By now I've been out on enough asphalt jobsites that I've figured out my way around. I no longer feel like a total stranger when I show up to cover a big project for the magazine or to film an episode of our Youtube series No Edge Lines (use the QR code to check it out). The good news is that it means I've been learning, if slowly, over the last 3+ years as your editor, and that was the goal, though, not the only one.
Besides learning what all the various machinery and big iron does on an asphalt or pavement jobsite, I also wanted to learn the work itself, first-hand how to do the work myself. That's been coming a little slower, since I don't have the privilege of daily repetition, only seeing a handful of days a year working at it.
That brings me to the most recent episode of No Edge Lines, where I was in the mountains of Tennessee with GreyRock Milling Group and their owner Griffen Hopkins.
Last year in the spring we started planning this episode's shoot date. This process is more complicated than you might imagine. Most of the time I only have one or two days, at the most, to visit a contractor out in the wild. As all of you know, that doesn't leave a lot of margin for the types of surprises that frequent the work you do. A shooting schedule doesn't mean anything to weather, and that's exactly what we first encountered. Our original early spring dates got shredded by a bunch of storms that rolled in just thirty-six hours before I was supposed to get on a plane.
We had to regroup. This pushed our filming dates back into the full force heat of the summer, right after the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
A Reframing Of The Mission
The shoot started like any other. There wasn't anything particularly different about it, in my memory, as I arrived in Knoxville, TN, and did what I typically do when I'm traveling by myself for work. I found the closest place that served ice cold beer and good looking chicken wings that isn't a place I have back home in Ohio (shoutout to the crew at Wings Etc.).
However, something was different. The next day was going to be my first time working on a highway at night, and I was feeling more nervous about it than I let on. I told my wife before I left that, while we were taking every precaution, this shoot had some real danger attached to it. I spared her the finer details of how many roadside work zone accidents happen each year so she wouldn't worry too much.
But I was worried.
I sat on the bed of my hotel that night, and, while I intended to try and stay up and sleep in later to offset the type of hours we'd be working the following evening, the experience of my "not sleeping" was even less restful than the usual struggles I have away from my own bed.
When I arrived at the staging area at the Veteran's Overlook Memorial on Highway 11, about an hour outside of Knoxville proper, my heart was fluttering. I am predominantly a talkative type, even more when I'm out filming and "hosting" the show, and even MORE so when I'm nervous. Thankfully, Griffen immediately put me at ease.
After talking with him ahead of the beginning of the shift, I felt a little bit better, but once we got up on top of the milling machine and started to pull out into oncoming traffic -- my nerves shot right back up. You can see it on my face in the video!
As the evening went on, I felt more and more relaxed in the environment, and then the sun set. We sent up a drone to take some shots of us, and when I looked at the monitor I was stunned. We were like tiny little islands of light, shinning in the dark hills of Tennessee. There was a strange peacefulness to it, but there was also the constant thought of, "What if?"
The Real Reality
From 2013 to 2023, roadside work zone fatalities increased by roughly 50%, and roughly 20,000 road workers are injured per year due to various causes. The direct causes are typically distracted driving, cell phone use, intoxication, reckless driving, and drivers who fell asleep at the wheel. Even Griffen had a story of a drunk driver taking out one of their dump trucks.
As I was crouched under their Wirtgen 220i milling machine, changing out my first broken milling tooth by hand, I felt a huge gust of air rush past us on the ground as a semi-truck flew by and my heart went into my throat. While I managed to contain that reaction, I couldn't help but think of how little it would actually take to drift too far over and clip the side of the machine.
- Nearly 898 work zone fatalities in 2023.
- 40,170 injuries from work zone crashes in 2023.
- Work zone deaths have risen about 53% since 2010.
- About 96,000 work zone crashes occurred in 2022, with 37,000 injuries and 891 fatalities.
This is the daily (or nightly) reality for the hard working men and women of our industry, and it has given me a new goal. I want to make sure whatever I'm doing in this position, it continues to elevate and highlight those putting their lives on the line to make a living, to provide for their families, and, also, to keep our infrastructure in good, safe condition.
The least everyone else can do, is slow down.
See you on the road!
