WORK ZONE WOES

Negotiating the proliferating number of highway work zones can be frustrating for drivers. Conducting highway construction or maintenance work in the middle of onrushing traffic is hazardous for workers, but the process poses serious dangers for drivers, too. According to statistics, both passenger-car and truck drivers alike sustain far more fatalities than members of work zone crews. Transportation planners are seeking to serve safety and mobility better by making projects more efficient, by finding ways to better inform drivers of specific work that is under way, and by helping drivers take alternate routes. State transportation departments are turning to better signs--ones with changing messages that warn about roadwork ahead only when roadwork really is ahead, and signs that are placed sufficiently close to the work zone so that the driver does not forget about the problem by the time he or she reaches it.