ARTBA Supports National Work Zone Awareness Week & National Stand Down Events

ARTBA participated in the April 11-15 National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) and concurrent 3rd Annual National Stand Down to Prevent Struck-by Incidents. The events took on added urgency with the expected proliferation of 4,000 new work zone sites related to the increased federal highway and bridge investment levels of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Awareness Week is held every April to raise attention to the hazards posed to workers, motorists, and pedestrians when navigating roadway construction zones. This year’s theme ‘Work Zones are a Sign to Slow Down’ was developed by the Virginia Department of Transportation, who hosted the kick-off in Hampton Roads, Virginia (photo above), near the site of a $3.7 billion road/bridge/tunnel project—the largest transportation project in the state’s history.

Buddy League, president of Branscome, Inc., a COLAS company, was ARTBA’s official representative at the kickoff.

This week is all about ‘a combination of people that are aware of work zonesÉ aware of our workersÉ VDOT workersÉ state police in those work zones,’ League said. ‘It’s a cooperative effort. Our people can be as safe and as aware as they need to be in those work zones, but it doesn’t matter if we have a driver that’s going too fast or a driver that’s looking at their phone or distracted in some other way. That puts everybody’s life in jeopardy.’

ARTBA Senior Vice president of Safety and Education Brad Sant and Creative Director Matt Moore also toured the project and participated in the media event. ARTBA is a member of the NWZAW Executive Committee, which helps plan each year’s national event. The ARTBA-managed National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse is the official printer and distributor of thousands of posters that help organizations across the country participate in the event.

National Stand Down

ARTBA and its safety allies hosted the National Stand Down to Prevent Struck-by Incidents webinar series in English and Spanish for nearly 500 attendees. The webinars highlighted the public health dangers and discussed strategies for significantly reducing the number of ‘struck-by’ incidents of workers at transportation project sites.

Sant moderated the April 11 kick-off webinar presented by nationally recognized safety leaders including speakers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and departments of transportation from the states of Connecticut and Virginia. Robinson Vasquez, ARTBA’s safety and training manger, led the same-day Spanish-language session, which also focused on keeping workers safe during roadway construction operations. That session included respected leaders from FHWA, Florida International University, and the University of Puerto Rico, MayagŸez.

View all the recorded webinars.

The webinars were a partnership of ARTBA with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR).