The ladies in the pink hard hats

This summer, our West Pubnico roads are being paved and the ladies with the pink hard hats, known as the traffic control persons, are doing a super job of ensuring our safety while driving in the designated construction zone. These young women, in their green/yellow traffic vests, have had many years of experience as traffic controllers for the Aberdeen Paving Company.

Most people know them as the “traffic controllers”, or the “traffic sign persons”. To give them a proper introduction, they are: Jackie Dulong, with 23 years as traffic controller; her twin sister Janice Amirault, 18 years at traffic control; and their friend Jackie White, six years. Jackie drives the “FOLLOW ME/DO NOT PASS” truck. Collectively, they are known as the three Js and they are very dedicated to their job.

Jackie and Janice, in their mid-forties, are identical twins and they are very conspicuous because of this. New travelers think they are seeing the same person at each ends of the traffic line.

To add to this, one of the twins and the girl driving the traffic control truck are both named Jackie, causing a bit of confusion on their portable communication devices.

Because the person with the STOP/SLOW sign at one end of the traffic line-up cannot see the other end, it is necessary to communicate by battery-operated sets. They have to describes the last two or three vehicles so the controller at the other end will know when the traffic line-up ends.

Managing the STOP/SLOW sign, they alternate jobs approximately every hour-and-a-half or so to get a much-needed break. The amount of time they alternate is determined by the number of sideroads and the number of employees on the job on that particular day. The paving company gives its employees on-the-job training, mostly stressing the safety factor.

Nothing but compliments

The pink hard hats, received from the Annapolis Valley, are unique and have brightened up their lives. “We received nothing but compliments on the pink safety hats,” Jackie Dulong told me. “Truck drivers and others give us the thumbs-up; we get compliments on them all the time.”

I observed also it gives them an identity as women working a type of job that was mostly dominated by male workers in the past. Good for them; they deserve recognition. They work long days, 12 hours or more at times, and get up at four in the morning. They have to put up with extreme heat and mosquitoes at times, too. Although it is a “seasonal job”, one year they worked as late as Dec. 18.

The women in pink hard hats are very much a part of the work team. Every so often they attend a meeting called “Tool Box Meeting” and know pretty well what’s going on with the paving details. They told me they are like one large family, spending more time with the road crew than they do with their own families.

I was also happy to learn that the Acadian people had been very good to them: some villagers gave them cookies and coffee, and lots of plums as many people have plum trees in our area.

My observations are the three Js, in pink hard hats, are doing a super job and are very diplomatic at directing traffic through the work area. Jackie and Janice, like an identical set of bookends at start and finish of the traffic line, along with their friend Jackie, are often seen smiling and waving at the people. It’s enough to brightens anybody’s day and they are real ambassadors of goodwill along the construction zone.

In pink hard hats, of course.

laudent@hotmail.com