Construction at the ‘Y’ roundabout is stirring up more than dust and concrete.
Standing in the middle of intersections, flaggers are an open target to drive-by insults, profanity and spitting.
Some flaggers have even been hit by flying objects thrown from car windows, the Arizona Department of Transportation reported.
By Alison Ecklund
Construction at the ‘Y’ roundabout is stirring up more than dust and concrete.
Standing in the middle of intersections, flaggers are an open target to drive-by insults, profanity and spitting.
Some flaggers have even been hit by flying objects thrown from car windows, the Arizona Department of Transportation reported.
As a result, ADOT’s contractor, Southwest Asphalt and Paving, is having a hard time keeping staff.
Trouble began when construction switched from the north end to the south end of the ‘Y’ roundabout, forcing complete closure of Highway 179 from Highway 89A and increasing back up from the Village of Oak Creek to Sedona.
The first day of the switch — a Friday — traffic was backed up two to three hours from the Village of Oak Creek and wasn’t adjusted until after the weekend, Southwest Project Engineer Debbie Pickard said.
“By 9 p.m., our girls had been called every name in the book,” she said. “We’ve had swearing, spitting, screaming ….”
Flaggers at the Highway 179 and Ranger Road intersection are the hardest hit.
“If you get backed up for two hours, by the time they get to Ranger [Road], they’re mad,” Pickard said.
Sedona Police Department officers now direct traffic at the Brewer Road roundabout and Ranger Road intersection — a request from ADOT.
Traffic must be directed at the Brewer Road roundabout or traffic on Highway 179 from the Village of Oak Creek would get too backed up, Pickard said.
According to Assistant City Manager Alison Zelms, the back-ups on Highway 89A are intentional — to let traffic flow from Highway 179 to prevent two-hour back-ups.
“We at the police department understand motorists’ frustration, however, there is a formula used by ADOT to move traffic along as smoothly and quickly as possible,” SPD Cmdr. Ron Wheeler said. “The police department, city hall, the Department of Public Safety and ADOT are working together to make this project as painless as possible.”
The police officers are also there to prevent aggressive behavior toward the flaggers, SPD officer Truman Peyote said.
“I don’t think we have had the more extreme aggressiveness toward us,” Peyote said, compared to the flaggers.
Jaclyn Coffey, a flagger that rotates near Ranger Road and Brewer Road intersections, likes her job despite being yelled and sworn at daily.
“When they yell at me, I just tell them to keep going,” she said. According to Coffey, the biggest problem is people not paying attention.
“I’ve been scared that people are going to hit me,” she said, of drivers who don’t stop when she tells them.
The police officers’ presence has calmed people down, Coffey said, and the officers have started citing drivers who don’t obey the flaggers.
Businesses in the section of Highway 179 that is open for “business access” only — between Highway 89A and Ranger Road — admit to being frustrated with the construction and the flaggers.
When work first began on the south end of the roundabout, flaggers were blocking customers from getting to their store, Sedona Off-Road Center owners Mark Ranges and Julie Pearson said.
Now, a flagger stands in the middle of the barren highway and asks drivers where they are going to make sure they aren’t cutting through a parking lot to skip the Brewer Road back ups.
“Customers say they have had to fight their way to get to the store,” Ranges said, and “Sedona people thought all the shops were closed.”
The construction has affected business and as much as Ranges wants to vent to the flaggers, he knows it’s not their fault.
Red Rock Barbecue owner John Wilson agrees. “They’ve shut us down,” he said.
According to Wilson, now that the Brewer Road roundabout is finished, flaggers and police officers should just let it flow.
“If it wasn’t such a tragedy for my business, it’d be comical,” he said.
The not quite two-year-old restaurant was making on average $2,000 a day. Now it’s making $200 a day since construction began on the ‘Y’ intersection, Wilson said.
“We’ve lost 90 percent of our business,” he said. “Nobody’s making it all the way up the street anymore.”
Fortunately, the restaurant’s landlord Phil Evans has been gracious in helping out and being considerate of the situation, Wilson said, but “you can’t lose that kind of money on a daily basis and make it.”
Wilson, who has started working construction to ensure an income, agrees it’s not the flaggers’ fault, but does blame the construction for sinking his business.
“Right now, I’m looking at five cars that don’t know where to go,” he said from his restaurant window. “I’ve never built roads in my life, but I have common sense. The restaurant business is hard enough with 8,500 cars passing a day.”
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 125, or e-mail aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com
