Orange cones, orange cones everywhere, and nowhere left to drive!

Mix an aging national highway system with billions in federal funding earmarked to fix the roads, and it's easy to see why U.S. roadways are sometimes swamped in a sea of orange construction barrels.

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, signed by President Clinton in 1998, allocated $218 billion through the U.S. Department of Transportation for highway and transit improvements into 2005.

Ron Herring, director of marketing for MSA, said the highway construction boom spurred by TEA-21 is expected to create 7 million jobs over the next four years.

"These can be very hazardous work zones. As more and more bridges and roads are built or repaired nationwide, people in the highway work zones obviously need safety protection," Herring said. "We've got it: hardhats, eyewear, hearing protection, welding protection, fall protection, and certainly respirators, from disposable dust respirators to air-line respirators and SCBA for confined spaces."

Don't get detoured with sub-par safety equipment. The road to safety begins at MSA. For more information about our construction safety products, call 1-800-MSA-2222 and ask for our construction catalog. Log on to our web site at www.MSAnet.com to see the variety of protection we offer.