ORLANDO, Fla. – Heavy machinery of all shapes and sizes is a common sight on any construction site, but this week, News 6 traffic anchor Amy Biondello got an inside look at the attenuator, a potentially life-saving piece of heavy equipment that is used every day on the I-4 Ultimate project.
"It's like the Swiss army knife of trucks," maintenance of traffic manager at Skanska USA David Feise said.
Drivers have likely passed one of the impressive-looking trucks before. The particular model Biondello got to see was known as the scorpion.
"It's got multiple functions, multiple uses and that way we get the maximum utilization out of it," Feise said.
Most attenuators are single-purpose, usually accompanying overnight work crews.
"So normally a typical attenuator truck basically has one function. It will go out and it will sit with the crew all night long in a lane closure," Feise said.
But the scorpion isn't typical, and because the trucks are so multi-functional, they run about 22 hours on a typical day.
"You'll see them all over. I mean, they're hauling equipment,” Feise said. “You'll see the crews in them. They're actually setting the closures, picking up the closures.”
Feise said they can sometimes be seen actually doing blocking operations to make sure that the crews working in front of them stay safe, especially in high speed situations.
Of the many things the high-tech truck can do, protecting crews and drivers is at the top of that list.
"The attenuator is basically designed to absorb an impact and lessen the severity of a crash whenever a motorist that goes errant or isn't paying attention runs into the back of it,” Feire said. “So that way the crew that's in the truck or in front of the truck, they walk away and the driver also walks away."
Fortunately, of the approximately 5,500 closures that have been enacted since the start of the Ultimate project, the attenuator has not been involved in a worksite crash to date.