11 hours Ago By Gavin Stone
A trio of brightly colored monsters popped up around Norfolk this week, looming over road construction sites baring their teeth, drawing surprised looks from motorists. Burghy, Seymour and Binker were built by Norfolk’s Department of Public Works more than a decade ago as part of National Work Zone Awareness Week. The campaign, which began in 1999, is aimed at highlighting safety concerns around construction zones and encourages motorists to “respect the zone so we all get home.
” Each of the monsters is built out of traffic barrels and other traffic management equipment. Binker has a bulkier frame, shaggy green hair and a furrowed brow. Seymour sports two large eyes – that are almost too big for his head – and a gaping round mouth, and Burghy has a long red mohawk with beady eyes and a deep V on his chest.
City officials aren’t sure where the names came from. Norfolk is the only Hampton Roads city that participates in building the traffic barrel monsters. “When the weather warms up, road work ramps up in the City of Norfolk and everywhere.
Road work means work zones and crews, so awareness is important,” Alana Smith, management analyst for Norfolk Public Works, said in an email. “Slow down, put the phone down, avoid distractions whenever you see orange cones or barrels – for everyone’s safety.” Smith said Norfolk’s traffic workers take pride in their monsters.
“The Streets and Bridges teams enjoy the reaction when people start to notice the monsters and take great care to make sure they’re properly stored and maintained so they can keep coming back for Work Zone Awareness Week,” she said. Public Works rotates their locations each year, focusing on high-traffic areas but avoiding putting them at active work zones so the monsters don’t become distractions themselves, according to Smith. The number of total deaths in work zone-related wrecks decreased by 8%, from 880 to 821, from 2021 to 2022, the first decline in such deaths since 2018, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Of the more than 800 people who were killed in work zone crashes in the United States in 2022, 85% were motorists or their passengers, according to the Work Zone Safety Clearinghouse. Since 2019, fatal highway worker injuries at road construction sites have decreased from 135 to 94 in 2022, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.
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