Road construction signs need to meet requirements that relate to design, reflectivity, mounting size and height so that as road users you are receiving uniform and consistent messages regardless of where you are traveling. This promotes safety for construction workers, motorists and pedestrians.
Without proper road construction signs, construction companies would be held responsible for injuries and accidents that occur.
These signs are a critical element of the highway as they help in communicating guidance, warning and rules that as drivers you will need to now. This will help you to safely navigate through the streets and roads.
There is a lot to be said about maintenance, operation, placement and design of road construction signs. However, there are a few critical principles to make them effective. .road construction signs should meet five principle keys;
Give motorist adequate time to response
During construction, it is important as construction workers you question road construction signs you will be using. Signs should meet needs that applicable to their use. Therefore, decisions to use road construction signs should be made on the basis of engineering application judgment or engineering study. If your jurisdiction does not have engineering team that is knowledgeable of MUTCD, then you should get assistance from state transportation agencies.
MUTCD recommends that road construction signs be classified as;
Guide signs
These will help motorists to navigate on the roads to get to their destination. You will find different signs that display points of interests, distances, directions and destinations. Without these signs, your navigation would be less effective leading to erratic maneuvers.
Warning signs
When the road is being constructed, temporarily control of traffic is necessary. The signs need to be maintained because moving through work zones can be hazardous due to unusual conditions that you may not expect. These signs usually have an orange background.
These are important as motorists with an advance notice of hazards on the road ahead that are not obvious. This will be useful to motorists who are not familiar with the road
Regulatory signs
This are signs that you need to maintain because damage or absence of these signs can contribute to severe crashes.