ForConstructionPros.com

Night paving poses several challenges, most significantly safety. Crews are often working within a few feet of motorists whizzing by at high speeds, with the drivers' field of vision far more limited than during the day. The risk of a vehicle accident, according to AAA of Iowa and Minnesota, is also 40 percent higher at night. And as we age, our eyes are slower to recover from light glare, so motorists may be maneuvering the construction zones with even further impaired vision.

Another fact of night paving is it takes longer and is more costly to complete a project. "With the additional safety precautions and the setup and tear-down required, production is cut by up to 25 percent on a night job versus a day project," says Barry Rhinehart, project manager for the L.L. Pelling Co., North Liberty, IA. The extra equipment, flagmen and law officials to improve nighttime safety add to the project's cost.

Despite the safety challenges, Rhinehart says Pelling is seeing more night paving today than in the past. The growing popularity for nighttime road repair and construction can be summed up in one word: traffic. Around large metropolitan areas and heavily traveled interstates, traffic volumes are just too high for daytime paving.

"Reducing the number of lanes during the day creates too much congestion and traffic jams, which also pose safety issues," says Bill Rieken, paver application specialist for Terex Roadbuilding.

For Pelling in Eastern Iowa, nearly all projects on Interstates 80 and 380 will require some degree of night paving. The Iowa Department of Transportation conducts a traffic flow analysis of the proposed work zone prior to reconstruction in order to determine when paving can begin.