Originally Posted by
SBRDude
The public is allowed to drive through construction zones all the time (there are signs in TX saying that fines are double if a car speeds while workers are present), and it's not uncommon to close down one lane at at time when striping a road. And, at the time I arrived, I had already passed the striping truck because it was doing a portion leading up to the bridge. There wasn't anyone or anything on the bridge itself - no workers, no equipment, no debris, etc.
Not through the roped off construction area. You can drive near them, but not where the construction is actively happening (behind the barrels). I'm sure they've gotten it drilled into their heads many times to not ever let people into a construction area, for lots of reasons, many of them legal. Perhaps the guy was being overly cautious, but the fact remains that as long as it's still designated as a construction area, if you turn out to be some kind of litigious jerk and trip on a pebble that might have been left there by a worker, you might sue and he might lose his job.