Free Republic

TACOMA, Wash. — State troopers are responding to an increased number of traffic collisions near an Interstate 5 construction zone in Tacoma. “We’re looking at a little more than two collisions that happen on this stretch per day,” Trooper Robert Royer with the Washington State Patrol said. The data provided by the agency, which covers the distance between milepost 132 (near state Route 16 exit) to milepost 136 (near the Port of Tacoma Road exit), shows traffic collisions are up 33% since 2019. With more than 400 collisions already reported this year (so far), troopers are responding to at least...

New York State transportation officials gathered at an Adirondack Northway rest area this morning to remind motorists of the dangers of highway work zones ahead of the busy travel holiday weekend. The site of the press conference was the Clifton Park rest area near Exit 9 on the Northway, not far from where a southbound truck last month struck a bridge on Sitterly Road. With a busy summer travel season predicted as the pandemic winds down, officials want to get the word out about work zone safety. You might guess that during the pandemic, with fewer commuters on the roads,...

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. -- A mother is warning motorists against distracted driving after her son's father was killed along a construction site on I-95. Dustin Warden, 25, was hit and killed by a car in a worksite on Interstate 95 in Prince George County on February 3, 2018. The VDOT contractor was working to provide for his young family when he was killed by a distracted driver. Virginia State Police said a driver looked down, took her eyes off the road and fatally struck Warden. Each year, Warden's girlfriend Jaimie Ray wears orange in honor of him. "Pay attention...

GREENFIELD — Orange and white traffic barrels, detour signs and construction equipment stretch as far as the eye can see through the heart of Greenfield, indicating a major construction project is underway. Road improvement work along State Road 9 on the south side of Greenfield officially started this week, and despite numerous warnings to drivers about the road closure, the work is creating chaos as many drivers are disregarding the construction signs and driving through the closure area. Greenfield Police Department officers stopped nearly 50 drivers who disregarded construction warnings and went around “road closed” signs and barricades on Tuesday,...

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Department of Transportation is studying use of remote technology to help manage highway traffic that needs to merge when approaching a highway work zone involving at least one lane closure. ADOT says it has set up a “smart work zone" with a remotely controlled system using computers, portable message boards and sensors to provide drivers with real-time instructions based on changing circumstances. The study is being conducted at two bridge rehabilitation sites on Interstate 40 between Flagstaff and Winslow in northern Arizona. The remote system directs westbound traffic to merge into one lane well ahead...

A man from Sugarloaf Township charged with fleeing the scene after striking a construction worker who died on Interstate-81 waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday. Zachary Gerbino, 27, appeared before District Judge James M. Dixon where he waived charges of accidents involving death and tampering or fabricating evidence to Luzerne County Court. Gerbino remains free on $25,000 bail. State police at Hazleton allege Gerbino was traveling north in a 2005 Hyundai Accent on I-81 when he struck Kevin DenDulk, 30, of Royersford, Montgomery County, at about 1:15 a.m. on Aug. 1. DunDulk was part of a construction crew...

KEESEVILLE — State troopers disguised as construction workers issued 26 tickets Tuesday in the “Operation Hard Hat” initiative on the Adirondack Northway (Interstate 87) near the Clinton-Essex County line. The New York State Police Troop B and state Department of Transportation announced the news Thursday. Operation Hard Hat is a joint initiative of the two agencies to crack down on work zone violations and highlight the importance of safe driving through active construction and maintenance zones. They say this initiative, like past ones, was successful, and they plan to do more later this summer.

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...