UNION COUNTY, N.C. --

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"He works like a dog. At the end of the day, he's dog tired and his dogs are barking."

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Now that's out of my system, I'd like to tell you about Patches.

Patches is a big, lovable mutt that has adopted the Highway 601 road widening crew from Blythe Construction.

This crew is turning an 11-mile stretch of two-lane road between Monroe and the South Carolina state line into a five-lane super highway.

Patches is helping, in his own way.

He can be found standing guard by the flagmen on the road, making sure everyone slows down.

Or, you may see him a couple of miles down, lying in the grass, watching huge graders turn rough, hilly countryside into smooth, flat roads.

He also likes to run up to parked trucks and greet workers as they arrive for the day.

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VIDEOS, SLIDESHOWS, STORIES, TIPS AND MORE--VISIT OUR PETS SECTION, UPDATED DAILY!

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"He knows just about everyone on this jobsite," said Daniel McElwey. McElwey is one of the Blythe engineers on site and also one of Patches' biggest fans.

"He's just a good all-around dog. We worry about him getting out in this road some days, with how fast people drive, he's pretty much a family member."

McElwey has good reason to worry. In the past five years, this patch of road has had 216 wrecks and seven fatalities.

Those grisly statistics are the main reasons the state DOT is having this widening work done.

The work will go on for the next couple of years, and that's just fine with Patches. He especially likes lunch time. A couple of the guys have taken to carrying dog biscuits in their work trucks.

This is just a day job for Patches. He has a family and a house just about in the middle of the stretch of road under construction.

"His family lets him be with us during the day, and he goes back home when he's done at the end of the day," said McElwey.

This road dog is smart, too, he doesn't come out on weekends or holidays, only when the crews are out working.

On the day this story was put together, Patches was eyeing a squirrel that did not make it across the road. You could tell from the reaction on some of the crew's faces as they walked by, it made them a little nervous.

None of these guys want to find Patches lying in the road one morning. Beyond that, they worry for their own safety as well.

"Every single one of us, pulling on and off this road to do jobsite work, has almost had a wreck because everyone out here is doing 65 or 75. No one really obeys the speed limit," said McElwey.

Barrels, signs, concrete barriers, increased police patrols and ticketing have all helped, but for the men and dog doing the work, it's still a concern.

"This is a really dangerous road. There is always a chance that if people don't watch out they may run into patches one day," said McElwey.

To help them do their work safely, the crew hopes motorists will take their time, slow down, maybe even give Patches a wave. It would be a dog gone shame if they didn't.

There is a slideshow and video of Patches in the sidebar of this article.