COAL VALLEY, Illinois — A 3-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 6 between Glenwood Road and the Interstate 80 on ramp has drivers in the area wondering what went wrong. There is paint overspray along the centerline - expanding more than a few feet in some areas.
"Basically, what happened is, we got caught in the rain the paint had not quite dried yet so it kind of just ran or bled a little big across the pavement," said Trisha Thompson, Operations Engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation.
She said the forecast called for 20% chance of rain and that was good enough to go ahead and paint.
"We're trying to get as much done as we can through the months we can actually paint, so with that when we have 20% chance of rain we're still going to attempt to get paint on the ground," said Thompson.
Thompson said she had not yet been to the area to inspect the paint job. She said IDOT would be inspecting the stretch of road to determine whether or not the paint overspray needs to be fixed.