Surveyors create new road safety implement

(One looks like Deral too !)

http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubsectionID=797&ArticleID=39124

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7/19/2010 6:00:00 AM
Surveyors create new road safety implement

Mohave County/Courtesy -- Mohave County Public Works employees Francis Chavez (left), a welder, and Jason Foose, assistant county surveyor, pose in front of a newly designed, low-cost mobile warning sign that will improve safety for motorists and county employees. Foose and his coworkers in the county’s Surveying Division designed the mobile warning device which was then built by Chavez.

KINGMAN - Mohave County surveyors have designed and implemented a mobile warning device that will improve safety and increase productivity, Public Works Director Steven Latoski said.

"The greatest threat to persons working in the roadway is passing traffic," Latoski said. "Recently, Assistant County Surveyor Jason Foose developed an apparatus consisting of a sign and oscillating beacon for the purpose of warning traffic approaching a section of road where a survey crew is conducting field work for a short duration.

"In many cases, a crew may perform work in a specific area for just a few minutes, disengage and perform similar work a short distance away. The time needed to manually set and remove traffic control devices would prove inefficient for the tasks to be completed and cause considerable exposure of staff to passing traffic when deploying and removing devices - signs, cones, etc.

"As a result of the apparatus, staff significantly reduces their exposure to passing traffic while establishing traffic control acceptable under the standards of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for the protection of workers in the roadway and motorists alike," he said.

The design was a collective effort of the Surveying Division staff, Foose said.

"We are continuously concerned with motorists' safety as well as our own," he said. "A survey crew may occupy places within the roadway for short bursts of time and then proceed down the road. Oftentimes we are over the next hill or in the next dip of a rural roadway. Our concern is to let the traveling public know that something out of the ordinary is taking place ahead so they may proceed with caution. This solution efficiently uses the work vehicle as the advance warning device."

The new mobile warning device "fits in a receiver, just like a trailer hitch," Foose said. "Francis Chavez, a county welder, did an outstanding job of fabricating the sign mount and installing the wiring. He brought the division's concept to fruition. He fabricated a 90-degree structure and two clamps to hold a standard road sign. It slides into the hitch at the rear of the work vehicle and plugs into the wiring of the vehicle. There is a warning strobe light on top of the sign. The device also stows away compactly in the work vehicle."

Rural roadways that cross washes or go through rolling hills are always a safety concern, said Foose, who has been a surveyor for 20 years, the last five for Mohave County.

"We park the vehicle on the high vantage point, so although traffic may not be able to see the workers over the next hill, the motorists in both directions can see the warning device in the distance and proceed cautiously," he said. "People who travel rural roads every day oftentimes become accustomed to having the roadway to themselves and don't expect to see anyone in the road. This flashing mobile sign is a low-cost solution to give motorists some advanced warning that road conditions have temporarily changed."