Road work ahead

What it means

This is the primary advance warning that a work zone begins ahead, marked by its orange colour, which is reserved for construction and maintenance. It tells you that people will be working at or near the roadway, that lanes may shift or narrow, and that the road's normal geometry is temporarily altered. The sign starts the zone in which reduced speeds and increased penalties apply, and it asks for a different kind of attention: watching for people and equipment instead of only for other vehicles.

How it gets misread

A frequent misread is that the sign matters only where workers are visibly present at that moment. The zone, and the legal speed within it, generally apply along the whole marked stretch regardless of whether anyone happens to be in view at your moment of passage.

What to do

Slow to the posted work-zone speed before you reach the first worker or piece of equipment, lengthen your following distance, and merge early where lanes close. Watch for workers stepping into the lane, equipment backing without good sightlines, and loose gravel on the surface. Obey any flagger, and treat every orange sign in the corridor as part of the same instruction set.

Practise this rule

• Work Zones: Driving Past Workers Safely | CO

  You enter a work zone where workers are standing beside the travel lane and the lanes have been narrowed. How should you drive?

More work zone signs

• Lane closed ahead →
• Detour right →

Browse all road signs