Its not safe.
I'd never set up that close to the road when there is plenty of room off the edge of the gravel shoulder. I'd also set those cones down the road 50 to 100 feet to give the cars a chance to hit the cones before the instrument. It's just not worth the chance. I'd be pi$$ed off if I saw my crew set up that close to the road. It's not just the crews life either. This could cause an accident by someone not noticing until last minute and over correcting right into on coming traffic.
The shoulder ain't no place to be...it's hardly EVER really safe to be there.
That driver hauling that mobile home isn't expecting a surveyor to be on the shoulder. On the same token, that surveyor never expected a trailer house to come up the road.
I see PLENTY of room, down in the grass. I had a Static observation GPS L-1, LOCUS run over. It was ACROSS a ditch, and the guy came for it. (magnetized!)
Be careful.
N
Those cracks you see in pavement are from expansion and contraction. That means the asphalt pavement moves which means your PK nails are moving.
You would be better off sinking a rebar on level ground away from the edge of pavement.
You might cite the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for proper signage on your jobs. http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/
Who knows when OSHA might pay a visit?
I got it.
You'll be fine.
As long as you don't get hit.
As long as nothing falls off a car or truck.
As long as you don't get hurt. Or die.
O! I left out the MOST important thing.
The instrument **might** get hit, or knocked over.
(tell boss you are concerned for the inst!)
N
That's just way to close to the road for my comfort and there should be more cones at least 50 feet apart. You only need cones on the side of the oncoming traffic, there is no point to have a cone past the instrument. If I only had 2 cones to work with, one would have been on the shoulder line about 150 feet away and the other about 50 feet away at least several feet into the road, and my vest would have been on the instrument. I bet your head was shifting back and forth on that setup.
FAIL
Here in New Zealand that setup would only just be acceptable alongside a low-volume ( <120vpd ) road.
And even then, for all the reasons given above, I would not be happy with it.
Maybe 10 years ago I read a very interesting news report involving a flatbed truck, a bucket full of something and a highway patrol car. The highway patrol car was following a certain distance behind a semi as the semi met the flatbed truck. The bucket and its contents were hit by the air currents off the semi and shot up into the air and came down onto the hood and through the windshield of the car. The good news was that it went through the passenger side half of the windshield and there was no passenger. The driver of the flatbed truck didn't know anything had happened until a very excited highway patrolman chased him down while trying to drive at high speed with virtually no windshield.
smitty, post: 361007, member: 11387 wrote: I was an instrument person today on a three man crew. My boss out in the field today was setting traverse points alongside state route 78 today here in ny. this route has steady traffic with plenty of tractor trailers. I don't want to be a whiner but I feel uncomfortable being only a couple feet away from big rigs and cellphone drivers. the benefit of having control in the pavement is nice, easy to find and generally doesn't move until they repave. my boss doesn't seem to act like there is a safety risk and usually does this on every job. Am I just being a pu#$y about this? look at the pictures and let me know what you think. I didn't wanna say anything because I mostly just wanna shut-up and do my job. I attached a couple pictures of the setup.
I'll admit I've had plenty of similar setups in the past, and you could probably get away with it in my area, but it's not safe. There's plenty of room to get out of the road on that setup. If the boss is worried about control being damaged in the dirt, he could set some reference points on the edge of pavement for emergency use, but they still shouldn't be occupied. I would not set up on a point like that again, and I like to think it's because I'm getting smarter as I get older.
I know. Boss been "doin it that fer years".
Trouble is,
More distractions for drivers, and more idiot drivers.
More methamphetamine, more cell phones.
More broken lives. Even folks with sex changes. They take drugs for that. The general populace is stressed more.
Those buzz strips get used. Accidents would be up without them. Just watch afternoon tv. (no more than 5 mins worth...) and realize these folks drive....
Be safe.
You may want to considering working for someone who cares about your safety. I question his intelligence.
Seems pretty oldschool....like setting up on the old CL x CL PKs. I've had to do stuff like that before, but always hated it. Just get off the road especially if you have room. From what I can see in the pic, there is no reason that you have to be in the road, so you're just asking for trouble and taking unnecessary risks. Whenever it was up to me I got off the road, and now that it's always up to me, and I'm never set up in the road.
Also, why are the cones so close to the gun? You need bigger ones, more of them, and space them way out. On a road like that the first one should be a few hundred feet up from where you are set up to give ample warning.
Three words - NO EFFING WAY!!! As others have said:
- Get off the pavement, it's both unsafe and unstable.
- I'd put out an absolute minimum of four cones, starting about 100' back
- I'd have a 3x3 Survey Crew Ahead sign about 200' back
- I'd have the truck parked at least 25' back with the flashers on, blocking anything from entering the shoulder
Louisiana DOTD has code for all of this, I don't know the letter of it but our Party Chiefs know the minimums. Our safety guy would fire a party chief for that setup in a heartbeat.
