A 32-mile stretch of interstate where construction began in June, 2014 to repair the interstate and widen it from two lanes to three lanes in each direction (a $261 million project) has gone hand in hand with a significant increase in crashes during the last year, according to local police, according to an article in the Toledo Blade.

According to statistics, the segment from mile marker 158, just south of Findlay, Ohio, to mile marker 198, near Perrysburg, Ohio, within which the construction is taking place, has experienced an increase in the number of injury crashes and property damage crashes. 

On the northbound stretch, property damage crashes in 2014 were nearly double what they were the year before. This year, as of June 19, injury crashes are equal to what they were for all of 2012.

“You see a lot of drivers who are going into the work zone without slowing down,” said John Carr, a construction worker who has worked on I-75, “with disregard to the barrels and lane closures.”

Many of the I-75 construction areas require work crews to eliminate shoulders and make traffic lanes more narrow. 

“As you can notice,” said a police officer, “there’s not much room for error.”

Source: The Toledo Blade