What REALLY grinds your gears?

[JoeRedskin]

Varies from project to project, but, generally, night work significantly increases costs and, even with lower traffic volume, it is much more dangerous for workers. Again, depending on location there are noise and environmental issues for night work as well.

I think as a general rule, Maryland tries to do night work on the major highways but sometimes that's just not feasible.

Had a case involving a Bay Bridge accident and had to go to the worksite. It was pretty cool but, at one point, I am walking under the Bridge and the only thing between me and the Bay was a chain link fence strung across as a walkway. It was a classic case of "Don't look down, don't look down". Of course, I did and it was creepy, freaky. Guys just get used to it though.

As an example of the issues, when they do night work on the Bay Bridge, they shut down one of spans generally. Takes about an hour to shut one down or open it up (Got to make sure, when you route two-way traffic onto a one way bridge, that there is plenty of warning to avoid multiple 60 mph head-on collisions). In my case, the worker was setting out barrels to close a lane, had to cross an exit ramp to get the barrel, driver failed to pay attention, worker failed to see him and BAM. Guy was seriously messed up. All the proper safety protocols were in place, but driver just ignored them (we think he fell asleep at the wheel) and worker just failed to pay attention at the wrong time.

When you're working on the major highways, a lot can go very wrong, very quickly.