BETTENDORF, Iowa — The Illinois Department of Transportation closed down several lanes on the I-74 Bridge on Monday, Oct. 31, causing a traffic jam.
The reason was to paint new lines on the road to improve safety.
Illinois State Police will use the new lines, or 'hash marks', to help track speeding cars.
Spotters in aerial units can watch how long it takes for a car to pass from mark to mark and estimate its speed. They can then relay information to patrol units on the road, which can initiate a stop from a safer location.
"We found it to be very dangerous to actually sit on the bridge, and it's very difficult to run radar or any other speed detection device on the ground there," Illinois State Police Trooper Jason Wilson said. "So putting the aircraft in the air - it keeps us off of the bridge, allows our officers to pick a better spot to make a stop."
ISP said they don't plan on having aerial patrols out every day, but the new markings were made in response to increased complaints of speeding on the bridge.
"It's not so much in response to crashes that have happened - it's actually about trying to prevent crashes in the future," Trooper Wilson said. "What we want to make sure is that we don't have a problem with crashing - especially with the winter months coming up."
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Trooper Wilson reminded the public that the bridge's speed limit is 55 miles per hour for a good reason.
"Yes, the bridge is brand new - yes, it is a very well-maintained bridge, and there are wide open lanes," he added. "With that said, there's traffic density, there's population density that was taken into consideration when traffic engineers put the speed limit in place. The speed limit's there for everybody's safety. It's not just a hindrance to someone - it's specifically designed to make sure that we're able to keep everybody safe all the time.
ISP said aerial units will be prioritized for high-speed chases, tracking fleeing suspects and other critical responses over monitoring for speeding.
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