BELLAIRE — The St. Clairsville post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol will conduct a Problem Site Identification program on Interstate 470 in Belmont County.

The study will take place Monday-Friday of next week and from Feb. 12-16.

The focus of the PSI will be on commercial speed-related, crash-causing violations on the four-lane divided roadway, including speed and following too close. The goal is to reduce the number of crashes by encouraging drivers to reduce their speed and make proper lane changes.

Due to the identified hours of crashes, day and afternoon units will be assigned to work on the interstate between Milepost 1 and Milepost 6. They will be stationed there from 8 a.m. to 5p.m. Monday-Friday. The units working the PSI will work three to four hours a day and five times a week. There are a total of nine officers between the two shifts.

According to a release from the patrol, a year’s worth of data was analyzed, and it was determined that Interstate 470 had a 7% increase in commercial crashes. Several of the crashes have closed the roadways for several hours. The violations were determined to be caused by speed and improper lane changes.