Wearing an orange vest with bright yellow trim, surveyor Charlie Mehl spray-painted orange marks every few feet of pavement in the eastbound lanes of the Kansas Turnpike in northwestern Douglas County.

Semi-trucks and cars only feet away whizzed by with only orange and white divider cones between him and the hurtling steel.

A worker for Hamm Construction since 1976, Mehl had his back to the speeding turnpike traffic. He was working on the project of widening Interstate 70 to three lanes between Topeka and Lecompton.

Mehl’s surveyor-in-training, Chris Ivins, held the measuring tape at a relatively safer distance – he had 15 extra feet – from the cars and trucks zipping through the single lane of the construction zone just west of the Lecompton exit.

“It’s kind of freaky sometimes when all the 18-wheelers go by,” said Ivins, of Ozawkie.

But Mehl, who lives north of Lawrence, said he has grown somewhat accustomed to the highway traffic.

Roy Vanderslice, who works for Hamm Construction, places temporary striping Wednesday west of Lawrence on the Kansas Turnpike. During his work, Vanderslice can be as close as five feet from cars and trucks on the highway.

“Oh, yeah, we’re used to it, but we’re still aware of it,” he said.

And he asked for patience from motorists who may get frustrated when they encounter orange cones and a lower speed limit on a highway.

“They’ve got it set up that if drivers just follow the rules, everything will be OK,” Mehl said.

The Kansas Department of Transportation encourages motorists to drive carefully in work zones, particularly after two employees were killed in separate accidents during 2005.

They were the first KDOT employees killed since November 1997.

Joe Blubaugh, public affairs manager for KDOT in northeast Kansas, said those accidents made work zone safety hit close to home.

• KDOT.org: Traffic Control Through Construction FAQs
• Kansas Highway Patrol

“The main thing for folks when they are in a work zone is to just pay attention. Go the speed limit and pay attention,” he said.

A work zone puts much more activity around drivers, so they must be alert, Blubaugh said.

“We know what is the safest speed to keep people as safe as possible,” Blubaugh said. “We’ll keep it as fast as we can to keep traffic moving but at a safe speed.”

KDOT statistics from 1994 through 2004 show that in 21,009 work zone accidents, 177 people have died and 8,929 have been injured. Most injured are passengers or drivers, Blubaugh said.

Mehl said he couldn’t recall seeing any significant accidents during his time working.

Blubaugh said drivers typically don’t lose that much time slowing for a work zone that may be a few miles long. And that little time lost is a bargain.

“Unfortunately, there’s a high price to pay if you’re in an accident,” he said.