Motionless roadworkers explained
Roadworkers spend half their time leaning on shovels shooting the breeze.
Anyone who has said something along these lines or firmly believes it ought to have a chat to Robin Moltzen.
The 64-year-old Hamilton man is heading towards the end of his career working on roads but before he does he’ll help finish the Hamilton section of the Waikato Expressway.
He admits that leaning on the shovel does happen yet there’s a method to the lack of motion.
‘‘[Motorists] see six people standing around and one person will be working a digger,’’ Moltzen tells Stuff.
‘‘There will be one person spotting, another person spotting for the traffic and the other people are waiting to do their work.
‘‘It’s all been allowed for and it’s all been made in that safety comes first – when you look at incidents it’s usually because you haven’t done enough safety.’’
He understands the frustration of motorists who are waiting in a queue.
Still, no-one wants another incident like the death of three road workers in the Bay of Plenty in March.
Moltzen has been with Fletchers for the past 16 years and he’s seen a fair few changes in that time – the big one being road safety.
‘‘I would say that at the start of my tenure of Fletchers I would have seen stuff to scare us but not enough to stop us doing our job.
‘‘But we’ve come a long way since then and the safety side has increased a hundred fold.’’
He would like to see motorists being more courteous when they see road workers.
‘‘Because it’s a hard job and they still have to do that job and they’re putting up with people who aren’t paying attention.’’
Moltzen works on the bridges and has been on the Hamilton section since 2017 having previously worked on the Nga¯ ruawahia¯ section of the expressway.
One of his favourite parts of the day is the morning startups where he has the opportunity to get his message across for the day before the stretching begins.
‘‘We then do warm-ups. It’s one of the best things I have ever seen Fletchers do is our warm-up exercises.
‘‘I really enjoy that because I know that I am getting the muscles going – it’s a bit like the boys [All Blacks] doing the haka – they’re warming up their muscles and they give you an advantage.
‘‘We do pre-starts like stretches which is very important because if you are going to have an injury with a muscle it’s always when it’s cold. So, you take winter, it’s bitterly cold out here so our pre-starts I do love going through it, but we aren’t allowed to take too much time.’’
Moltzen recommends the work as a career path and is pleased to see there is an option to do a concrete structures apprenticeship whereas he worked his way from building houses, to high rise before road bridges.
‘‘I was told by a teacher in form two I would only succeed if I stuck at something. And I did and that is really what it boils down to. It is sticking to something and gaining the knowledge that is there.
‘‘What gets me, there are no dumb people and there are no bright people when it comes to this type of work.’’
The Hamilton section will be the final leg of the Waikato Expressway to open in late 2021.
‘‘What gets me, there are no dumb people and there are no bright people when it comes to this type of work.’’
Robin Moltzen