Shining a Light on Safety

How TxDOT protects its crews after dark

By Cathleen Draper

Peak paving season is officially underway, and as crews take to Texas’ roadways, the harsh light of day poses a myriad of safety risks to workers. To start, extreme heat, something Texans are all too familiar with.

In 2023—one of the hottest summers on record in the state—the average daily temperature hovered around 85° F, with the average high across the state sitting at 98°. In the hot Texas sun, asphalt pavement can reach temperatures upwards of 150° F. And due to asphalt’s composition, it retains heat far longer than other materials.

The risks blistering heat exposes daytime crews to include heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, and increased occurrences of occupational injuries.

But high temps aren’t the only concern of daytime paving crews. More motorists hit the road during the day, which means more chances for accidents. High traffic volume poses a serious safety risk to crews—in 2025 there were 28,000 crashes in Texas work zones according to TxDOT, resulting in the death of seven roadside workers

Not to mention, when daytime paving projects require lane closures or traffic switches, bottlenecks build, increasing the risk of accidents and driving commute times up for the public.

That’s why some operations have moved under the cover of darkness, explained Robert Godina, safety operations section director in the occupational safety division of TxDOT.

Nighttime work “alleviates some of the concern,” around heat stress and worker fatigue, Godina said. “It leads to fewer of those occupational injuries.”

Traffic numbers are far lower at night, too, allowing crews to close lanes or exits without concerns of congestion. However, nighttime paving carries its own concerns.

Reduced visibility is one of the top woes, and that can lead to work zone accidents, especially as motorists at night might be fatigued, distracted, or driving impaired. Lower visibility can also increase the likelihood of equipment backing collisions or crew members becoming caught in between equipment.

“It might be more diffi cult to judge distances,” Godina said. “If you consider a paver and a rolling operation during the daytime, obviously the lighting is different. In the nighttime, the likelihood of misjudging those distances in between equipment could be elevated.” And at night, crews are working against their own natural circadian rhythms, leading to slower reaction times and impaired decision-making.

“We allow our employees to get acclimated as much as possible before changing that shift—for instance, from a daytime shift to a nighttime shift—and then going back to normal ops as well,” Godina said. “It does take its toll on our bodies and our minds.

Light Up the Night

TxDOT implements a series of measures to protect crews on the night shift. “We really emphasize being seen,” Godina said.

It starts with what they wear. Nighttime paving crews are required to don Class 3 personal protective equipment under the ANSI/ISEA 107 standard. Class 3 PPE provides the highest level of visibility, highlighting workers at every angle and from a distance.

It’s designed for high-risk environments, such as areas with fast-moving traffic or low-light conditions. The retroreflective material of these garments reflects light straight back to the source. When those items begin to show signs of wear, or they no longer work as prescribed per the ANSI/ISEA standard, they’re efficiently replaced.

TxDOT also provides its employees with halo lights, which encircle their hard hats. And on the note of lighting, poorly designed lighting can create contrast hazards rather than improving visibility.

“We use the best possible technology that we have available for our internal forces if we’re considering nighttime ops,” Godina said.

TxDOT’s Lights on for Safety program encourages workers to use every possible light on their equipment to increase visibility, both during the day and at night. This includes high-intensity lighting atop vehicles.

“Every opportunity that we can get to proactively increase our ability to be seen is what we’re going to use,” Godina said. For traffic safety, TxDOT relies heavily on the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, Part Six: Temporary Traffic Control, which calls for retroreflective signs, devices, and channelization to improve visibility.

To offset work zones at night, TxDOT uses a standard 42-inch two-piece cone, but that depends on the traffic control plan for a job and what TxDOT’s engineers design for crews to use.

“We’re always looking for ways to delineate traffic between the motorist and our workers behind those devices,” Godina said. “Sometimes we even use a mobile barrier in our metro districts.”

Concrete barriers are used, too, but that hinges on the instructions of the traffic safety and construction divisions.

A Culture of Safety

Nighttime paving safety typically starts before crews put on their highvisibility apparel for the night. It all begins with proper planning.

“Over the last several years, we’ve shifted our focus from what some would consider lagging indicators to leading indicators and with that comes proper planning, and being proactive with our work,” Godina said.

At the start of each shift, paving crews have “play-of-the-day meetings,” where leaders go into detail about traffic control plans requirements for signs, delineation, cone use, the implementation of truck mounted attenuators, and more.

They also discuss hazards and how to mitigate them throughout the shift, plus the location of schools, hospitals, and other nearby facilities that might bring drivers into the work zone. Using Google Earth and other mapping tools, crews can determine where ingress and egress paths will be.

Workers are also encouraged to take stretch-and-fl ex breaks at the start of and throughout their shifts—whenever they feel fatigued, they take a micro-break to hydrate, stretch, and take a step away from the operation to refresh.

Throughout a night shift, supervisors and lead workers look to ensure crews remain on task without risk and intentionally rotate operators.

To instill a culture of safety during nighttime paving shifts, Godina and other safety folks work to provide trainings and the best, most up-to-date PPE. They look out for one another, as well.

“Our folks on the ground are always looking out for one another to ensure that we’re following through with those processes as opposed to a heavy-handed enforcement mentality,” Godina said.

“Whenever we have teams that are working hand in hand and watching out for one another, coaching one another up, reminding each other about those items that will keep them safe, we tend to be a lot more focused on the work being done where it needs to be, all the while doing it safely.”

Communication is Key

The biggest shift Godina has seen in keeping nighttime paving crews safe has been from taking a reactive approach to a proactive one.

“That’s not only TxDOT internal forces, but we also encourage our construction inspectors who work alongside contractors to get into those pre-construction safety planning meetings,” he explained. That line of communication bridges the gap to keep everyone safe.

Once a nighttime project begins, inspectors are encouraged to be active in tailgate meetings, those huddles on the side of the road as dusk settles. Godina and his team push them to participate and listen for items that can be adjusted before the shift to maximize worker safety.

Nighttime paving is a solid and sound solution to help crews perform work, Godina opined. “It also creates other concerns
as well.

“By working with engineers within our operations and contractors and having those communication lines open, it helps us improve our decisions on how to better equip our employees—whether it be technology, whether it be PPE, and so forth. That ongoing relationship between the two is beneficial.”