Orange barrels are out along the roadways all year long, now-a-days, and this week the DOT is turning a spotlight onto safety through those areas. Work Zones are temporary. Actions behind the wheel can last forever. That’s the theme of this year’s National Work Zone Awareness Week. Debbie Lazaga takes a closer look.
There’s no such thing as construction season. There, I’ve said it. Workers are out all year long, in rain or snow, sun or even the dark of night! You only need to drive along I-43 or I-894 west of the Mitchell Interchange to experience the latest batch of work zones in our area.
Work zones and highway workers are integral to upgrading and maintaining our transportation system, but it can be dangerous. National Work Zone Awareness Week is an annual reminder that work zone safety continues to be a relevant issue.
This year’s national awareness week theme is ‘respect the zone, so we all get home.’
“Over the past six years, we’ve been working hard to fix the darn roads, and I’m proud that since 2019, we’ve fixed more than 8,600 miles of roads and over 2,000 bridges statewide,” said Gov. Evers. “This good work is only possible thanks to the hard work of our roadside workers who put themselves in potentially dangerous situations day and night to improve our communities and make our roads safer.”
“This year’s work zone safety theme should resonate with all of us; we all want to get home to our loved ones after a workday,” WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman said. “Sadly, 10 people – two construction workers and eight motorists – were killed in Wisconsin work zones last year. They never returned home to their families and it’s an unfortunate reminder that it only takes a momentary distraction to create a deadly situation on the road. We must make smart decisions behind the wheel to keep our highways and work zones safe. Please pay attention, be patient and give space to the workers improving our roads. Your commitment to safe driving can help all of us get home.”
Statewide work zone operations engineer for the DOT, Erin Schwark says, “On average, we have about 300 state highway and bridge improvement projects. So those can include our local projects, municipality projects.”
All of them with their own unique work zone configuration. So folks driving through them need to be on their game paying attention. Luckily, there’s a little help.
Schwark explains, “We have signs on the side of the road alerting motorists. We have drums on the side of the road to try to separate traffic from that work zone. We have concrete barriers out there to add that positive protection to increase the safety of the workers. There’s a lot of things out there. So we want drivers to slow down when they’re in our work zone, put their phones down and pay attention so we can eliminate some of those crashes that may occur in our work zones.”
Preliminary data shows more than 2,150 crashes were recorded in Wisconsin work zones in 2024, resulting in 10 deaths and more than 750 injuries.
From 2020 to 2024, Wisconsin work zones saw more than 10,300 crashes causing 56 deaths and more than 3,600 injuries. This includes drivers and passengers too.
Work zones are temporary. Actions behind the wheel can last forever.
Want to help? Here are a few suggestions from Schwark, “Adhere to the speed limit as they’re going through that work zone. They can watch for changing conditions. In some of our work zones, we do have lane closures. Just want to make sure they’re paying attention and can avoid those rear-end type crashes. And then just eliminate distractions. Make sure you’re not on your phone, you’re not texting, and just make sure you buckle up. Take every safety measure as you would as you’re driving your car.”
On Wednesday, we have “Go Orange Day” as we all wear orange to support work zone safety.
And on Friday, the DOT participates in a moment of silence.
“It’s a big national thing and they do take a moment of silence to recognize all of the fallen workers that have been killed in our work zones and give that moment of silence so they are remembered each year. So think of this week as just a part of the ongoing reminders to keep the work zone workers in mind. And just think about the workers behind there and they all have families or friends that they want to go home to at the end of the day,” says Schwark.
Click here to find out more about the National Work Zone Awareness week.
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