Tx-Dot Is Reminding Motorists To Drive Safely In Road Construction

This week is Work Zone Awareness week, and the Texas Department of Transportation is asking drivers to be considerate of road workmen, and slowdown when driving through road construction.

Unfortunately, automobile accidents are not only common in work zones, but they are on the rise as well.  According to Tx-Dot, last year there were more than 26,000 wrecks in Texas, on roads that were under construction.  In fact, more than 200 people died in work zones, because they were either distracted or speeding.

With people from across the country moving to Texas, traffic has increased considerably in almost every city.  To help ease these congestion problems, Tx-Dot is expanding highways across the state to handle the addition congestion.  Unfortunately, this means that there’s more road construction, and work zones across our freeways.  While work crews are working as fast as they can, it can take several months or even years to complete some of these highways’ construction projects.

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Wichita Falls is no exception either.  In addition to the road and ramp closures on Kell Freeway/US-82, and US-287, now the US-287/I-44 elevated highway is closed after an accident involving a semi-truck damaged the highway.  Fortunately, last Friday the Tx-Dot signed a contract to begin repairs on the elevated freeway.  According to Tx-Dot, the highway is scheduled to be reopened in three weeks.

Even though road construction can be annoying and add extra time to your daily commute, let’s be considerate of the hard-working construction crews, and slowdown when driving through work zones.  Besides, you don’t want to receive a speeding ticket, or get into an accident and possibly hurt someone.