National Work Zone Awareness Week

National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) is an annual spring campaign held at the start of construction season to encourage safe driving through highway work zones. The key message is for drivers to use extra caution in work zones.

In 1997, a group of Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) staff members, located in southwestern Virginia, wanted to dedicate a week to raise awareness about work zone safety among all district employees before construction projects picked up during the warmer months. Following the successful promotion of this first event, VDOT brought the idea of raising awareness to other DOTs, and in 1999 the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began its statewide public awareness campaign, "Slow for the Cone Zone."

They developed goals for NWZAW efforts:

• Initiate efforts to raise awareness of the need for more caution when driving through work zones to decrease fatalities and injuries;
• Establish and promote a uniform set of safety tips;
• The value of training and importance of best practices in regard to work zone safety would be promoted among individuals in the private sector, industry, and roadway workers;
• Reach out to both roadway workers and contractors to communicate possible effects of motorists' behavior in response to traffic delays, and advise on what steps might possibly be taken to lessen negative behavior; and
• Outreach efforts would be made to work with entities involved with work zone safety and to form partnerships.