DES PERES, Mo. – The dangerous heat is putting extra stress on those who have to work outdoors in it every day. Some of those workers are MoDOT employees and their contractors working on the numerous road construction projects across town.
While consecutive days in this heat certainly take a toll, they’re taking additional steps to stay safe.
Drew Evers, the Assistant District Engineer with MoDOT, said on days like Thursday, they take more breaks than normal, stay hydrated, and adjust their start and stop times when they can.
“Go earlier in the day. Sometimes they’ll move some of their daytime operations to the night because, when it’s really this hot, there’s some things you just can’t do,” Evers said. “Like pouring concrete, is a lot more difficult when it gets to this extreme heat.”
MoDOT isn’t seeing any project delays because contractors prepare for the heat of St. Louis summers when they create their schedules.
“They do account for these really hot months of the summer where they can adjust their schedules,” Evers said. “They may work a weekend day because one other day of the week got really too hot. So they’ll flex that into their calendar and adjust accordingly.”
When it comes to roads buckling in the heat, Evers said that can happen during prolonged periods of heat, but they’re keeping an eye on all of their pavement and looking for any signs of distress.
“We are ready for it when it does happen, though. We have some emergency response crews that can get out there to repair things quickly,” he said. “But obviously, if it does happen, it will disrupt traffic for a day or two.”
MoDOT wants to remind drivers to slow down, obey speed limit signs and pay attention when driving through work zones. Their workers are doing everything they can to stay focused on their operations in this extreme heat.