Bipartisan Senate Bill Targets Highway Work Zone Safety
Senators Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) have introduced the bipartisan Safe Roads for Those Who Serve Act, legislation aimed at reducing injuries and deaths among highway construction crews, first responders, and roadside workers, according to a press release from McCormick’s office. More than 500 roadside workers have been killed on the job since 2020, and Pennsylvania alone logged over 1,250 work zone crashes in 2024, with 22 deaths among workers and drivers.
The bill would require states to improve data collection on highway worker injuries and fatalities, and to develop a highway worker safety plan if incident numbers rise over a two-year period. It would also create a federal public awareness campaign on roadside worker safety, continue federal research and outreach efforts, and require applicants for major infrastructure grants to include roadside worker and public safety protections in their applications.
The legislation is backed by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the Towing and Recovery Association of America, the National Safety Council, AAA, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and several other industry and safety groups. AGC has made highway worker safety a priority in its surface transportation reauthorization recommendations, and the bill incorporates several of its proposals.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Highway and heavy-civil subs bidding DOT road work should watch for the grant-application safety-protection requirement, which could become a standard bid condition on federally funded projects if the bill advances.
- Firms with strong existing worker-injury data and safety plans have an edge here: states that see rising incident numbers will be required to formalize a highway worker safety plan, and contractors with documented programs will be better positioned to win work in those states.
- Traffic control, flagging, and work-zone-signage subcontractors should track the bill’s public awareness campaign provision, since increased federal attention to roadside worker safety often precedes updated MUTCD or state DOT work-zone standards.
