National Work Zone Awareness Week

It happens all too often. Each year, motorists and highway construction crews lose their lives or are injured in work zone related wrecks.

In 2010, there were 100 fatalities in Texas work zones.

Two of those were in the Beaumont District. The good news is the numbers are dropping. In 2008, 165 people lost their lives in Texas work zones. In 2009, that number dropped to 108. While less people are killed in work zone wrecks, it's still too many.

Next week kicks off National Work Zone Awareness Week. April 23-27 focuses on driving safely through work zones. The goal is to bring awareness to the fact that driving through a highway construction zone means paying attention to workers, equipment and stopped vehicles.

The video above, put together by several highway construction and safety groups, starts off with a clip showing what can happen in a work zone.

Safe Driving, Marc S.

Prepping the Neches

TxDOT is about to kick off one of the Beaumont District's most talked about projects.

Later this fall, workers will get down to replacing the I-10 Neches River Bridge (Purple Heart Memorial) in Beaumont. The project includes replacing the entire bridge with a new one much like the Trinity River Bridge on I-10 in Chambers County.

But before any major work begins, crews must make sure the current bridge's riding surface can take the brunt of more than 70,000 cars and trucks traveling the bridge every single day.  TxDOT bridge inspectors spent Wednesday checking out locations where any potholes could occur during the project. That's important because half of the bridge will handle all east and westbound traffic while workers remove the other half. The last thing TxDOT, the contractor and you, the motorist, want is a pothole on the bridge. That means really long delays while workers make repairs.

Making sure the riding surface is smooth and free from any potential problems means a quick and relatively hassle-free commute during the project.

As for the project itself, workers don't expect to tackle the bridge until later this fall. And when work gets underway, there will still be two lanes of traffic eastbound and two lanes of traffic westbound.

Safe driving,
Marc S.