I-4 Ultimate workers ask distracted drivers to pay attention for safety

If you’ve ever driven along Interstate 4, you know that it can seem like a completely different highway because of road construction. We decided to see how crews work as drivers continue to use the highway at night time as drivers still use the highway.

Driving on I-4 is a maze of twists, turns, and obstacles and when the sun goes down, the risks go up but imagine working on the side of that so-called roller coaster.  According to a report from SGL, the contractor for the I-4 Ultimate Project, there have been around three worker injuries reported since 2015.

Ricardo Gonzalez is an Environmental Health and Safety Manager with SGL and says he has seen it all. 

"People driving, not respecting the speed limits and texting and driving. That’s very dangerous...we see it all the time."
 
Gonzalez says weekend drivers are the worst. According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), people go faster because there is not as much traffic on the weekends, and at times, they have been partying.

"They go through the lane closures and they knock off the cones," Gonzalez adds.

He is talking about cones like these to block off construction work zones. FHP Troopers say construction vehicles usually end up being the target, rather than workers.

"We try to put the proper controls in place before we place our employees into the line of traffic," says Gonzalez. "We try to give warnings to drivers in advance so we know when to expect lane closures."

Crews say there are 42 cranes like on the project and some of them go as high as 200 feet even in the dark. As they maneuver oversized equipment, workers do what they can for protection.
 
FHP spokesperson Kim Montes says if more drivers were going the speed limit, it would cut down a third of crashes. She says distracted drivers put workers at risk.

"Those construction workers, that’s they’re work area, that’s their office and they are vulnerable ss a pedestrian if these drivers aren’t paying attention, doing what they need to do," Montes says.

Five workers have been killed on I-4 Ultimate Project since it started back in 2015.  Those deaths have been blamed on construction mishaps, not drivers.  Gonzalez says one injury is one too many.

"Distracted driving puts our people in danger and we ask people to be more conscious when driving in work zones."

The project is expected to be finished in another year-and-a-half.