Keeping park walkers out of your work zone

G

Gerasimek

New member
Location
Western PA
I'm sure many of you have had to deal with walkers at local parks when you're removing trees. They try my patience. I've tried caution tape and they walk over it. I've used the parks own wooden barriers and they climb over them. I put cones across the road and they walk right through. I even leave our big grapple chipper running at full throttle but these few hard-core local walkers can't be deterred from trying to walk straight through. Most people aren't that stupid but I had about 6 people the other day that decided that they were special in some way.
This post is going to make you laugh but shake your head in disgust at the same time.
First one was an older guy who told us we were "a##holes for working on a nice day like today" when we told him to walk around. Just trying to make a living here.
Next was a group of 6 older women. 5 of them broke away to walk around the cones (like intelligent people) when they approached the work zone. Not the one. I made eye contact and waved her off but she kept coming. I stood in her path and asked her to go with her friends. She cursed at me before joining them. Thanks for that, lady. Just looking out for your well-being.
One woman ignored the park cop that we requested then walked through our cones. My employee intercepted her and she said, "why didn't you warn me?" Apparently, she requires a verbal warning from an officer, a line of safety cones, and an additional warning. She said some nasty things as Kyle waved her out.
A couple we were able to stop before they crossed through the cones and we got off easy with just some dirty looks.
I saved the best one for last and you may have a hard time believing this but it's true. I'm taking a dead tree top down with my tree-mek and Kyle is running the grapple chipper when I see her coming. I see the set of her jaw, the look of determination in her eyes, the intention is clear. She's coming in. I start moving into her path. Keep in mind the chipper is roaring and my outriggers span all the way to the grass so unless she goes under my outriggers she has to go around anyways. I stand with my arms wide yelling over the roar of the chipper, "Please go around. It's not safe." She picks up her pace, puts her hands right on my chest and begins pushing me back saying,"Get out of my way!" I know better that to put my hands on anyone so I just turn and allow her to push by me. She goes around the outriggers and out of the work zone. Why didn't the commissioner's wife just walk around to begin with, you might ask? Good question.
You have to deal with people. Did I want to physically remove her from my work zone? I sure did, but I kept a cool head knowing if I had touched her I would've ended up in cuffs, court, and probably jail. All for trying to keep her safe so she wouldn't get hurt and sue me. Some people. They just can't understand that the park they walk in every single day is a loop and they can simply turn around and walk the other way. Just really stupid.
It's not over. There's one more. After the woman pushing me I thought I'd put some big logs across the road between the crane and the chipper (as if all the other deterrents weren't enough). After stacking the logs there I thought to myself, "You'd have to be a special kind of stupid to try to get through here now.". I started to remove another tree when out of the corner of my eye this man runs past the park employee directing people away, ducks under both of my outriggers, dashes through sticks and debris, leaps over my logs, runs past the chipper (that's operating), and continues running out through my cones and past the park police officer. Really? I think a "WTF?" is in order here.
That was my day. Head on a swivel all day. Nobody got hurt. I didn't kneecap anybody. I didn't get sued. Everyone had some luck that day.
I guess this post is just here to reinforce the fact that some people are very stupid and rude and you will have to deal with them.
 
When I worked for the city we had two crews working in a park...two buckets...loader...chippers...flagging and cones. Lots of noise and presence.

A guy walks along the sidewalk...texting...steps over the yellow flagging and walks in. The Foreman yells STOP! from the loader about ten feet away. Then he says Get back out of our workzone! What are you doing in here?

The guy...indignant as can be says, in a huff...Well, I;m a millenial!

Uhhhhhhh???? There is no hope!

Orange plastic snow fence and 3/8x 5' rebar stakes makes good barricade. Make a pounder with a piece of pipe and cap. Weave the rebar through the fence and use a couple of zip ties to hold it up.

Having a vinyl sign company make up some placards with some variation of: Enter and DIE! with the universal NO emblem to hang on the fence would help.

Even if Coneheads still walk into your workzone you have a better barrier between you and liability. Take pictures of the site before you start to work.
 
We don’t often work in parks, but we do a lot of work at apartment complexes. We do all the same things, cones, caution tape, barriers, etc. The bottom line is, we anticipate that the jobs will go slower because of all the pedestrian traffic. And because of that we bid the work appropriately. We train our crew to politely ask pedestrians to go around, but we recognize that we are an inconvenience to them and some people just will not do that. In that situation our crewmembers will escort them through the jobsite and we will stop all work while we wait for them to pass. This obviously causes the work to go slower, but it also keeps a good reputation for a company in the community. On more than one occasion we have received an online review from someone that we did not even work for (thankfully all of them positive). It’s always possible that you’ll have someone who is so frustrated that you inconvenienced them for the day that they go online and write a horrible review about who you guys are even though they truly don’t know your work or your company. We always try to err on the side of being polite and slow.
 
We have removed Ash trees in city parks for the last three winters, and I can tell you this... your problem isn't local.

People will cross two layers of signage (DO NOT ENTER and TREE WORK AHEAD) and cones, directly into a work zone with falling trees, running chippers and saws, and track loaders swinging around tree parts like giant baseball bats and fly swatters. Knock on wood, we have never had any injuries, but we have had some serious close calls- including a jogger running under a falling tree. In forested areas, it is impossible to anticipate people who disregard warnings.

Two months ago, we were dropping Ash on the municipal golf course. We were up against a fence, with literally a quarter mile of open course on two sides and over a half a mile on the third. A lady walks right into our work zone and her large Irish Wolfhound starts aggressively barking at my workers who are in the process of moving and chipping large sections of tree. I had been frantically trying to signal her away from our site, and she walks right up to me and angrily shouts "WE'VE BEEN WALKING ON THIS COURSE A LONG TIME BEFORE YOU GOT HERE!" and gives me the finger. Every interaction I have had like this just drips with entitlement. People have no regard for the safety of the workers who they may distract with their presence, and seem to invite conflict and litigation. Not to mention how fast some people become eco-warriors when their walks become interrupted...
 
I think generally speaking the public does not like tree removal period. Regardless of the reason/s for said removal. They also do not like being told what they cannot do or where they cannot go. Therefore they do what their fragile ego tells them too, make someone else’s life difficult. Just did a two day willow take down on a very busy corner in town, and about two people an hour came over to bitch at us about the tree being removed.... people complain just for the sake of complaining, or in your case make work difficult. Here is a quote: “Grant me the serenity to accept that the earth is filled with assholes and fuckery that I cannot change, the courage to not be a part of the assholery and fuckery, and the wisdom to know I’m the shit, while not shitting on others.”
 
I haven't had to deal with people in a park, but I'll never forget Lawn Man. This guy owned the property, the house was a rental and empty, and when I started dropping stuff he decided to ... fertilize the yard. He shows up at this point in my video of the job. Lawn Man had a death wish.
 
Three strategies I've used alone or in combination are;
Price it out to have an extra crew member as crowd control
Insist the park provides staff for crowed control

And my favorite is use everything as a physical barrier, trucks, ladders inside the roped and coned area. The best though is to get AS MUCH material on the ground as quick as possible and use this as a barrier, working inside a doughnut leaving the outer perimeter edge clean up until all major work is done.
 
Mitch Hoy said:
Once a week, when you’re removing a massive declining death-trap that was planted 8’ from the house, the elderly neighbor: View attachment 74295
Click to expand...
We had someone pull their car over to go off on us while we were rigging out a massive half-rotten Oak over the road. They didn’t want to hear anything about the fact that the tree was dropping car-crushers in the street, they just didn’t want to see us “killing all the big beautiful old trees.”
 
I rarely work in a park but the lake path on Geneva Lake is a different story. A lady was killed a few years ago walking the path by a tree Co. so the fear factor is fresh. But I have my guys steer traffic and when they do go around it's as close as can be to the danger zone boundary. Self preservation is lacking these days.
 
flushcut said:
I rarely work in a park but the lake path on Geneva Lake is a different story. A lady was killed a few years ago walking the path by a tree Co. so the fear factor is fresh. But I have my guys steer traffic and when they do go around it's as close as can be to the danger zone boundary. Self preservation is lacking these days.
Click to expand...
I was wondering if anyone would mention an accident or death. Do you have any details about it?
 
It's nice to read a thread that unites us rather than divides us...
" can you show me where....?"
" I need to get through here"
" why are you doing this...?"
" I thought it was one direction closed" (even though both are clearly marked)
Cones, tape, danger signs are overlooked often. The best success I've had is brush...
We are busy protecting each other and property. pedestrians add to the equation.
 
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