The Orange Barrel Ballet

Copyright © 2010 by Ralph Couey

Summer is the high season for motorcycling. The weather is warm and across the country the rider community takes to the roads for trips from a short jaunt to the nearest lake to epic cross-continental journeys.

But summer is also the time of year when orange barrels spring up, marking construction zones as workers try to keep up with our crumbling infrastructure.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike from Pittsburgh east has been a gauntlet of temporary asphalt and lane shifts for the better part of two years. In the 71 miles between Somerset and the Butler Valley exit, less than half can be traveled faster than 55 mph.

This is to be expected.

Our Interstate Highway system, nearing 60 years old, was underbuilt to begin with (half the thickness of Germany's fundamentally safer Autobahn), and has been deteriorating since. These roads are bearing weights that were never envisioned by the engineers who designed them. The tons of sand, salt, cinders, and pre-treatment during the winter also add to the decay. These factors have accelerated deterioration to the point where frustrated planners now say the only way to save the roads is to tear them down to dirt and rebuild.

In the interests of space, I won't even go into the bridge situation.

While the workers do their best to make the zones as safe as possible, it’s still a dangerous area for cars.

For motorcycles, the hazards are even more pronounced.

Temporary lanes wrinkle and wave, impacting the ability of a rider to maintain control. Steel plates are often placed over holes, but every biker knows how slick they get with even a light sprinkle of rain. Drivers at night can become confused by the highly-reflective markers and oncoming headlights, and may stray into the oncoming lanes. In places, the road surface will be prepped by scoring long, deep grooves, causing most motorcycle tires to dance. This can be unnerving at best, and at worst, absolutely terrifying. There will likely be a lot of loose debris (namely rocks) that could be kicked up by the tires of the vehicle in front of you.

Within construction zones, traffic compresses, squeezing the rider on four sides, with no escape route available.

A call to the state or county can alert you in advance of locations where work is in process, enabling you to plan a detour. But if you're traveling cross-country, you may not ever know where these zones are located until you actually encounter them. The key here is patience. Alertness is a necessary condition on a ride, but that level of awareness should be raised even higher when between the barrels. Where possible, keep an eye on the road surface ahead, looking for anything that could cause loss of control Leave more room between you and the vehicle in front, so if the need for an emergency stop arises, you’ll have a better chance of bringing the bike to a controlled stop. Remember that large trucks have limited rearward visibility. If you can't see the truck's mirrors, the trucker cannot see you.

The good news is that all construction projects eventually end. And what is left is a perfectly pristine stretch of roadway that makes traveling a pure pleasure.

Detour when you can. Otherwise, exercise caution and prudence, and we'll all get through this alive.