My hats off to all MDOT http://michigan.gov/mdot, County Road Commissions, and City Road Workers in Michigan who in the winter time keep our roads as clean as they can in the frozen tundra. (No sleet, nor snow, or blazing heat will keep these diligent people from their raod duties)
(This is the county that I live in)
These guys are the same ones that patch and maintain the roads in late spring and early summer. Soon it will be road repair time again in this great state and Michigan’s state animal the traffic barricade will be coming out in droves. (They can be worse than deer) 
When the state animal is on the highway the state traffic laws say that you must slow down while your driving through the construction zone. Now if that is not a good reason to slow down let me give you another. Construction workers are usually a tough bunch of guys (Sometimes girls) that can cause you a great deal of pain when they beat you over the head with a road sign.
I respect construction zones and road workers because I used to work for an excavation company that did road projects. (story time boys and girls) I was the company’s estimator. One day I was told by one of the owners to go manage a street project until the foreman arrived to relieve me. I drove over to the site and took up sign duty while the road was being milled.
(There I am with the road sign) 
(Milling is where a big machine comes in and breaks up the asphalt into little chunks so we could reuse it as base in place of gravel. I was excited, I had always wanted to run the sign and tell people stop and go at my whim (Power rush). The milling machine was moving and we had part of the road blocked with safety tape because this is a big machine and we did not need civilians getting in the way because it was dangerous and someone could get hurt.
Well the boss showed up and I turned my duties over to one of his crew men. The boss got out of his truck and walked by one of the barricades inspecting the milling work that was being done. Well this guy in a pick up truck decided that he was in way too much of a hurry and drove through the safety tape knocking over a couple barricades and opening the road to unwanted traffic.(Why would anyone want to get in the way of that milling machine?)
My boss seeing what the knucklehead did, in a fit of rage ran to his truck and a high speed chase ensued. My boss was trying to catch Crash Vanderkoot. Crash had to much of a head start and lost my boss. Lucky for that moron that my boss did not catch him. (This is why I say respect road workers because they will hunt you down and if they catch you, it won't be very good for you. Hope the life insurance is paid up)
I thought about this incident for a while and have come to the conclusion that we need a punishment to fit the crime and this is why I am in favor of first time offenders having them hold the stop and slow sign at a construction site for eight hours. Maybe they will earn some respect, slow down and obey the law next time after they get this close up experience with fast moving traffic. Now, for second time offenders I say up the ante. We will take them and put their feet in a bucket and fill it with concrete and once hardened they will be placed as close as possible to moving traffic on a busy highway for 24 hours. (Sort of a human barricade) I think the offenders will get the drift. Good readers when driving in the construction zones please slow down because you never know if I will be watching and the workers will appreciate it. I would hate to have you wake up one morning and find your vehicle wrapped from bumper to bumper in safety tape.
Leon
Images slightly borrowed from: St. Joseph County Road Commission
and photosearch.com
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