Rockford Drivers Are Creatively (And Illegally) Getting Around The South Alpine Bridge Closure
The Alpine Road bridge over Highway 20 has been closed for a better part of a week now.
The closure is preventing drivers traveling south from getting to where they want to go.
There is, however, a detour that has been set up pushing drivers on to Highway 20 to go east a bit and then off on 11th St./US 251.
I've noticed that some drivers aren't interested in going that far out of the way.
Instead, some Rockford drivers have been using the U-turn on Highway 20 to quickly turn around and immediately get off at the Alpine exit going south to get around the detour. The U-turn can be found just a couple hundred feet after getting onto the highway.
That U-turn is a prohibited turnaround for drivers such as myself. Only drivers in emergency vehicles are allowed to use the turnaround.
Besides being illegal, making those kinds of turns on a highway is very dangerous. First, stopping on a highway to make a turn causes those behind you to slam on their brakes which could cause an accident and at best, slow down traffic.
That U-turn, in particular, is very close to the Alpine Road off-ramp, which makes it a popular choice when trying to get around the closure but that could also cause an accident because the flow of traffic getting onto the highway.
Using a prohibited U-turn on a highway to scoot around a road closure is just unsafe. Suck it up, use the detour that's outlined and before you know it, the Alpine Road bridge will be open.
Sweet Lenny is the brand manager of 97ZOK and Operations Manager for Townsquare Media Rockford. Catch him afternoons 3 to 7 on 97ZOK. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and like his page on Facebook.