More safe tractor trailer parking coming to Southern Illinois highways

Southern Illinois is getting more than $13 million dollars to expand truck parking at two rest areas. The goal is to prevent truckers from having to park on the shoulders and exit ramps of busy interstates.

Congressman Mike Bost announced the federal BUILD grant, which will add stalls at the Fort Massac Rest Area in Massac County near the Kentucky border as well as at the Salt Kettle Rest Area in Vermilion County near the Indiana border.

Bost previously told KMOX's Michael Calhoun the shortage forces drivers into a daily scramble.

"The average driver spends 45 minutes every day on the road looking to try to find a parking spot for the truck, because with the new electronic logbooks, you know when your hours of service are up, so you can't spend a lot of time driving around after those hours of service is up to find a parking spot. You're going to find the first place that you can pull off — to the shoulder, pull off on the off-ramp — because you know good and well that there's already trucks sitting a mile away from every rest area, and every spot full."

The Fort Massac area will grow from 19 truck stalls to as many as 64, and Salt Kettle will get up to 41 new stalls.

Bost cited an Illinois DOT study showing demand for truck parking exceeds the number of spots in the state by 57 percent.

In the 2023 wreck near Highland in the Metro East, where a Greyhound bus left the interstate and hit a parked tractor-trailer, federal investigators later tied the crash to a shortage of truck parking.

"The National Transportation Safety Board released its findings, and basically what it said is exactly what I've been screaming from the rooftop all these years: that America's truck parking shortage had put people at risk. The major contributing factor in the collision between the bus and the tractor-trailer, according to the report — that left three dead and 12 injured — was due to lack of a proper place for the truck to park. Because of that, the driver had to make a decision and park on the off-ramp, like we see so many of them do right now."

He grew up in his family's trucking business before he ran for office.

The head of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says there's currently just one appropriate parking spot for every 11 trucks on the road.