IDOT, trucking group zoning in on safety

PEORIA, Ill. — Driver and worker safety, especially in work zones, means more than a week in April, for the Illinois Department of Transportation and Mid-West Truckers Association.

“One of the things that we are involved with, with IDOT, is our work-zone safety program. Workzone safety week is April 15 through April 19 this year,” said Don Schaefer, president of Mid-West Truckers Association, based in Springfield.

Schaefer said that for the group’s more than 4,000 members in the United States and Canada, driver safety and work-zone safety is an everyday concern. In 2023, 24 people were killed in Illinois work zones.

“We take it as a personal campaign on our part because we are the ones who care about the accidents involving trucks in work zones,” he said.

Omer Osman, Illinois secretary of transportation, agreed with Schaefer that while National Work Zone Safety Week is a way to draw the driving public’s attention to safety in work zones, efforts to make work zones safer for workers and for drivers go on every day.

“We do that in April and we do it across the state with the Illinois State Police and with you guys and others. We do that for one week, and while we get headlines for one week, then it goes away. Our job is to actually make that a daily reminder for everybody,” Osman said.

One major safety concern for the trucking industry is the lack of truck parking along major U.S. roadways, including interstates.

Due to federal laws limiting how long truck drivers can drive before they are required to take a break, the need for truck parking along the nation’s interstates and highways has increased.

The supply of truck parking spaces, at rest stops and truck stops, hasn’t kept pace with the demand.

Osman said one of the construction focuses with the Rebuild Illinois capital program is rebuilding and rehabbing rest areas and adding additional truck parking.

“I know rest areas and parking are an important issue for your members. We recognize that rest areas are critical resources for you and your members and for the state,” he said.

Osman highlighted some planned upgrades to rest areas throughout the state including:

• 34 new stalls and two new buildings at the Trail of Tears rest area on I-57 near Anna, in southern Illinois.

• 32 new stalls at the Railsplitter rest area on I-55 north of Springfield, a project that still is in the design phase and will increase the parking capacity from 56 stalls to 126 stalls.

Osman said one of his focuses is finding ways to increase truck parking capacity at rest areas throughout the state.

“My task to my operations staff is to look at each and every rest area and to expand the parking. At all of them, find a way to expand it,” he said.