With highway work picking up across Kansas this spring, motorists should be slowing down in work zones. KDOT reminds, highway work zones span the length of the construction area. The work zone begins with the Road Work Ahead sign and ends with the End Roadwork sign. Work zones are marked with additional signs, including a reduced speed limit. The lower speed limit is to help protect contractors’ construction crews, Kansas Department of Transportation maintenance workers and inspectors. In some places, those workers toil inches away from onrushing vehicles — with only a traffic cone or temporary barrier between them and a potentially deadly crash. But the reduced speed limit is there just as much to protect the people traveling through the work zone, said KDOT’s Nick Rogers. In fact, most people injured in work zone crashes are motorists.