After spending 2 years in the construction industry, I've seen dozens of incidents where pedestrians could have gotten hurt if they hadn't been paying as much attention. Sometimes our construction sites get in the way of your everyday lives. But you need to realize the safety precautions we have to take to keep us - as well as all the pedestrians and motorists - safe. Here are some words of advice for any time you are near a construction site.
Don't walk or drive into a construction site.
Seems pretty simple. But you would be amazed how many people just waltz through traffic cones or a fence adorned with a "No Trespassing - Construction Zone" sign. Last summer I was monitoring traffic while a paving company put in a new parking lot. Their work area was surrounded by a metal construction fence. A co-worker and I were stationed at the opening in the fence to stop traffic if needed while dump trucks were entering and leaving through the fence.
All went well for most of the day. Until near the end of the day, the paving crew was almost finished and started rolling the blacktop.The fence remained open so the roller could reach all edges. Despite 2 construction workers standing at the opening, plus traffic cones, a woman in a vehicle drove straight into the newly blacktopped area. The roller operator, my co-worker, and I all had to yell at her to stop and leave immediately. It was an active construction zone! Was that not obvious?
Just a few days ago, I saw a construction site in a park. A small paving crew was digging up an old walkway and building a new walkway. It was a small work area and they had it surrounded by traffic cones. A few pieces of equipment were parked within the work zone. Since it's summer, the park was full of little kids and their parents. In one hour, I counted over 2 dozen children and parents walk right through the traffic cones, straight through the work zone, over the new pathway the guys were digging, and into another section of the playground. Again, it wasn't that big of a work zone.
The guys were digging only 20 feet of walkway. People could have easily walked around the cones instead of walking in front of a moving skid loader. At one point, a woman meandered through the work zone, looking down at her phone, not even paying attention to wear she was walking. She stopped in the middle of the new pathway to scroll through her phone. The skid loader had to stop and wait for her to come back to reality and get out of the way. It was infuriating to watch. This woman was that careless. On a better note, I did overhear one young boy tell his mother that the traffic cones mean they can't walk their and they need to go around the work zone. Thank goodness! Bonus points to that boy!
It's not that hard to stay out of construction sites. Just walk around them. Drive around them. Not through them.
Give us our space and be patient.
Doing traffic control isn't fun. We're all in a hurry in the morning. We all have to get to work. And we all get a little impatient when something inconveniences us in our travels. But if a construction worker or flagger has to stop traffic for any reason, please obey and be patient. You're not making matters any easier when you blow through the stop sign, lay on the horn, or yell at any of the workers. We are doing our best to get our equipment off the road (or whatever it is we're doing) and keep traffic moving efficiently.
Last fall I was doing traffic control while my company unloaded a piece of equipment from a trailer parked on a narrow road and moved it onto the job site. While I had traffic stopped, one impatient driver drove his car into the opposite lane thinking he could sneak around my stop sign. To his dismay, the equipment was blocking both lanes of the road and he had to stay put in the wrong lane, looking like a fool. Had traffic been moving in the opposite direction, that man would have caused a car accident.
That was just one of many incidents with impatient drivers. When construction workers are on the road, give us our space and give us our time. We don't want to get hit by your car. We don't want our equipment to collide with your car. And we don't want to listen to your complaining or incessant honking.
Keep your kids close.
We all know how kids are. They often run wild wherever they want. They don't always pay attention to their surroundings. That's where parents are supposed to come in. Especially near construction sites. Workers and equipment are constantly moving about and kids with too much freedom could quickly cause a hazard if unattended. Parents need to hold their hands, keep a close eye on them, teach them to slow down and walk around the site, or just put them on a leash. My roommate was a leash kid and she turned out fine.
Again, in that park with all the kids running through the work zone, parents made no effort to walk their kids out around the traffic cones. Kids continually ran back and forth, forcing the skid loader operator to constantly look behind him and make sure he wasn't a danger to anybody in his work zone. Had it been my job site, I would have notified those parents and their wild kids that they were trespassing and causing safety concerns.
Please keep your kids close when you're in the vicinity of a construction site. Teach them to be respectful of the workers.
Stay off your phones!
I can't stress this one enough. Walking around and looking down at your phone will get you hurt and in trouble. Just like when you walk down the sidewalk, looking at your phone, and almost walk in front of a car (whose driver is probably also looking at their phone)... You could almost walk in front of or behind a piece of equipment and get hit. If not, you could get the scare of your life.
Again, in that park the other day, the woman was meandering through the work zone and looking down at her phone. If the skid loader operator has to stop working to accommodate your phone addiction, you should know there is a problem and you need to put your phone away. You're being a safety hazard. Pay attention. Be aware of your surroundings. Stay off your phone.
Please be respectful.
As construction workers, our job isn't always easy. We have a lot of safety precautions to take, for our own safety as well as those around us. We constantly have to idiot-proof our job sites in case inconsiderate trespassers find their way into our work area. Have some respect, give us our space, give us our time, and keep a distance from our work area.
