ILLINOIS HIGHWAY WORKERS ON JOB EARLIER IN THE DAY

"Warning, men at work."

Motorists in Illinois will see these signs earlier in the day.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is alerting motorists that highway maintenance workers are now working summer hours, which means crews will start work at 6:30 a.m.

Crews will continue to work these hours until Sept. 15, a transportation department spokesman said Friday.

"Motorists should be aware that highway patching, roadside mowing and other maintenance activity will start earlier and could be encountered during the morning commute," said the spokesman. "Motorists should be aware of this in keeping with the summer work schedule."

The early-morning alert was issued Friday, a day after three construction workers were killed at a construction site south of Gorham, Ill., along Route 3. A fourth worker suffered minor injuries when a motorist crashed into them at about 7:50 a.m. Thursday.

The men were struck as they worked on a bridge crossing when a station wagon veered off the road. The driver, Roosevelt Wilson Lindsey, 47, of Jonesboro, Ill., was charged with reckless driving, improper lane usage and a violation relating to driving near a construction zone.

Killed were Ray Morgan, 54, of Anna, Ill.; David Allen Rye, 36, of Murphysboro, Ill.; and Richard T. Sills, 28, of Beech Bluff, Tenn. The injured worker, Richard Pengress, 29, of Anna, was treated at St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Murphyhsboro and released.

Wilson posted bond for the tickets and was released.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Department said Lindsey was southbound when he drove off the side of the road. He was unable to regain control of his car as he continued along the shoulder then along the bridge rail, where it hit the workers.

Highway worker accidents have increased over the years, with as many as 880 deaths having been reported nationwide in 1994. The summer months are busy times for highway workers.

In Illinois, the Department of Transportation will issue bids on more than 250 new road and bridge improvements in the near future, including a number of projects in Southern Illinois.

This will include 4.9 miles of bituminous overlay and other miscellaneous work on the Egyptian School Road from Route 3 at Olive Branch to Route 945. Also included in the latest round of bids is 2.5 miles of bituminous resurfacing on Tick Ridge Road form Highway 37 in Pulaski County.

A larger project in Alexander County is the seismic retrofitting of the superstructures on the dual bridges of Interstate 57 over Route 3 and the Illinois Central Railroad north of Cairo, and cleaning and painting of those I-57 structures.