A work zone is a conversation with somebody going too fast who would rather be somewhere else. You get a few seconds of his attention, and everything out there, every sign, cone and light, is built to use those seconds well. That's the whole trade. Here's how it goes, as plain as I can put it, from a man who has set out a few thousand miles of it.

WHY ORANGE

Every state follows a federal book called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. We just call it the MUTCD, or the Manual. It covers every sign, signal and stripe on a public road, and one part of it covers temporary traffic control, which is the Manual's way of saying work zones. That part sets orange as the color for work zone signs: black letters or a black symbol on an orange background.

The same book puts ordinary warnings, the kind that stay up for years, like a sharp curve or a deer crossing, on yellow. So the color tells a driver something before he can read a single word. Yellow means pay attention. Orange means pay attention, this is temporary, and there are people out there today.

The word that matters in the name is uniform. A fellow from Ohio driving across Missouri knows what our signs mean because they're the same as his. Nobody gets to invent his own.

THE ORDER OF THINGS

A driver coming up on a job meets the signs in order. First a general one, ROAD WORK AHEAD, a good way back, so he knows something's coming. Then the specific ones: which lane is closed, a flagger ahead, whatever applies. Then the work itself, with the cones and drums guiding him through. And at the far end, a sign that says END ROAD WORK, so he knows he's out of it and can get back to his business.

FLAGGERS

The flagger has the hardest job on the crew and the most dangerous one. Orange vest, hard hat, and a paddle on a pole that says STOP on one side and SLOW on the other. A good flagger stands off to the side where drivers can see him from a long way back, never out in the lane, and makes every signal big and plain. He's also watching every car to make sure it actually stops, and he knows which way he's going to jump if one doesn't.

When one lane of a two-lane road is closed, traffic has to take turns on the lane that's left, so you need a flagger at each end, and they have to agree on who's sending cars through. These days they talk by radio. On a long stretch we'll put a pilot car in front to lead the line through. When I started, there were no radios on my crew. We'd hand the last driver in line a flag and ask him to give it to the flagger at the other end, and when the flag arrived, that fellow knew the last car was through and it was his turn.

I've lost count of the near misses. I haven't lost a flagger, and I thank God for that every season.

CONES AND DRUMS

Cones and drums are what the Manual calls channelizing devices. They're there to steer. Cones go out for the shorter jobs, because they go out and come back on the truck fast. The orange and white drums go out for the long jobs and the interstate. When I started, a lot of those drums were old steel barrels painted orange. Now they're plastic, so a car that hits one keeps going and so does the driver, which is the point.

To close a lane, we set them out in a taper, a long diagonal line that moves traffic over a little at a time. The faster the road, the longer the taper, because nobody can slide over a whole lane in a few feet at highway speed. And the devices carry reflective bands, so the line shows up in your headlights at night.

ARROW BOARDS

That's the big panel of lights on a trailer or on the back of a truck. When we close a lane on a divided highway, it sits at the start of the taper and flashes an arrow pointing the way traffic needs to merge. You can see it from a long way back, well before you can read any sign, and that's its whole job. When the work is out on the shoulder and nobody has to change lanes, we set it to caution, which shows no arrow at all, just lights that say "heads up." An arrow board pointing the wrong way is about the worst piece of equipment you can put out, and I've seen it done. Not on my crews. Not twice, anyway.

BARRICADES

Barricades close things. You'll see them across a closed road, at the end of a ramp, around a hole. The stripes on the rails slope down toward the side drivers are supposed to pass on, so even the paint is giving directions. Some carry a warning light on top, like Exhibit 2 in the other room. A barricade is the one piece of equipment that means "no," and it ought to be used only where you mean no.

THE SHORT VERSION

Drive careful through the work zones this fall. Some of those people out there are mine.

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