Due to a reporter’s error, the mile marker 310 was mistakenly identified as the exit number.
Exit 310 from Interstate 69 onto Goshen Road has been a problem-area for drivers in the last week. There have been four wrecks in the construction zone there in that time span. Each has either slowed or shut down northbound traffic.
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) said it has added more signage to the zone reminding drivers of the 55 mile an hour speed limit, but Allen County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Sergeant Adam Griffith said people are not slowing down.
“It’s 55 miles per hour in that zone,” Griffith said. “I travel that zone everyday, and it’s not a pace where people are going 55 miles an hour. That’s our biggest problem is that people are not slowing down, and they’re not being patient.”
Griffith said law enforcement cannot post officers in the zones because there is not room for them.
“You may not see them stopped in the zone because that creates more of a hazard if we’re shutting down a lane because there is no shoulder in that zone,” he said. “You’ve got the temporary barrier wall, two lanes and then in a lot of places just a guardrail.”
Griffith said instead law enforcement agencies will stop speeding vehicles before or after the construction zone.
In an email to WBOI, INDOT Northeast Indiana Public Relations Director Hunter Petroviak said, “When we have crashes in our work zones we do look into how the work zone is set up and what modifications may or may not need to take place.”
Petroviak said the first step was to add more speed limit signs throughout the construction zone. Griffith estimated that those signs are now posted at every mile instead of at the beginning of the zone.
Petroviak said INDOT echoes the Allen County Sheriff’s Office’s calls for drivers to slow down, saying, “we really need the public to be mindful of work zones and how they’re driving through them. Motorists need to slow down, use extra caution and drive distraction-free in this and all work zones. It’s not only a matter of safety for those working in the construction zones, but also the motoring public.”
INDOT has not commented further on what changes it might make to the work zone in that area.