ROBERTSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — During this National Work Zone Awareness Week TDOT is encouraging motorists to slow down, especially near the Interstate 65 widening project in Robertson County.
"It's kind of hard to even say anything about it really other than it's crazy and it's scary," said Robertson County resident Yendri Castro.
TDOT is widening the roughly 10-mile stretch of I-65. The project, which started in September of 2021, also has the highest crash rate of any TDOT project in the state.
Yendri Castro was on a road trip with his family through the area.
"[There's] a lot of people on the road, a lot of people merging on and off, especially with the construction, just the slowdowns that come with that," he said.
"In 2022, we experienced over 340 crashes on this particular project alone," said Clay Culwell, Assistant Director of Safety for TDOT. "That's almost twice the next highest project."
Culwell said the large scale of the project and construction restraints are a factor in the crashes, but the biggest culprit is driver behaviors.
"We’re finding that people are driving impaired, they’re driving distracted and, most of all, they’re driving too fast," said Culwell.
With the help of smart work zone technology, TDOT is hoping to curb those crash statistics.
"We have a network of cameras and sensors that are detecting traffic movements to adjust the messages outside the work zone to alert motorists to conditions as they approach the work zone," said Culwell.
Culwell said TDOT is partnering with the Tennessee Highway Patrol to increase law enforcement on the widening project and and other construction sites across the state. But he said the solution may be even more simple.
"If I had one thing, one request to ask to the motorists that travel through all of our work zones, it would be just to slow down," said Culwell.
