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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend October 17, 2005 Traffic control flagger Rindee Keehnen waves motorists through a maze of road construction on Highway 99 in Talent. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Traffic control Impatient drivers, obscenities and road warriors are all in a day’s work for construction-zone flaggers By CHRIS CONRAD Mail Tribune Rindee Keehnen takes a quick step back as a blue Toyota Corolla cuts a sharp turn directly in front of her. The car misses her toes by inches and continues unabated down Highway 99. "I’ve almost been clipped twice today," she says. And it’s only noon. Keehnen is one of six flaggers working in the construction zone at the intersection of Highway 99 and Valley View Drive in Talent. It’s a bright Friday afternoon, though no one in this area is enjoying it. A grumbling line of cars sits waiting to make a left turn onto the highway. And though the wait has barely hit the three-minute mark, horns begin honking and angry voices rise above the rumble of heavy machinery nearby. Advertisement "Let us go!" More honking. "Come on!" Keehnen, sign in hand, holds her ground. Finally, after a five-minute wait, her walkie-talkie squawks, letting her know it is time to send her column. As the cars file past, Keehnen is treated to strong glares and a few middle fingers. Just another day on the road crew. "We have a method to our madness that people don’t understand," Keehnen says. Keehnen started flagging in July. She took the job after being laid off from her previous position as a dental office manager. Becoming a certified flagger in Oregon is relatively simple. You must take a three-hour class and pass a test. Keehnen said her teacher guaranteed the class that everyone would pass. The job itself is anything but simple — and nothing is guaranteed. For instance, in order to steer turning traffic down the correct lane, Keehnen sometimes has to stand in front of a car and actually point in the proper direction. She assumes that a car with a blinking turn signal will turn, but some choose to buzz straight through the intersection, having to whip around Keehnen to avoid squashing her. To the untrained eye the $8.6 million overhaul of Highway 99 between Colver and Rapp roads in Talent resembles a war zone. Cars elbow each other for position as cones have funneled traffic to a single lane, in effect creating four separate one-way streets through the intersection of Highway 99 and West Valley View Road. The flaggers have worked out a rotation system when sending cars through the intersection. The problem for motorists is they can’t see oncoming traffic until it reaches the intersection, which can take a minute or two. Meanwhile, drivers are left wondering what’s the hold-up. Many seem to think flaggers get perverse kicks out of holding up traffic for no reason. The entire zone can be avoided by taking Talent Avenue instead of the highway. Talent Avenue is easily accessible from both ends of town. Then there are the road warriors, who blow by flaggers hoping to shave a few precious minutes off their wait. These drivers often find themselves in the path of oncoming traffic. A jam ensues and everyone’s wait gets extended while flaggers sort out the mess. Keehnen says this happens at least once a day. "One car screws it up for the rest of the cars waiting to go," says Polly May, a four-year flagger. At around 1 p.m. a red sports car decides to break from the herd and shoot south down the highway. The driver throws it in reverse when the nose of one oncoming car blocks his way. After the delay, the rotation begins anew. A man in a green sports utility vehicle shouts a terrible insult at Keehnen as he creeps by. "I got called the f-and-b-word many times yesterday, and it wasn’t ‘fantastic beauty,’" she says. The wind kicks up a chalky cloud of road dust as the day wears on. After two hours on the site, you end up with dry, stinging eyes and a mouthful of grit crunching between your teeth. Gusty winds catch the sign in Keehnen’s hands, nearly tearing it from her grasp. She spends the rest of the day dancing with it, listening to six voices crackling over the walkie-talkie and directing excavators, dump trucks and back hoes through the site. The honks and glares and curses continue. When she can, Keehnen approaches the first few cars in a line. She gives them a heads-up on the rotation and wait times. "It’ll be just a minute, ma’am," she says to the driver of a red Ford Tempo. "We’re down to one lane and we’re going on rotations." The woman thanks her with a rare wave and smile. Keehnen says that she wishes she could give every driver such attention, but the situation demands impersonality. It’s all about efficiency and economy in such a busy work zone. "Until I started flagging, I thought they just stood around all day," she says. A popular misconception is that flaggers rake in handfuls of cash for something a bucket of sand could do just as well. The reality is that most flaggers are hired through private companies such as Gage-It, who lease them to work zones on a need-only basis. In Keehnen’s case, the hourly scale is based on the job. The higher the danger, the higher the pay. Keehnen, who works for Johnny Cat Inc., is making $13 per hour on this job. "Which isn’t bad," she says. "But if I get hit, $13 an hour won’t pay my medical bills." She’ll start receiving medical benefits when she’s put enough time in with the company. Some flaggers will never see medical or retirement benefits, she says. "I worked with a woman who worked on Highway 101," she says. "She told me she made nine dollars an hour for that job." Flaggers are evaluated daily by an Oregon Department of Transportation supervisor. He patrols the site, checking the flow and making sure wait times aren’t too long. If the wait exceeds 20 minutes, a notice must be posted for drivers. So far, the waits have been kept well below 20 minutes. The day takes its toll on Keehnen. Her voice becomes scratchy from yelling directions and rebuffs to hostile motorists. She returns home feeling wiped out, she says. "I feel literally drained both mentally and physically, especially if I’ve been crabbed at all day," she says. She is thankful for her 16-year-old daughter, who helps out with dinner when she is too tired to cook at night. The late afternoon brings a horde of commuters eager to get home to start their weekend. One of them lays on his horn as Keehnen stops traffic to let a dump truck crawl by. The man screams an obscenity at two flaggers as he creeps by. "Patience is a virtue," Keehnen yells back. Reach reporter Chris Conrad at 776-4459, or e-mail Traffic control ">[email protected] . Those who speed through a construction zone or blow past a flagger’s stop sign can be subject to a hefty fine, according to state law. Refusing to obey a flagger is a Class A violation, carrying a $672 fine. Speeding through a construction zone at 30 miles over the limit carries the same fine. Those who speed 20 miles over the limit in a work zone will face a $201 fine, said Oregon State Police Capt. Kurt Barthel. "Fines go up considerably in work zones," Barthel said. OSP stopped a driver for cruising 106 mph through a work zone in the Medford area last week, Barthel said. The week before a driver was clocked at 104 in a construction zone. In Washington and California, state police troopers are posted at construction sites to curb infractions. Because of Oregon’s budget woes, OSP troopers work construction zones only in voluntary overtime situations, Barthel said. 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