{"id":65159,"date":"2026-04-23T21:42:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65159"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:42:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:42:48","slug":"txdot-unveils-tex-the-barrel-cowboy-for-national-work-zone-awareness-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/txdot-unveils-tex-the-barrel-cowboy-for-national-work-zone-awareness-week\/","title":{"rendered":"TxDOT unveils &#8216;Tex&#8217; the barrel cowboy for National Work Zone Awareness Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That is a classic Texas move\u2014turning construction equipment into a mascot. &#8220;Tex&#8221; the barrel cowboy, is definitely a creative way to humanize the orange barrels that usually just mean traffic and frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"7e4e43\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7e4e43;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"267\" height=\"369\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tex.webp?resize=267%2C369&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65160 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tex.webp?w=267&amp;ssl=1 267w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tex.webp?resize=217%2C300&amp;ssl=1 217w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using a 10-foot-tall figure made of orange barrels, reflective tape, and a hard hat is a clever play on the &#8220;Orange Barrel&#8221; trope. It\u2019s part of a broader push for <strong>National Work Zone Awareness Week<\/strong>, which runs every April to remind drivers that those cones represent real people working just a few feet away from moving traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Mascot Campaigns Like &#8220;Tex&#8221; Matter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While it looks fun, the campaign addresses some pretty serious statistics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Safety First:<\/strong> Texas often sees some of the highest numbers of work zone fatalities in the country, largely due to the sheer volume of highway construction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Visibility:<\/strong> Mascots like Tex are designed to be &#8220;scroll-stopping&#8221; (or traffic-stopping, visually speaking) to break the autopilot mode many drivers fall into.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The &#8220;Move Over&#8221; Law:<\/strong> These campaigns reinforce the legal requirement to move over or slow down for stopped emergency and work vehicles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fun Fact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tex follows a long tradition of &#8220;barrel men&#8221; and folk art seen on American highways, but he&#8217;s one of the few to get an official state department of transportation endorsement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you think a giant orange cowboy actually makes people slow down, or is it just a good photo op?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That is a classic Texas move\u2014turning construction equipment into a mascot. &#8220;Tex&#8221; the barrel cowboy, is definitely a creative way to humanize the orange barrels that usually just mean traffic&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL3RleC53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yNjclMkMzNjkmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJUeERPVCB1bnZlaWxzICYjODIxNjtUZXgmIzgyMTc7IHRoZSBiYXJyZWwgY293Ym95IGZvciBOYXRpb25hbCBXb3JrIFpvbmUgQXdhcmVuZXNzIFdlZWsiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.LQ53m-ZCncZSEW0aNmGTp_gHlUZT0k2CVsTYHuQYF8kMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC90ZXgud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IlR4RE9UIHVudmVpbHMgJ1RleCcgdGhlIGJhcnJlbCBjb3dib3kgZm9yIE5hdGlvbmFsIFdvcmsgWm9uZSBBd2FyZW5lc3MgV2VlayIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.fWHcjtad4uOmPQEZl8I3TUtO8TyUOxO3SJfG11LRj3oMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[14461],"class_list":["post-65159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-txdot-unveils-tex-the-barrel-cowboy-for-national-work-zone-awareness-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65161,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65159\/revisions\/65161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}