The Connecticut Department of Transportation is using another new tool to protect the safety of the hundreds of workers on state roads every day and drivers need to take note.
Automated Flagger Assistance Devices are now on the roads in work zones across the state.
This technology will take the place of road workers who hold the the “stop” or “slow” signs when road work is taking place, according to the agency. The automated flagger device uses traffic lights and a safety bar that is controlled by a DOT worker on a tablet, who is a safe distance away and out of the roadway, according to the agency.
When traffic is signaled to stop, the safety bar will come down and the light will turn red. Then, when it’s safe to proceed, the bar then comes up and the lights will turn yellow and flash for the driver to continue through the work zone safely.
The devices started to be used in late June and now are used during daytime hours and on secondary roadways.
CTDOT spokesperson Eva Zymaris said this change is being done for the safety of the state’s road workers. Eight devices have been deployed at work zones around the state to date. There are four work districts in the state and each district has two devices.
“The results so far have been really positive, so we’ll be keeping testing these devices and hopefully expand the program in the future,” Zymaris said.
The DOT unveiled the new technology at the DOT’s maintenance garage in Wethersfield to make a video to show the public that these devices are on state roads. DOT Maintenance General Supervisor Ryan Powers is featured in the three-minute video.
Powers said in the video that the devices have a 360-degree recording system “to use as evidence for accidents or dangerous driver situations.” He reiterated that, when drivers see this technology in their travels, they need to “slow down and obey the law.”
“We’re hoping to spread the word on this, spread the message, that you will start to see this in your communities as hopefully we can expand this so people will be seeing them more so that they know when they encounter this, they know what it is, and they know that it’s the same as if it was a flag or out the roadway,” Zymaris said.
“There is still that human component of it, that our employee is now the one who is controlling these devices.”
Zymaris reiterated that worker safety is what is driving this technology being used.
“We’re doing what we can to keep our workers safe,” Zymaris said.
“These are critical tools to help us with that, but we really need the public to do their part as well. We can’t do this alone,” he said. “We say it all the time that roadway safety is a shared responsibility, so please slow down, move over in the work zones, ditch those distractions, be careful, be mindful. This keeps not only you, but everyone around you and a worker’s safe.”
While not always related to construction zones, the DOT has continuously urged safety on Connecticut roads throughout the spring and summer. Arrests for people allegedly driving 100 miles an hour or more have spokes in recent months, also sparking a push for better driver safety.
Department of Transportation spokesperson Josh Morgan said late last month that Connecticut had at that point seen 124 deaths on state roads to this year. there also had been, according to the Connecticut Crash Data Repository, six deaths in crashes involving bikes or e-bikes vs. an automobile to date this year at of late July. Morgan has consistently pushed for driver safety in the state, including at construction zones.
The DOT has said there are 532 active capital projects planned for this year to be aware of while traveling on state highways, bridges and roads. That’s 181 in construction, 185 in planning, 110 in final design, 40 in predesign and 16 in contract processing, according to DOT.
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Among the multi-year projects are the largest in the state continuing this year: the East Lyme Interstate-95 Interchange 74 Improvements at Route 161, the I-91/I-691/Route 15 Interchange Project that spans Meriden and Middletown as well as the Norwalk Bridge Transmission Relocation Project in Norwalk. The Meriden project often causes very deek back ups in both directions.