News

Ask Matt ... how flaggers manage the stop-and-go

Flaggers are the most visible part of road construction traffic management. [MATT MATTESON/Hendersonville Lightning]

By MATT MATTESON, Published: August 8, 2026

Q. Passing by construction sites, I notice these guys (and sometimes girls) in hard hats and yellow vests stopping traffic. Who hires them and what do they get paid?

They’re called flaggers and they have the power to stop a Mack truck. They stand without expression just a few feet from the travel lane with a “stop” pole in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other. These days, there may be a water bottle nearby.

 I spoke to a young flagger by the name of Elijah who was working a single-lane traffic stop for utility work on North Main Street. “We like the Duke projects because we are usually not in the middle of the road,” said Elijah, who explained the system. “My flagger counterpart down the road gives me the color and make of the last car she let go and I don’t flip my sign from ‘stop’ to ‘slow’ until it passes by,” he said. “One big challenge is drivers who pull out of side roads between us flaggers.” Elijah has been employed by the WD Wright company for five months. “I make $18.50 an hour and I work 10-hour days and I’m due for a raise,” Elijah said. “I like the work.”

State highway projects use a combination of traffic control methods. Some have flaggers hired by contractors who in turn hire private companies such as WD Wright. Some projects employ automated signal systems, and some contractors use their own road repair crews, particularly on small jobs. Traffic control for Hendersonville city street and utility projects is usually done by city crews certified by NCDOT.

On Duncan Hill Road just past Aldi, Wright maintains a regional office, one of 40 across the country. “We handle everything from flagging operations to lane shifts, detours, and full road closures with precision and professionalism,” the company boasts on its website.

I spoke with Glenn Bromley, a safety officer who has been with Wright for four years. A “now hiring – no experience needed” sign stands in front of the office. “Our flaggers start at $16 per hour and we give them one day of training plus they shadow experienced flaggers,” Bromley, a former Jersey City fireman, told me. “We tell our employees every day to go home in safety.”

Bromley’s longest serving flagger has been with Wright for six years.

“We’ve had college kids take these jobs to build their resumes,” he said. “They want to see construction up close.”

Flaggers are given ice packs and coolers on hot days and there is always another flagger available for emergency replacement.

Anyone who drove down the washed-out roads leading to Bat Cave and Chimney Rock in the past two years, would have been stopped by an AFAD (Automated Flagger Assistance Device). Wright says its model, the Guardian SmartFlagger, is the only one of its kind. The AFAD is operated and monitored from a location within the work zone. If a vehicle bypasses the lowered 8-foot gate arm, construction crews are alerted.

Bromley remembered his company being put to the test almost two years ago. “Duke called us just before the hurricane hit,” he said. “We were hired to help set up a logistics camp in South Carolina where they were staging utility trucks.”

WD Wright also specializes in traffic and crowd control for festivals and sporting events.