A mystery

I came acros these two signs this morning. Now the first one is fairly common meaning the road was being dug up but I had never seen the second one. A little googling says it means 'flagman ahead'. In todays instance there was no flag but there were traffic lights which I suppose is the modern day flag!
So there are three options here
1) i'm just unobservant and they are common here in Ireland
2)They are new
3)This gang of workman just grabbed any sign out of the store and thought 'that'll do'
I'd like it to be the third explanation.