Night Paving on Route 16: Flagger, Pilot Car, and an Ambulance
At 10:20 p.m. you are northbound on Route 16 in Barrigada, where a night paving crew is working. You pass orange signs in sequence: ROAD WORK AHEAD with a 1000 FT plaque, then a left-lane-closed symbol, then ONE LANE ROAD AHEAD. The permanent white edge line has been ground off, and a temporary yellow line now bends your lane around a line of orange drums. Ahead, a flagger holds a paddle reading SLOW; beyond him a pilot car waits with hazard lights on. The permanent speed sign still reads 35 MPH, but a temporary orange sign reads 25 MPH. Behind you, an ambulance with lights and siren is closing fast in the lane that is closed ahead. Your passenger asks whether the drums are just plastic and whether you can keep 35 because the white limit sign was never changed.
1. What does the SLOW paddle require, and which control governs your speed - the paddle, the temporary 25 MPH sign, or the unchanged 35 MPH sign?
Read the worked answer
The flagger and the orange signing control, in that order of immediacy.
- SLOW means proceed at reduced speed, prepared to stop, staying in the open lane behind the pilot car. STOP means stop and remain stopped until the flagger turns the paddle or waves you through. A flagger's direction outranks the normal controls at that location.
- The orange 25 MPH sign is an enforceable work-zone speed limit while the restriction is in place; the unchanged 35 sign is superseded for the length of the zone, not because someone forgot to cover it.
- The drums are channelizing devices, not decoration. Driving over or between them puts you in the work area and, here, into the path of the ambulance.
Follow the pilot car at a gap that lets you stop if it does, and do not pass it; it exists to keep traffic out of the paver's path.
2. The ambulance is closing behind you while the lane ahead is closed. What do you do?
Read the worked answer
Clear a path without entering the closed lane or the work area.
- Stay in the open lane, slow, and move as far right as the lane and shoulder allow - stopping if that is what it takes for the ambulance to pass.
- Do not cross the drums or the temporary line to make room. The closed lane may hold crew, equipment, or fresh asphalt, and an ambulance crew would rather you stop than create a second incident.
- Do not follow the ambulance through the zone at speed once it passes. Resume the work-zone limit and the pilot-car queue.
If the flagger has the zone stopped, the ambulance crew will coordinate with the flagger. Your role is to be predictable, not to improvise a new lane, and to re-check the flagger before moving again.
3. Where the old white edge line and the new temporary line disagree, which one do you follow, and why?
Read the worked answer
The temporary alignment governs. In a work zone the old white edge line has been taken out of service; the drums and the temporary line mark the path the crew wants traffic to follow, and the pilot car will drive that path.
Practical rules:
- Treat the drums as a wall, not a suggestion.
- Ignore the ghost of the old white line wherever it conflicts with the temporary layout.
- If the path is ambiguous - common at night in rain - slow to a crawl and follow the pilot car's tracks rather than guessing.
Do not straighten out the temporary curve to hold 35 mph. The bend exists to put clearance between your vehicle and the paver, the roller, and crew working on foot.