National Stop on Red Week runs August 2 to 8, and the 2026 theme, Stop Today. Protect Tomorrow, points straight at a number every work zone crew should know. National crash data ties more than 1,100 deaths and over 135,000 injuries a year to drivers who run red lights. Roughly half of the people killed are not the driver who ran the light. They are passengers, other drivers, pedestrians, and the crew working the intersection.

That is why an intersection is the most dangerous place a crew can set up. A lane closure handles traffic moving one direction. An intersection handles conflicting approaches, turning movements, pedestrian phases, and at least one driver, on every cycle, who enters on the wrong signal no matter what anyone does about it.

The job is not to fix that driver. The job is to lay out the work so that when that driver arrives, the crew and the public are not in the path. Here is how to set up the most dangerous sixty feet on any job, approach by approach.

Why an Intersection Is Harder Than a Lane Closure

A straight lane closure has one variable: traffic coming from behind. An intersection multiplies it.

• Multiple approaches. Every leg feeds vehicles toward the work at once, and each one needs its own protection.
• Turning movements. Left and right turns cross paths a straight closure never accounts for, cutting directly across the work area.
• Pedestrian phases. People cross on their own signal, on foot, in the same space and the same cycles as the vehicles.
• Broken sight lines. The crew, the equipment, and stopped vehicles block the views drivers rely on, which is worst at the moment a turning driver is deciding where to go.

Each one is a place a third party can end up exposed. The layout has to answer all of them at the same time.

The Complete Intersection Setup

Comprehensive coverage starts upstream and works in.

Advance warning on every approach. Drivers need to know the intersection is a work area before they reach it, from every direction that feeds it. Because intersection work is temporary and the crew moves with the job, roll up traffic signs are the right call. They deploy fast, stand on portable bases, and pack down when the crew shifts to the next leg, which a fixed post-mounted sign cannot do. Start the warning sequence far enough upstream on each approach that a driver has time to read, react, and adjust.

Delineate the turning movements. The approach that will not stop is the one to design against. Channelizer drums and cones guide turning vehicles along a defined path and hold them out of the work area, rather than trusting a turning driver to pick the right line alone.

Route pedestrians and bikes on purpose. A defined, protected path through or around the work keeps people out of the conflict points. Improvised pedestrian routing across a live intersection is how a bystander becomes the third party in the crash statistics.

Set up for night and low light. Most of the risk lives after dark. Reflective cone collars, lighted cones, and retroreflective gear make the entire layout visible when a driver's headlights are the only thing lighting the scene.

Building the Right Intersection Layout

A crew can turn all of that into a repeatable sequence:

1. Walk every approach before setting a single cone. Note where advance warning has to start on each leg based on speed and sight distance.
2. Place advance warning outward to inward, each approach first, so drivers are informed before they reach the taper.
3. Build the buffer space and keep it empty. That gap is the margin that absorbs the driver who reacts late.
4. Delineate turning movements and the pedestrian path last, once vehicle protection is set, and confirm every sight line before the crew steps in.

One Supplier for the Whole Intersection

Advance warning, delineation, pedestrian routing, and night visibility come from one place, in stock and ready to ship. Municipal and public-safety buyers equip crews for exactly these conditions. Recent orders from the West Lake Hills Police Department and the City of Parkland fit the same profile: agencies outfitting people to work live intersections safely.

Compliance keeps the citation away. Setting up for the driver who does not stop is what protects the crew and the public.

Build the setup around the approach that will not stop, and equip it from one source. Traffic Cones For Less stocks the signs, delineators, and visibility gear for the most dangerous sixty feet on any job.