On the corner of 82nd and Sacramento in Portland, a construction crew is constructing a new sidewalk. Elizabeth Figueroa Alvarez is standing by a massive concrete truck, holding a paddle up to traffic. She shows a bright smile to the cars as she flips her paddle from “stop” to “slow” and waves the cars past the site.
Alvarez’s official title is TCS, or Traffic Control Supervisor. She works for a company called COAT flagging — it stands for Chick Of All Trades. It’s a female-owned construction flagging company run out of North Portland. If you see a construction site on the side of the road, it’s likely they’re required to have a certain number of flaggers present on the job to direct traffic and control pedestrians.
Alvarez’s job today is simpler than most days. Her main work is to keep her head on a swivel and stop traffic when the concrete truck needs to back into the road. As the TCS, Alvarez usually arrives before anyone else on the job and is the last person to leave the site at the end of the day.
OPB wanted to know what being a flagger on a construction site is really like — so for our “At Work With” series, we spent a day with Alvarez to learn all about the job of a TCS.
What do you wish drivers knew about driving past construction sites?
Alvarez finds many people that drive past construction sites are upset and harsh towards traffic controllers. She finds it akin to a “don’t shoot the messenger” situation.
“We have everything set up so it keeps the workers safe and the public safe,” Alvarez said. “We don’t have stuff just set up for no reason. So just be mindful of that. We just come out here and make sure the job gets done and everybody goes home safe.”
Alvarez says she leads with kindness when interacting with drivers and pedestrians, and she understands the inconvenience construction causes for those who live in the area.
“Understand that everybody out here, they come out here every day and they work hard,” Alvarez said. “Nobody out here is out here trying to make anybody angry or trying to make somebody have to take a further drive to work or be mean to anybody. So just be kind.”
What is it like to work outside in all kinds of weather?
“It doesn’t matter the kind of rain gear you get when you’re out working in winter and you’re getting rained on all day long,” Alvarez said. “You’re still gonna be uncomfortable. You’re still gonna get soaking wet. I’ve invested a lot of money in expensive rain gear – gear that people wear on fishing boats, and you’re still gonna get soaked.”
Despite all these extreme weather conditions, Alvarez still shows up every day.
“Some summers, I’ll get so hot and I feel like I don’t know why I have this job.” Alvarez said. “Or, in winter time I’ll be completely drenched, I’ll change my clothes and then I’ll still get soaked all the way to my bones where I’m so cold I can’t even talk. And then I think: Do I really need this job? And then I still show up to work.”
“I like working. I like coming to work.” Alvarez said. “I like being responsible and independent. I don’t like to just sit at home and not do anything. So I might complain, but I’ll still be at work. You can still count on me.”
What would you say to someone who wants to start flagging?
“I think it’s a good profession to get into, especially if you’re younger, if you don’t have job experience.”
Alvarez says it’s a good profession for those who want to gain knowledge in lots of different things.
“You make good money, you learn a lot of stuff, you are guaranteed work.” Alvarez said. “There’s always construction everywhere. I think a lot more people should really get into it. It’s helped me because before I started flagging, I think I had one other job and I was not independent at all. I started flagging and now I’m independent.”
She says it takes a certain amount of patience and hard work to do this job.
“You come to work and you don’t know when you’re going to get off.” Alvarez said. “You come to work and sometimes you can get off at 12, sometimes you can get off at 2. Once I came in to work at 5 a.m. and didn’t get off till 8 o’clock at night. You just have to be a hard worker. I honestly, I don’t think that I would be where I am today if I hadn’t started working with COAT and started flagging.”
