IDOT: Cape T safety changes years away

The Illinois intersection of highways 146 and 3 is considered by some state officials to be dangerous, even deadly, but changes to make it safer could be years away.

"Funding has been an issue," said Kevin Grammer, operation engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation District 9, which covers the state's 13 southernmost counties.

In 2003, the intersection, referred to as the Cape T by state transportation and area law enforcement agencies, was placed on Illinois' high accident location list and flashing lights leading up to and at the intersection were erected. And while the number of accidents have gone down, Grammer said there is more that could be done.

In 2005, there were only five accidents, two with injuries, and so far this year there have been three, one a fatal from earlier this month, according to Illinois State Police trooper Dale Poole.

But Grammer said the intersection's accident history does not match up with the type of location it's in -- flat and high visibility down the roads.

The intersection has "a bad enough history we should be looking at what we can do," he said.

A plan is on the books to make the intersection, located east of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, safer, but the funding is some time off, according to Grammer.

Recently, IDOT secured a $1.5 million federal grant for the project, he said. The total estimated cost of the project is $6 million.

In the plan, the two-lane Highway 146 would widen into four lanes from the bridge all the way to the intersection with Highway 3, Grammer said.

The project would also include improving the right-turn lane from southbound Highway 3 to Highway 146. The new southbound lane would start sooner and have a broader sweep from the highway, similar to an exit ramp, Grammer said.

As the lane turns into Highway 146, cars would not be forced to merge left as the lane would become the second westbound lane on the highway, Grammer said.

This would reduce sideswiping accidents, one of the more frequent accidents at the location, he said. The sideswipe occurs when a northbound vehicle turns left at the same time a southbound vehicle turns right onto Highway 146. As both vehicles are turning into the same lane, they collide.

With the second westbound lane, each vehicle would have its own lane to turn into, Grammer said.

Poole sees the additional lanes as a good idea considering the volume of traffic the roadway receives, and hopes a plan is considered to extend four lanes past the intersection.

"The numbers are there to warrant four lanes all the way from Cape to Anna," Ill., he said. "It's just a high traffic flow road."

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127