Traffic light control during partial road closure

Who is the traffic safety officer? Is it an authority, or the one who makes money by changing the signs?

Who is the traffic safety officer? Does an authority say so, or the one who makes money by turning the signs?

I suspect the regulatory office is commissioning a sign rental company with the sovereign task of setting up and turning the signs ;-)

Who is the traffic safety officer?
Is it a government authority, or the one who earns money by turning the signs?

The traffic safety officer said this to our site manager.

The company also carries out contracts for the city here. I do think they are reputable, but they still want to earn money..

Our site manager informed us that the traffic safety officer does not want to have this done by "private" people for liability reasons.

And then came a but.. But if the people on the construction site agree to take over, he would do it. Because they have experience with it.

I suspect the public order office is commissioning a sign rental company with the sovereign task of installing and turning the signs ;-)

Now the question is who can give me a binding statement on whether we are allowed to do this or not.

The question now is who can give me a binding statement on whether we are allowed to do this or not.

Officially, I think you are not allowed. And that would be reason enough for me to refrain from the "unauthorized assumption of official duties" by flipping the signs because of the nosy neighbor with his official contacts (probably retired bigwigs who used to be municipal employees) – even though (personal opinion, not legal advice!) a first offender probably wouldn't go to jail for it ;-)

Officially, I think you are not allowed to.

I do think so too, but just don’t know..

Our site manager told me he will check again with the traffic safety officer because in practice it usually happens that the people on the construction site do it sometimes..

Now just wait a little longer..

Friends of ours once had their general contractor completely close a residential street for 6 months (!) because of costs. It was no problem.

That somehow didn’t let me rest and I made inquiries myself.

Here, the permits for the "non-main roads" are issued by the police.

So I called the appropriate department today. The responsible clerk asked for the address. Then he said, "I was just there a few weeks ago with the site manager of company XY."

The end of the story: our site manager took care of the temporary full closure in advance, met with the police officer at the property, and then received a rejection because the police consider the full closure disproportionate.

That surprised me a lot. I admit that I thought it might not matter to our site manager whether I pay 5k more or less.

My guilty conscience made me call him and thank him for his commitment (even though it should be part of a site manager’s duties?). He was very pleased too :)

And then he told me that "his" people set up and remove the closures and that this is coordinated with the traffic safety officer. Good Monday :D