By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Highway officials are crediting steel guard cables for drastically cutting the number of fatal cross-over traffic crashes on interstate highways.
The number of cross-over traffic deaths dropped from 55 in 2006 to just two last year, after nearly 500 miles of median guard cables were installed along interstates 70, 44, 55 and 29.
MODOT spokesman Jeff Briggs says they're not cheap...installing the median guard cables costs 100-thousand dollars per mile.
"Funding for any kind of highway improvements is always a challenge...there are so many needs in the state...guard cable is a wonderful benefit and a great investment, as this dramatic drop in fatalities shows us," Briggs said.
More median guard cables are set to be installed along another stretch of I-55, from Sikeston to just north of Cape Girardeau.
Briggs says some non-interstate highways will also receive the guard cables. Workers are scheduled to install them in the median of U.S. Highway 67 between Festus and Fredericktown sometime this year.