A necessary evil of construction is blocking traffic. In a recent issue of Concrete Construction, Craig Cottongim of Concrete Leadership Training discusses how to maintain good relationships with the public with regards to creating traffic interruptions.

While Cottongim speaks more directly to concrete workers, his advice can easily be applied across the construction industry.

 

From Concrete Construction (italics added):

The first step is to recognize that most people outside our trade don’t understand concrete delivery. They fail to remember that constructing their own driveway or home inconvenienced someone else—probably one of their neighbors. It’s not our job to educate the masses on how concrete is placed, but it is our responsibility to leave a better impression on them than we sometimes do. …

Remember, how you deal with the public eventually affects your bottom line, and your responses always get back to a project manager, general contractor, or customer. Your reputation is more valuable than enjoying a sarcastic jab at an angry commuter. So we need to temper our own responses, because in these situations, we don’t just represent our own companies, we represent the entire concrete industry.