For National Work Zone Awareness Week, and as part of our ongoing series Infrastructure Insider, Roads & Bridges interviewed Mike Doner, president and CEO of Flagger Force, and Luke Lazar, the company’s vice president of risk and safety. The discussion centers on how the work zone safety industry is evolving beyond seasonal awareness efforts.
Doner focused on the broader, strategic challenges facing agencies and contractors. Topics included how to sustain safer driver behavior year-round rather than relying on the short-term visibility of campaigns like National Work Zone Awareness Week. The conversation also explored the tension between efficiency and safety, particularly as organizations face pressure to deliver projects quickly while maintaining a strong safety culture in active work zones.
Lazar discussed field-level execution and workforce development. He was asked to define what a well-run work zone looks like in practice and to identify common operational breakdowns that still occur. The interview also examined how training for flaggers is changing, including the use of simulation, on-the-job coaching and digital tools to better prepare workers for real-world conditions.
This edition of Infrastructure Insider covers high-level strategy and on-the-ground realities, with an emphasis on behavior, operational consistency and the role of training and technology in improving work zone safety.
About the Author
Gavin Jenkins, Head of Content
Head of Content
Gavin Jenkins is an award-winning journalist based in Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, VICE, Narrative.ly, Prevention, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Beijing Review.
In 2020, two stories he wrote for Pitt Med Magazine earned three Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. “Surviving Survival” won Excellence in Corporate, Marketing and Promotional Communications – Written, Medical/Health, while “Oct. 27, 2018: Pittsburgh’s Darkest Day, and the Mass Casualty Response” won Excellence in Written Journalism, Magazines – Medical/Health, as well as the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award: Magazines, a Best in Show award.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2003, he covered sports for the Bedford Gazette, in Bedford, Pa., and the Martinsville Bulletin, in Martinsville, Va. In 2006, he returned to Pittsburgh to write for Trib Total Media. Based out of the Kittanning Leader Times, he worked for the Trib for two years, and then he moved to Shenzhen, China, to teach English and freelance. After two years in China, he earned an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh.
When he's not at work, he's usually playing with his border-collie mix, Bob.