DOT seeks work zone awareness

Green is usually the color of spring as new plants emerge from the soil — but plenty of orange objects are also being spotted sprouting out of the ground — plastic cones marking road work zones. Iowa D-O-T spokesman Jerry Dickinson says this is “Work Zone Awareness Week” and he has a message for all motorists. Dickinson says to watch the traffic around you and leave plenty of room between you and the car in front of you. Tailgaters, he says, can cause wrecks. Last year, five people were killed in Iowa work zones — all five were drivers or their passengers. Over the last decade, Dickinson says 90-percent of all work zone fatalities statewide were motorists or their passengers. He says work zones are plentiful in 2004 already. He says over a normal season there will be around 500 construction work zones, thousands of maintenance work zones, and that doesn’t include the city and county work zones. Some of the major projects underway include: I-235 in Des Moines, Iowa 60 in northwest Iowa,U.S. 34 and U.S. 218 in southeast Iowa, U.S. 18 and U.S. 218 in northeast Iowa, Iowa 2 in southwest Iowa and U.S. 20 in east central Iowa. For traffic information on-line, surf to “www.511ia.org” or dial 5-1-1.