This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast focuses on National Work Zone Awareness Week. An event in Midland on Monday, April 15, will kick off the week with officials from the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Michigan State Police and several industry advocates and others.
First, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who will deliver keynote remarks at the event, joins the podcast again to talk about the need for motorists to slow down and be alert in work zones.
Later, Andy Dauksts, who is the head of business development and outside sales for Give ‘Em a Brake Safety, a Grand Rapids-area firm, talks about why this issue is so important to him and his colleagues.
This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast focuses on National Work Zone Awareness Week. An event in Midland on Monday, April 15, will kick off the week with officials from the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Michigan State Police and several industry advocates and others.
First, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who will deliver keynote remarks at the event, joins the podcast again to talk about the need for motorists to slow down and be alert in work zones.
Later, Andy Dauksts, who is the head of business development and outside sales for Give ‘Em a Brake Safety, a Grand Rapids-area firm, talks about why this issue is so important to him and his colleagues.
Hello, welcome to the Talking Michigan Transportation Podcast. I'm Jeff Cranson. This week we're putting an emphasis on work zone safety because it's that time of year. Next week, monday April 15th, we'll kick off National Work Zone Awareness Week with an event in Midland, and MDOT officials will be represented there, as well as officials from the Michigan State Police, the construction industry and several advocacy groups. It's always a good chance to remind people getting into the heart of the construction season how important it is to slow down and pay attention when you're in these work zones.
Jeff Cranson:First I spoke with Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, who will be the keynote speaker on Monday, and he's done this before and become quite familiar with work zone safety and everything that goes into talking about it and trying to make people think more about it.
Jeff Cranson:And then I'll be back with Andy Dauksts, who is the head of business development and outside sales for Give them a Break Safety, which is a Grand Rapids area firm, and he'll talk about why this issue is so important to him and his colleagues. Okay, as promised, I'm here with Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, who, for the second year in a row, will be keynoting the National Work Zone Awareness Week event. This year it's in Midland on Monday and he's taken a real interest in this topic, just like the governor has, for obvious reasons, because they're doing so much to fix the damn roads and we have projects going all over the state and it's going to be another busy summer. So we never can put too much emphasis on the need to think about the workers, the people you know working right there by the side of the road while you're speeding by. Think of it in terms of you know, in your workplace, if a car was going 70 miles an hour by your desk. So thank you, Mr. LG, as always, for coming on, appreciate it.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:Happy to be here with you, Jeff.
Jeff Cranson:So tell me, this probably wasn't something you thought about a lot before you were elected, but now you pay close attention to it. So what's your overall takeaway from getting into this topic?
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:Takeaway from getting into this topic. Well, I take a little bit of issue with that. I actually did think about it before coming into public service, just from a human standpoint. You know, doing construction is a high-risk job in and of itself, and then doing so on the roadway adds another dimension to that, and then doing so on the freeway or on a bridge adds an even an additional dimension upon that.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:And so I've always had a lot of respect for people who do this work.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:We certainly have so many professionals within MDOT directly, also within all the partners and contractors and labor union members who are doing work on these projects every day. I just have respect for doing this very difficult work in very difficult conditions. So I think it's important that all of us just kind of take a step back to think about it. As you said, this is a very unique work environment that has very unique and inherent risks. But it also means that all of us in Michigan, those of us who use our roadways and share them, we have a role to play and make sure that that workplace is as safe as any other workplace, at least as safe as it can be, and so I like to think that all of us can be empathetic on a human level with that in that perspective, and try to play our part so talk a little bit about public act 164, which was pushed heavily by the operating engineers and the laborers to uh to have more freeway barrier requirements I think that this is.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:You know, this is like the infrastructure that supports infrastructure and this is the infrastructure. The way I think about infrastructure is about people. What can we do to create the conditions for people to be safe and successful? And so, with the enactment of PA 164, it's just more tools for more road workplaces to be safe and for more people to to wake up in the morning, kiss their families goodbye and go to work, and then to be able to come home at the end of their work day and kiss their families hello.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:And these barriers are going to play an important role in making sure that every project, for these, more projects on a more consistent basis are up to the kinds of standards we need for people to be safe. I'm very appreciative of the engagement of operating engineers and laborers and also other key stakeholders and just people in general who know how important this is, because those barriers are making sure that people again make it home. We still have had too many people who have been hurt because barriers weren't present, have lost their lives because barriers weren't present, have lost their lives because barriers were not present. So having that standard be raised here in Michigan will hopefully help us have access to all these places.
Jeff Cranson:I think one thing that the people that talk about this a lot and the advocates and experts point out is that a lot of the crashes and work zones, the victims, the people who were injured or killed, are actually the drivers themselves point out is that a lot of the crashes and work zones, the victims, the people who were injured or killed, were actually the drivers themselves. We had two workers killed last year on different projects around the state, but a number of people injured and a number of drivers killed. The hands-free law went into effect last year and we're starting to see some serious enforcement. Bay County did a special enforcement on it, I think, issued like 160-some citations a couple weeks ago. Have you been following that and what do you notice? I mean I know anecdotally, I still see people with a phone in their hand when they're driving.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:Yeah well, a couple things. One just on the piece on who gets hurt when there are these accidents in construction zones. You're absolutely right that this is a safety issue for everyone who is sharing the road, for those who are working and those who are driving or commuting or passing through. We want everyone to be able to make it home safely, and so we believe that the legislation that we enacted in the protects everyone on distracted driving, now, this is a huge deal. I think we're already going to be seeing numbers, something very soon about the impact in terms of those lives that were have been saved and protected, because people are more focused on the road instead of, you know, on their phones or other devices.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:Now, as with any kind of new measure like this, it takes some time for it to ramp up, and our law enforcement agencies and professionals have worked really hard to make sure that we have a good ramp up. I know there has been some targeted abortion, like you said, in Bay County and some other places, and people are still getting used to it. It is true that you still might see an, anecdotally, somebody with a phone in their hand, but I think that we are changing the practice of driving in Michigan. We're encouraging people to do so in the safest possible way so they can protect themselves, their families and they can also protect the people whose workplaces they're driving through on these road projects. It's a win-win-win for all of us and and we are proud that michigan now is a hands-free driving state and we think that more people are going to be alive going forward as well.
Jeff Cranson:So what would you say? You'll probably have a chance I know last year you did to talk to some families of people who were directly affected by this. You know what do you say in those more private moments to them to try to comfort them and let them know that this is something that you and the governor take very seriously seriously.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:Well, I mean, it's, it's the height of devastation to lose a loved one or a child, um, in an incident, any kind of incident, but especially one that that just feels so preventable.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:These, these ones that are, these traffic incidents that are a result of distracted driving, are 100 preventable.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:And so these families who I've had personal conversations with, they don't want anybody else to go through this. They don't want another family to feel that kind of pain. These have been some of the most passionate advocates for what we can do to make driving safer and our roads safer in Michigan by removing distracted driving. And so they're, frankly, they're inspiring to me in how forthright they are about making sure that the state of Michigan does everything in our power to put in place measures that can even potentially protect another family that can attract. So, um, I take that as again, uh, motivation to continue to, to think about this, to make sure that these, these new laws are implemented in the right way, and I think, um, again, Michigan could be a better state and our roads could be safer.
Jeff Cranson:And obviously the answer to that is we put off doing what we needed to do for decades. So sooner or later you've got to catch up.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:I do hear that and I'm completely unapologetic.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:I'm like, look, you know these projects have needed to happen and, yeah, we want to get as many of them done as quickly as possible because on the back end of completing these projects, we have safer streets, we have safer roads, we have a more um optimized platform for economic activity or for our mobility.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:Solutions can go to the next level when we have excellence in our roadways and bridges and priceways and transit systems. So I understand and I just let people know that, yep, it's going to take some extra time Right now if I commute when I need to come to Lansing to preside over Senate session or the other things I may need to do at the state capitol. I had to leave Detroit a little earlier than I did last year to do that and I'm okay with that and I think we can plan for it, because the benefit, once these are finished, once the excellence in engineering and execution is going to happen with these projects, once it's done with Michigan, is going to be a better state. And so, yeah, no apologies, for any board grows, you see, this summer.
Jeff Cranson:Great, well said. So last thing I want to touch on briefly you were at a project in Jackson last week and a lot of what we have to think about and this costs even more is building for resiliency. We know that the climate is changing. We have more severe weather events, heavy rain deluges. The governor is with the Federal Highway Administrator today in Kalamazoo announcing some grants specifically for those kinds of things. But uh, talk a little bit about what you saw in Jackson with that huge drainage tunnel.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:--tw-bac Yeah it was one of the biggest types I've ever seen frankly, it was to me what it's a testament to, though, again, I've said a few times in terms of the professionalism of our team at MDOT and with our contracting partners, about recognizing that, yes, we are living in the midst of a changing climate. Since I've come into office six years ago, we've had at least six once-in-100-year, once in 500 years storms in different parts of the state of Michigan that have stressed and strained our infrastructure. We've seen flooding in places, and it just means that we need to adapt. If the climate is changing, we have to adapt to a changing climate, and so, again, doing these projects in the right way, being mindful of the reality that we face today and that we can already project that we will face going forward. We have to build things for the present and the future, and that's exactly what our MDOT team is doing, and I'm really proud of that.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:And so that project was just one example of the fact that, you know, our freeways don't have to flood if we take into consideration the truth when we're building them, and so our administration, we always want to look at what's happening in real life and have real data and evidence to support the decisions that we make and the investments that we make, and I think these projects are a key result of that, and we're thankful that the Biden-Harris administration, through the Federal Highway Administration, is supportive of these projects in the state of Michigan. And we're thankful that the Biden-Harris administration, through the Federal Highway Administration, is supportive of these projects in the state of Michigan, and we look forward to continuing to work with them. We're also proud that our partners in our county road commissions and others are thinking about resiliency with their projects as well, so that, regardless of what road you drive on or whose jurisdiction it's, in, that it can both .
Jeff Cranson:Yeah, the resiliency is going to be a factor in everything we do for a long time now. So thank you, as always, I really appreciate you taking time to talk about these things and look forward to your remarks on Monday. A pleasure, Jeff, thank you.
Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist:A Take care.
Jeff Cranson:So thank you again to Lieutenant Governor for his time and please stay tuned. In the second segment I'll be speaking again with Andy Dauksts. eGive e around. There's more to come right after this short message.
MSP Message:In Michigan. Safety comes first on the roads. To combat distracted driving, Michigan passed the hands-free law. The law makes holding or manually using a cell phone or other mobile electronic device while operating a vehicle a primary offense. This means an officer can stop and ticket you for violating the law.
MSP Message:This can include, but not limited to, sending or receiving a call, sending, receiving or reading a text or email, accessing, reading or posting to social media sites or entering locations into the phone GPS. With this law in place.
Jeff Cranson:Drivers are encouraged to stay focused, keeping their hands on the wheel and their attention on the road. Drive smart drive, safe drive, hands-free.
MSP Message:Michigan's Hands-Free Law, making the road safer for everyone.
Jeff Cranson:So again, I'm with Andy Dauksts of Give them a Brake , Andy, thanks for doing this. I know how important this topic of work zone safety is to you. You've participated in these events in the past, but out of the gate I got to ask you whose idea was it to name the company that?
Andy Dauksts:owner, Dan Babcock, came up with that name. When he branched off from his old company he started Give them a Brake Safety, and he used that name. That used to be the slogan of the state. If you remember going out of some of the rest areas, it would say Give them a Break on some signs. So he took that name and ran with it.
Jeff Cranson:Yeah, I think in the olden days the department even had bumper stickers to that effect.
Andy Dauksts:Yep, they still do make them. We do still have some that say give them a break on there. So it's a big part of our name.
Jeff Cranson:So this is obviously really important to you, I guess. Talk a little bit about your background with the company and construction and you know why it is that this is a passion of yours.
Andy Dauksts:Yeah, I honestly started in the industry when I was in high school. I worked for a summer and a half for Slachter Construction doing some bridge work in Jackhammer and Bridges, which is a rude awakening. I went to college for a couple of years is a rude awakening. I went to college for a couple of years and then I reached out to my good friend Tom Wagamaker that works at Anlon and asked him if he could get me back in the industry after college and he got me a job. I gave him a break. It was supposed to be a summertime job.
Andy Dauksts:Way back in the day I started making sandbags and working in our yard and then I really kind of took a liking for it and wanted more out of my career here and I went on the road and became an ATSA certified traffic control superintendent and worked my way up from there. I was the yard and the warehouse manager in our Grand Rapids location for a number of years and then I moved into the front office and I did some daily rentals in inside sales. Now my new role is business development, outside sales. I've been here 18 years. I don't know where there's a point where you buy in. I don't remember that point, but I've been here and I don't plan on leaving.
Jeff Cranson:Well, so you know when you talk to friends or distant family members about what you do, how do you explain it and why you feel like it's really important work.
Andy Dauksts:You know that's a hard thing to explain to somebody that you do traffic control Basically.
Andy Dauksts:You know I start out by saying all the orange barrels and all the orange signs on the side of the road for road construction and they are like oh yeah, you guys are busy, they're everywhere and that is true.
Andy Dauksts:But then you go into depth a little bit and you talk to them about. You know we are the first people out on site, before anyone else. We are setting up these work zones to protect the workers that are going to be there doing the work. So we are out there before the first sign. We are setting up these work zones to protect the workers that are going to be there doing the work. So we are out there before the first sign. We are out there before the first cone or barrel. We are the ones that are out there at the very beginning on the side of the road with no other warning than our trucks and our lights and the signs and the equipment that we're standing next to traffic when they're doing 60 plus 80 miles an hour setting up stuff to protect these workers Making everyone aware of road construction is a big part of what we want to accomplish.
Jeff Cranson:And that's the challenge. I mean those of us who communicate about this, struggle with new ways. Those of us who communicate about this struggle with new ways. I mean you know communications, our counterparts around the country, different state DOTs, have tried different things and you've seen them. You know videos that simulate a car going by your desk, you know, so you can, like you know, make the point that this is their office and you know this is what they have to deal with. What do you think really resonates, or what do you find? I guess, in talking to people about this, that you know, like I know, you're impatient and I know you always want your 20-minute commute to be 20 minutes, but you also want good roads and bridges, so something's got to give. You know, how do you talk about that?
Andy Dauksts:It's tough. I mean, there's a fine line of trying to make people happy and not get and be able to get your job done. Our roads in Michigan need a lot of work and you know the weather that we have and just the amount of old roads that we have. We really need to do a lot. Everyone hates when we have road construction, but they love when it's done. So the faster we can get stuff out there and get working, the faster it's going to be for everybody. You know it is a hassle. Honestly, I've been in this industry a long time. I hate sitting in construction traffic. That's just me. I'm frustrated, just like everyone else, but that's the way it has to be. I mean, everywhere you go there's road construction. It just seems like we have a lot in Michigan.
Jeff Cranson:Yeah well, I spoke with the Lieutenant Governor earlier about that and he's unapologetic. He said that he gets those complaints from people that said you know, I'm glad you're fixing the roads, but you have to fix so many at once. And he's like, yeah, we do, and you know there's an obvious reason for that. We've underfunded transportation in Michigan for a long, long time and there's a lot of ground to make up, so that's what they're trying to do now.
Andy Dauksts:There is a big shortfall of funding for road construction and people have to remember that this year was a mild winter, but we have a short window where we can get work done in our state because of weather, whether it be a rain day or we get dumped on with snow. That's a short window, so we need to try to accomplish as much as possible in the short window that we have and, with the funding, we need to get something going so we can repair and fix these roads and bridges that are in desperate need.
Jeff Cranson:So talk about what you've seen on the job over the years. You know some of the close calls.
Andy Dauksts:That's the bad part about my job. I hear a lot about these close calls and these accidents that we have not just in the state of Michigan but in the country, of similar situations in road construction. You know a lot of it's distracted driving. When I was on the road when I first started, there wasn't a whole lot of cell phone usage. There wasn't smartphones.
Andy Dauksts:So people you know, I've seen people, like you hear all the time, shaving, doing their makeup, eating their lunch and a lot of it's cell phone use and in people being on their phones, um, which is creates a lot of close calls. It's scary when, when you're standing there and somebody weaves at you and hits the rumble strips um behind you and you pick your head up. You got to have your head on a swivel at all times. We have constant meetings with our employees that are out there. We call them frontline workers because they're on the front lines of playing in traffic every day and we constantly send out reminders and talk to them about being safe and it's having an escape route of where you're going to go if something happens and what you're going to do in a bad situation, and we have had some serious close calls.
Jeff Cranson:Have you found it coming up at all in job interviews and prospective employees just saying you know what? I'm interested in doing this, but I just don't know that I can live with the danger.
Andy Dauksts:But I just don't know that I can live with the danger we have. We have Over the years we've had people start and you know we don't start them out on the road right away. We have a process of what they go through to be able to be on the road and do that, and we've had people do that process, go out on the road and come back and say, hey, this isn't for me, it's just not for me. I don't like being out there and being that close to cars that are whizzing by me, which is completely understandable. It takes a different kind of person to work here and play in traffic every day.
Jeff Cranson:Do you think some of the laws the barrier bill and the hands-free law are you confident, I guess, or at least hopeful, that those will make a difference?
Andy Dauksts:I hope so. You know there's a couple other bills that are in the hands of the legislation right now and one of them is the radar enforcement cameras, which would help also. I know I worked a couple years ago with allowing digital speed limits to change automatically depending on where the worker is in the work zone. So it goes from 60 to 45 when they're inside that geofence. There's innovation stuff out there that really helps and from all the testing that we've done and we've seen that has slowed traffic down. Even five to 10 miles an hour is a big difference.
Jeff Cranson:Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned those automated enforcement bills because several states are doing that. You know Illinois is closest but New York has had great luck with it, Virginia, Maryland, some states out west, and so we're hopeful, obviously, that it can finally get across the finish line. It was voted out of the House and voted out of the Senate Transportation Committee, so have you seen that demonstrated or do you feel like you're kind of familiar with how that works?
Andy Dauksts:I have seen it demonstrated. Yeah, I am kind of familiar with how it works. There is some, obviously with anything new technology like that, there is some kinks to work out and we have been in discussion with other states also of what they've seen and what they're experiencing and what really needs to go on for that to happen. But honestly, that's huge. If we get that, that would really take people and get their mind right when they're driving through, especially through, construction zones. Another thing is is driver's training doesn't really do driver's training through construction zones, which is another thing for younger drivers to consider. You know, when I took driver's training, we avoided all construction jobs every single time I was doing a road test. That's something that needs to be discussed right away from the beginning, because it is different from driving. We're changing traffic patterns, we're changing speed limits, we're changing the way the road naturally goes in a construction zone, so we need to be teaching people how to drive through construction zones at the start.
Jeff Cranson:Yeah, that does present some challenges for sure. Thank you again, Andy, for talking about these things, and I hope Monday's event goes well it always does and I hope that we can springboard off of that to keep the conversation going.
Andy Dauksts:Absolutely. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure and Monday's event will be a great, great day.
Jeff Cranson:All right, take care.
Andy Dauksts:Yeah.
Jeff Cranson:Thank you. I'd like to thank you once more for tuning in to Talking Michigan Transportation. You can find show notes and more on Apple Podcasts or Buzzsprout. I also want to acknowledge the talented people who help make this a reality each week, starting with Randy Debler, who skillfully edits the audio, Jesse Ball, who proofs the content, Courtney Bates, who posts the podcast to various platforms, and Jacke Salinas, who transcribes the audio to make it accessible to all. Thank you.