City Allows Contractors to Have Very Substandard, Unsafe work Sone Setups

[Brian556]

The City of Lewisville for some time has been allowing their concrete repair contractor have have very substandard work zone setups. None of them are correct.

Today, on the way home from work, after passing through a major signalized intersection in the left lane, the suv in front of me moved to the right lane, reveling a two-cone taper lane closure right in front of me, with no advanced warning whatsoever. I was barely able to merge without hitting the cones.

I pissed me the F off. I put in a complaint to the city about it.

This contractor does nothing right. Sidewalk sections torn out with no barricades at all. Two-cone tapers. Cones are up to 3 or 4 times too far apart on the tangent (non-taper portion), leaving equipment parked in the closed lane vulnerable to impacts at night. When I worked for TxDOT, we didn't put up with this shit. Our inspector told the contractors to set up their work zone right or they would be shut down.

Just down the same street, in Flower Mound, the dumbbutt contractor that is replacing a gas pipeline has had multiple lane closure signs out for months when the lane is not closed. The also have their work area stretched out too far, with sections not seeing any active work for months at a time, with tons and tons of rented traffic control devices just sitting there idle costing them money.

These are the same cities that ticket people for having their grass too high or peeling paint, but the don't give two fucks about public safety

This brings up another point. All lane closures using rented traffic control devices have arrow boards. All the ones using owned traffic control devices don't. This kind of inconsistency is ridiculous. The MUTCD needs to be updated to require arrow boards for lane closures on all but the lowest volume roads. Tehy are extremely effective, and not having them is unsafe, You cannot see cones over other vehicles. Arrow boards, you can.

In addition to this, the City of Lewisville has failed to fix a malfunctioning signal that I complained about. It is on my way to work, and it skips the southbound movement on Sunday mornings, but not weekdays. I have to run a red light at an intersection with a six-lane arterial just to get to work

[jeffandnicole]

...When I worked for TxDOT...

The icon below your handle indicates your a DOT employee.  Are you still or no?

[UCFKnights]

The City of Lewisville for some time has been allowing their concrete repair contractor have have very substandard work zone setups. None of them are correct.

Today, on the way home from work, after passing through a major signalized intersection in the left lane, the suv in front of me moved to the right lane, reveling a two-cone taper lane closure right in front of me, with no advanced warning whatsoever. I was barely able to merge without hitting the cones.

I pissed me the F off. I put in a complaint to the city about it.

This contractor does nothing right. Sidewalk sections torn out with no barricades at all. Two-cone tapers. Cones are up to 3 or 4 times too far apart on the tangent (non-taper portion), leaving equipment parked in the closed lane vulnerable to impacts at night. When I worked for TxDOT, we didn't put up with this shit. Our inspector told the contractors to set up their work zone right or they would be shut down.

Just down the same street, in Flower Mound, the dumbbutt contractor that is replacing a gas pipeline has had multiple lane closure signs out for months when the lane is not closed. The also have their work area stretched out too far, with sections not seeing any active work for months at a time, with tons and tons of rented traffic control devices just sitting there idle costing them money.

These are the same cities that ticket people for having their grass too high or peeling paint, but the don't give two fucks about public safety

This brings up another point. All lane closures using rented traffic control devices have arrow boards. All the ones using owned traffic control devices don't. This kind of inconsistency is ridiculous. The MUTCD needs to be updated to require arrow boards for lane closures on all but the lowest volume roads. Tehy are extremely effective, and not having them is unsafe, You cannot see cones over other vehicles. Arrow boards, you can.

In addition to this, the City of Lewisville has failed to fix a malfunctioning signal that I complained about. It is on my way to work, and it skips the southbound movement on Sunday mornings, but not weekdays. I have to run a red light at an intersection with a six-lane arterial just to get to work

My county's tree contractor is apparently allowed to close roads or lanes as they're trimming the trees, but has absolutely no requirements on that as well. The other week, they were trimming trees in the median, and had the inside lane closure starting immediately after a dense group of trees, with no arrow board, and a couple of small cones. I almost crashed straight into the workers at that, there was literally no way to see them.

And a few weeks before that, I was turning into a side street from a 6 street divided highway. They put "one lane road ahead" signs on the main road, with no indication it was for a side street, and then when you got there, they had the side street as one lane for both directions, with no flaggers or anyone directing any traffic. So if you wanted to make a right into the side street while someone was getting out, there was just no way to do it, you're stuck in the middle of a highway. And if a car is entering the side road while someone is leaving, there was literally no way to pull off or no, someone would have to back all the way out of the work zone.

Speaking of way too long work  zones, back when they were repaving I-75 in northern Florida, the resurfacing and sign replacement project went on for I believe 120 miles, from the Florida Turnpike terminus to the I-10 interchange. The simple resurfacing project went on for years because of the length, and they seemed to do their usual one lane at a time in one direction, so they had to have uneven pavement signs every couple hundred feet for over a hundred miles. And needless to say it would take well over a month before they were back for the next stage of resurfacing at any individual point on the roadway.

[Brian556]

The City of Lewisville for some time has been allowing their concrete repair contractor have have very substandard work zone setups. None of them are correct.

Today, on the way home from work, after passing through a major signalized intersection in the left lane, the suv in front of me moved to the right lane, reveling a two-cone taper lane closure right in front of me, with no advanced warning whatsoever. I was barely able to merge without hitting the cones.

I pissed me the F off. I put in a complaint to the city about it.

This contractor does nothing right. Sidewalk sections torn out with no barricades at all. Two-cone tapers. Cones are up to 3 or 4 times too far apart on the tangent (non-taper portion), leaving equipment parked in the closed lane vulnerable to impacts at night. When I worked for TxDOT, we didn't put up with this shit. Our inspector told the contractors to set up their work zone right or they would be shut down.

Just down the same street, in Flower Mound, the dumbbutt contractor that is replacing a gas pipeline has had multiple lane closure signs out for months when the lane is not closed. The also have their work area stretched out too far, with sections not seeing any active work for months at a time, with tons and tons of rented traffic control devices just sitting there idle costing them money.

These are the same cities that ticket people for having their grass too high or peeling paint, but the don't give two fucks about public safety

This brings up another point. All lane closures using rented traffic control devices have arrow boards. All the ones using owned traffic control devices don't. This kind of inconsistency is ridiculous. The MUTCD needs to be updated to require arrow boards for lane closures on all but the lowest volume roads. Tehy are extremely effective, and not having them is unsafe, You cannot see cones over other vehicles. Arrow boards, you can.

In addition to this, the City of Lewisville has failed to fix a malfunctioning signal that I complained about. It is on my way to work, and it skips the southbound movement on Sunday mornings, but not weekdays. I have to run a red light at an intersection with a six-lane arterial just to get to work

My county's tree contractor is apparently allowed to close roads or lanes as they're trimming the trees, but has absolutely no requirements on that as well. The other week, they were trimming trees in the median, and had the inside lane closure starting immediately after a dense group of trees, with no arrow board, and a couple of small cones. I almost crashed straight into the workers at that, there was literally no way to see them.

And a few weeks before that, I was turning into a side street from a 6 street divided highway. They put "one lane road ahead" signs on the main road, with no indication it was for a side street, and then when you got there, they had the side street as one lane for both directions, with no flaggers or anyone directing any traffic. So if you wanted to make a right into the side street while someone was getting out, there was just no way to do it, you're stuck in the middle of a highway. And if a car is entering the side road while someone is leaving, there was literally no way to pull off or no, someone would have to back all the way out of the work zone.

Speaking of way too long work  zones, back when they were repaving I-75 in northern Florida, the resurfacing and sign replacement project went on for I believe 120 miles, from the Florida Turnpike terminus to the I-10 interchange. The simple resurfacing project went on for years because of the length, and they seemed to do their usual one lane at a time in one direction, so they had to have uneven pavement signs every couple hundred feet for over a hundred miles. And needless to say it would take well over a month before they were back for the next stage of resurfacing at any individual point on the roadway.

The MUTCD needs to specify the use of an arrow plaque, like the one under route markers, but orange, under orange diamond shaped signs to warn of conditions on intersecting roadways.

Also, if you have to close a lane on a minor street right an intersection with a major street, it is best to make the side street one way in, and detour outbound traffic to another street

...When I worked for TxDOT...

The icon below your handle indicates your a DOT employee.  Are you still or no?

Site Admins put that with may name, I had no say in it. I have not worked for them since 2007. Haven't worked in the road business since 2010. Would have loved to had a career in that business, but unfortunately, that did not work out, because alot of the people I had to deal with on a daily basis were a bunch of low IQ buttheads

[hotdogPi]

Site Admins put that with may name, I had no say in it. I have not worked for them since 2007. Haven't worked in the road business since 2010. Would have loved to had a career in that business, but unfortunately, that did not work out, because alot of the people I had to deal with on a daily basis were a bunch of low IQ buttheads

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