 April 14, 2024
 |
|
Follow us on Twitter @WSDOT_North for real-time information. |
Work Zone Awareness emphasizes the importance of slowing down, paying attention and practicing caution in work zones.
 This past week we had another day with multiple work zone collisions. This time we had THREE collisions in just ONE hour. This has to STOP. With the nice weather, crews will be more active in work zones, remember:
🐌 Slow down
👀Pay attention
📵 Remove distractions
While every month should be work zone awareness month, during the month of April, we do our best to share our crews' stories. Please read their stories, listen to our crews and please make behavior changes if needed.
 When drivers see orange signs, cones and an attenuator on the side of the freeway, it might be obvious that we have crews working to improve our transportation system. Other work zones we have may not be as obvious, like our Incident Response Team tending to the scene of a crash or crews driving snowplows during a winter storm.
Chris Clarke is a highway maintenance lead in east Snohomish County and has worked for WSDOT for nine years. Two winters ago, Chris was involved in a collision on US 2 while plowing snow.
With several mountain passes closed because of a big snowstorm, more cars were using US 2 for cross-state travel and Chris says the traffic was heavy that day. He was plowing westbound on US 2 near Index when a semi-truck heading eastbound began to slow down. The driver of an SUV behind the semi hadn't slowed down or allowed extra space between vehicles. She steered to the left to avoid rear-ending the semi and instead crashed into Chris's plow head on. Thankfully, neither Chris nor the driver were severely injured, but the driver's SUV was damaged.
According to the Washington State Patrol, the top reason for work zone collisions in 2023 was following too closely. Second and third place were excessive speed and distracted driving. All three of these reasons are entirely preventable.
Continue reading here...
People throw garbage out the window, without a care.
Covering the medians, roadways, spaces we share.
To stop the litter, what, what can we do?
Well, the answer starts with you.
PREVENT litter by securing your load,
and disposing garbage before hitting the road.
Sick of seeing the ghastly sights?
VOLUNTEER to make it right.
 Besties, we're hearing more complaints about roadside litter. Oh, we hear you and we are equally frustrated.
WSDOT and the Department of Ecology together spend millions annually on litter cleanup efforts. In 2021 and 2022, together they spent approximately $12 million per year, an expensive endeavor.
Given all the other maintenance needs and duties, WSDOT does not have regular, dedicated litter crews on regular shifts, nor the funding to create them, which is why our partnerships with agencies, communities and the public are so important.
Roadside litter is a constant problem that is unsightly, distracts from the beauty of our state and can pose safety and environmental concerns to the traveling public, nearby businesses and property owners. We all have a part to play in keeping Washington beautiful and litter free.
We all play a part in keeping Washington beautiful and litter free, and we need the public to:
- Properly cover and tie down all loads, on all trips.
- Keep trash and debris securely gathered in vehicles until you reach home, so it doesn’t fall out or fly out of vehicles. Ecology provides free litter bags that are available for pick up at Fred Meyer locations throughout the year in Washington state.
- Properly dispose of all trash; do not dump it at rest areas, parking lots or other land.
- Instead use trash cans at fueling sites or carry trash home and properly dispose.
- Share litter prevention messages with friends and family.
- If able, consider creating an Adopt-a-Highway group to join the valuable
Dealing with litter is a costly issue on Washington roads. Addressing the problem requires partnerships with many agencies and organizations – and the traveling public also have an important role to play – by stopping litter from reaching roadways in the first place.
Reminder: Littering is illegal under Washington state law.
We often have special events and roadwork taking place in the Northend including construction projects, maintenance and repairs. We always try to minimize any effects to travel, but sometimes it is necessary to close a lane to do the work or create a safe work zone for our crews.
While we aren't out doing a lot of roadwork this week, our crews will still be out monitoring and keeping the roads safe. If you spot them, slow down and give them space to work! A huge thanks to our crews for all of their hard work through the holidays.
Want more information? Visit our real time travel center, where these projects and repairs can be found on our travel map and download our app to receive alerts directly to your smartphone.
|
Monday, April 15 to Friday April 19
Monday, April 15
Tuesday, April 15 to Friday, April 19
Wednesday, April 17
|
