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| IDOT Marks Earth Day With Knox County Tree Planting |
A Galesburg-area resident who's in charge of the local Illinois Department of Transportation Region says something done Wednesday morning in Knox County is symbolic of the efforts the entire department has undertaken to try and go green.
District 4 of IDOT planted a tree at the Spoon River Rest Area in rural Knox County to mark Earth Day -- and Operations Engineer Shane Larson says the tree-planting is really the latest in a long line of initiatives his crews have done to help the environment.
Larson tells WGIL much of that work may go unnoticed, but is still very important. "We do a lot of recycling at the department," Larson said. "We really work to get trees and wildflowers and prairie grasses incorporated into a lot of our construction projects."
Larson tells WGIL his department recycles more than you might think, using items you see every day. "All the highway signs that you see out along the roadway -- those signs don't last forever. They get damaged. The reflectivity wears off. We recycle all those signs," Larson said. "Generally, approximately 400,000 pounds of aluminum every year is recycled back into new signs."
As for the tree-planting itself, Larson says it just feels good to be able to set a good example. IDOT has a special committee that oversees the department's various green initiatives.
(An Illinois Department of Transportation employee plants the tree at the Spoon River Area along the westbound lanes of Interstate 74 in Knox County Wednesday. Story by Will Stevenson & Dominic Fortini. WGIL News Photo by Dominic Fortini.) |
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| 04 22 09 by Newsroom |
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