Crews cool amid steamy traffic

Once-busy Ash Street is now a tattered dirt road, and the only thing keeping a blue minivan from disturbing work crews a few blocks away is Steve Stoker and his stop sign.

“I’m picking somebody up down there,” says the driver of the minivan, pointing down the barricaded road at a distant house.

“I’m afraid the road is closed,” Stoker says, eyes hidden by wrap-around sunglasses, an orange vest covering his paint-stained purple shirt.

The frustrated driver snorts, throws the vehicle in reverse and retreats out of the middle of the intersection, taking the same detour as the others waiting in the long line of cars. Stoker stands in place, as cool as the cloudy July afternoon he’s working in.

A flagger working on the Ash-Maple project, Stoker is just one of hundreds of road construction workers in the midst of an expansive, $80 million street repair season reaching every corner of the city. They are trying to make their way in Spokane like anyone else, except this distinctive group of laborers works full days under sometimes scorching sun, 10 feet away from an often-irritated driving public bent on speeding.

But while traffic, heat and long hours make for difficult obstacles in construction work, it has its benefits, as well. The 12-hour days yield impressive overtime paychecks, and the heat isn’t so bad for those who enjoy working outside. But the traffic can provide memorable moments, both good and bad.

Stoker won’t forget the day a few weeks ago when an angry driver raced toward him. Equipment was blocking an intersection and Stoker was flagging traffic, but the driver was either not paying attention or just plain angry when he came inches from the flagger.

“I’d like to see them do this,” Stoker said of his job, “and let them see how people like themselves drive.”

Stoker has been flagging for three years and has had a few close calls. A driver ran over the inside of his foot on Third Avenue a few weeks ago. Others have rushed him. He knows he’s a lightning rod for criticism – the front-man for a construction crew that’s trying to finish its job.

“They’ll holler at me because they can’t holler at anyone else,” he said.

His best defense from the fuming masses is a sharp eye and a cool demeanor, he said.

“You have to have a swivel-head to make sure nobody can sneak up on you,” he said with a chuckle, rotating his view like an owl. “And they will.”

When surrounded with chaos, workers often look for stand-out moments that brighten their days.

“Oh, sometimes ladies will flash us,” said a smiling Jarred Brislin, a worker for Spokane Ditch and Cable who sat with a co-worker on the curb on Third Avenue in front of Arby’s. “We just bite our tongue when that happens.”

Brislin and other workers said there is plenty of action to be seen in passing cars and in work zones. Often couples will fight in cars, oblivious to their surroundings. Crews that work nights, especially downtown, will see even more.

Gunshots sometimes ring out, and groups of teenagers will wander the streets. And in front of a motel at Lincoln and Third, a “pimp tried to run into the asphalt grinder,” said Carmen Hoadley, a 20-year veteran of construction work who worked with Shawn Gharst on the Friday before the Fourth of July weekend. While most workers took the afternoon off early, he stuck around for some overtime and a chance to relax.

The sun beat down on the two darkly tanned men, who wore orange vests instead of shirts, as they calmly took measurements for a catchbasin at Browne and Third, despite early rush-hour traffic speeding by. A water truck bounced by them, and the crack of a metal door made both their heads snap to attention quickly. But after confirming no danger, they resumed their work.

One of the benefits of this work is an off-season, Hoadley said. Typically a worker will be hired as soon as asphalt season picks up in the early spring and then will be laid off when the temperature drops below freezing for too long, usually in the late autumn. Workers often draw unemployment during the winter months, which frees up time to finish projects around the home and spend time with families, Hoadley said.

This winter, he’ll be putting in a new hardwood floor and doing some hunting, he said. “And I’ll play the Lotto, of course.”

The complex jumble of contractors and sub-contractors brings a different mix of people almost daily. Some crews, like Hoadley’s, stay together throughout a season. Others, like Brislin and Stoker, go wherever the jobs take them.

There are workers who stay with a company for several years. There are college students who work the summers to pay for their schooling. And there are flighty workers known as “travelers” who might work for a few paychecks and then disappear.

“Most of these people I just met,” Stoker said, noting that he doesn’t really see inter-job site conflicts too often. “People get along pretty good,” he said.

Wages for workers in Washington state can range from $20 to $40 an hour. Landing one of the jobs involves sifting through a jumble of union regulations, accumulating the right kind of experience or knowing where to look.

But with speeding cars often making tensions high, road crews have a message to drivers frustrated by the slow pace around construction sites: They hate it just the same.

“We still have to go through the same construction on the way home,” Hoadley said.

Despite drivers who seem to speed up when they see the color orange, most workers find it hard to imagine doing anything else.

Before he was a flagger, Stoker worked in masonry. Those days have passed, he said.

“I’m too old for that now; my back is going bad. This is much easier, even if the hours are longer,” he said during a 20-second break, taking off his red hard hat and running his hand through his dark, short hair.

“It’s the only kind of work I’d do, now.”