Police stepping up enforcement near Lafayette Interchange Project

Jefferson City Police are using extra radar coverage this week to step up speed limit enforcement.

Police are looking for speeders in the work zone on Highway 50 near the site of the future Lafayette Interchange.

The special enforcement lasts until Friday.

The speed limit in that area is 35 mph, and penalties could include a $10,000 fine.

The reduced speeds make conditions safer for workers as well as driver, Terry Imhoff, a MoDOT engineer on the Layfayette Interchange project, said Tuesday.

“During all stages of the project, we’ve had workers that are you know within five feet, ten feet of the traveling public,” Imhoff said. “So it’s gotta be a safe condition for them cause they can’t sit there and watch their back all day cause they’re busy working.”

The Highway Patrol says there were more than 5,600 crashes in work zones across the state between 2012 and 2014. More than 20 people were killed in those crashes.

And in Jefferson City, two people have been seriously injured in work zone crashes in the last five years.

The Lafayette Interchange project is half way completed, according to Imhoff. The project is set to be completed by Fall 2016.