Montrose, IL-(Effingham Radio)- Today, State Senator Chapin Rose and State Representative Adam Niemerg held a press conference to discuss their new legislation to help improve safety surrounding construction and road closures. The conference was held at the BP Gas Station in Montrose.
Senator Rose and Representative Niemerg both expressed their concern with recent events surrounding the construction on I-70 that recently wrapped up for the winter months, and gave their thoughts on what can be done to prevent future issues. They said it starts with communication between IDOT, local police and city officials, and state officials.
“This legislation first makes sure IDOT never places an Interstate construction zone to detour into another construction zone. The decision [to reroute to another construction zone] led to complete chaos, as the local residents know already,” said Rose. “IDOT has pledged to work with the local counties that have been impacted [by the construction zone and detours] before the next construction season in spring to try to prevent it from happening again. Secondly, the GPS systems on phones, when an accident occurs, the GPS navigation starts rerouting people to places they have no business being. So part of this legislation is to require any GPS navigation provider operating in Illinois to have a living human being that IDOT can be in communication with to upload preferred detour routes, and also in cases of an emergency, to direct traffic away from potential danger zones. The third part is the reimbursement of local units of government when roads get torn up from IDOT detours.”
Rose said that IDOT has agreed to repair Arbuckle Road in Clark County, as it was badly worn due to rerouted traffic.
Representative Niemerg also said “I want to first give my condolences to the families who lost loved ones due to the continued accidents along I-70, as well as the recent anhydrous incident in Teutopolis that resulted in 5 fatalities. These bills are common sense initiatives… Next spring we will be under construction again, and we need everyone in the room [to work on a solution.] I want to make it very clear that the local Effingham IDOT officials have done a good job. Our frustration is with state administrative officials. Trying to have conversations with state administrative officials regarding issues on I-70 were met with silence. … Everyone in Effingham County will tell you that the accident [involving the anhydrous spill] in Teutopolis was a direct result of construction on Interstate 70. Everyone I talked to said it was only a matter of time. … It is a failure on state administrative officials.”
Senator Rose also emphasized that motorists need to stay off their cell phones when driving through construction zones. Rose said that I-70 is one of the busiest interstates in the country, including one of the busiest for commercial truck traffic.
This legislation prohibits IDOT from placing a parallel secondary transportation route under construction while a primary route is also under construction, except in cases of emergency. In cases of road closures, GPS and navigation service providers will be required to use detours provided by IDOT and ISP to ensure the safest detour routes possible are being sent to motorists in real time. Those providers would be required to have someone on duty 24/7 to receive up-to-date detour and routing information and immediately update the routing in their services. IDOT would also be required to reimburse local governments for damage to local roads caused by detours necessitated by state construction projects.
You can listen to audio from the press conference here:
The hope is that this legislation will prevent future accidents. The Senate Bill is SB 2618, and the House Bill is HB 4182. Both Rose and Niemerg are calling for the General Assembly to take up the new bill during the upcoming spring legislative session.
Comments