Aggressive drivers putting Winnipeg road work crews at risk, city says

The City of Winnipeg has a message to aggressive drivers who are taking their frustration out on road construction workers: chill out. 

The city issued a statement Wednesday calling out "disrespectful and often downright dangerous behaviour" from some drivers toward road-work crews.

Workers have been yelled at, called names and blasted with exhaust, the statement says.

In some cases, drivers have even ignored barricades and driven through active construction zones, according to the city.

"Everyone involved in road work is out there doing the best they can to make the roads better for all of us, and they deserve to feel safe while doing their job and be able to go home at the end of day," the statement says. 

Chris Lorenc, head of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, says in his 32 years in the industry, he's never seen the city issue a news release asking drivers to respect the rules around road construction.

But the degree of road rage his members are seeing this year is also unprecedented, he said.

"There's been a noticeable increase in aggressive driving — very aggressive — and abusive behaviour towards construction workers, and people accelerating, spitting," said Lorenc.

In some cases, workers have also seen motorists try to avoid lineups by driving over the unfinished portion of the road, he said. 

Lorenc said he understands drivers' frustration but wants them to recognize that they're travelling through someone's workplace, and aggressive behaviour puts workers in danger. 

"Imagine if you were at the office by the photocopy machine and all of a sudden a 2,000-pound vehicle whizzes by you. It would cause you some alarm."

Busy construction season 

There is more road construction in Winnipeg this summer than residents have seen in a long time, said Coun. Janice Lukes, who chairs the city's public works committee. 

That's partly due to an infusion of federal infrastructure funding, which the city has to take advantage of now, she said. 

"If we keep postponing and spreading it over time, prices go up and then we get less value for the dollar," said Lukes. "It's a really difficult situation to balance."

The city also has a narrow window of time each year to gets its road work done, and had to postpone many projects last summer due to the wet weather, she said. 

Lukes said she knows waiting in traffic is annoying but pointed out that she gets plenty of complaints about the state of the city's roads, too. 

"According to my emails that I received, there's not enough construction. Sometimes there's a lot of old deteriorating roads," she said. 

"We have such a short window, such a short construction season, that we have to try and do as much as we can."

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