenuator is a...

A tractor-trailer traveling southbound on Interstate 15 slammed into the back of another tractor-trailer and Chevrolet pickup Tuesday night near Stoddard Wells Road after failing to yield to stopped traffic, according to a CHP news release. At the time of the collision, which authorities say occurred at approximately 11:57 p.m., traffic was at a standstill due to a full-freeway closure for construction of the D Street Bridge. As traffic was being routed off the freeway at Stoddard Wells Road, 52-year-old Mariano Valle, of Montclair, approached the stopped vehicles in a 2014 Freightliner tractor-trailer traveling at 60 mph. For unknown reasons,...

COLUMBUS — A motorist accused of striking and killing a road construction worker from Barnesville while driving on Interstate 70 in Franklin County last year was sentenced to five years in prison after entering an Alford plea to aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle while under the influence. Edward Torres, 31, of South Solon, was sentenced to five years on the aggravated vehicular homicide charge and 180 days on the OVI charge with the sentences to be served concurrently for a total of five years in prison. Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Schneider also suspended Torres’ driver’s...

HINSDALE — For the second time in just over a month, a tractor-trailer-type vehicle collided with a parked New York State Department of Transportation vehicle on Interstate 86. Both drivers involved in the two-vehicle accident were injured, said Hinsdale First Assistant Fire Chief Greg Church. The incident was reported at 11:11 a.m. Tuesday after a northbound box truck rear-ended a state DOT dump truck a few miles before Exit 27. “They were patching the road,” Church said of state DOT crew. “They had a truck with a lighted arrow and work zone signs up, but for some reason he didn’t...

After a crash that state police called chilling, the agency has issued a reminder about highway safety. Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, state police Troop G in Bridgeport and West Haven fire units and emergency medical services responded to a crash on Interstate 95 northbound near exit 43 in West Haven. The call reported a crash involving two tractor trailers. But when troopers arrived at the scene, they found a more serious crash and closed the highway. The crash involved four tractor trailers and a Toyota Corolla. “Troopers, firefighters and EMS immediately checked on the crash victims and, despite what...