Effectiveness of Automated Pavement Restriping Systems - Phase I

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) is responsible for maintaining the pavement markings on its 10,291-mile roadway network. The centerline markings, lane markings, and edge line markings are applied annually using waterborne paint from six restriping trucks, one for each KDOT district. These vehicles are durable pieces of equipment and are expected to last 20+ years; currently these vehicles are each less than 3 years old. While having newer vehicles is generally a good thing, as new technologies become standard equipment on newer models it can be a challenge to justify upgrading existing vehicles until the next replacement cycle, meaning new innovations might not be implemented until the next equipment replacement cycle. One new area of innovation in paint truck technology is using automation to automatically apply striping without human assistance. Traditionally, each restriping truck requires two crew members to operate - one driver and one paint applicator. In addition to other crew members in other vehicles (such as trailing vehicles with truck mounted attenuators and advance warning signing) a normal painting crew consists of five field personnel. If this automated process can apply stripes as well as a human then it could be possible for reduce the required size of the crew to four. As KDOT’s restriping activities are time constrained (good weather days during summer and early fall), any production day lost cannot be recovered. The potential of this automated process could reduce the size of the crew by one, which can either free one field staff for other duties or help alleviate any manpower shortages without loss of production. There are two primary objectives of this project. In the first phase (proposed here), the project team will determine if there is a financial benefit to KDOT for implementing an automated pavement restriping system compared to the current manual system, and will make a recommendation to KDOT on whether they should proceed with adding these systems into their maintenance fleet. If KDOT decides to move forward with purchasing these systems, a second phase of this project (to be proposed later) will be proposed to run during CY 2023 to evaluate one system to determine the accuracy and effectiveness of the system. This evaluation would use field data collection to determine if such a system results in a similar end result as if an experienced KDOT field employee were doing the restriping. Together, this will serve to improve KDOT’s understanding of automated paint restriping systems to determine if wider implementation is warranted systemwide.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Final report is pending.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $50000
• Contract Numbers:

  RE-0852-01

  C2201

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Kansas Department of Transportation

  Eisenhower State Office Building
  700 SW Harrison Street
  Topeka, KS  United States  66603-3754
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kansas Center for Research, Incorporated

  2291 Irving Hill Drive, Campus West
  Lawrence, KS  United States  66045
• Principal Investigators:

  Schrock, Steven

• Start Date: 20220115
• Expected Completion Date: 20240331
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accuracy; Alternatives analysis; Automation; Cost effectiveness; Evaluation; Lane lines; Striping
• Geographic Terms: Kansas
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01856925
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Kansas Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: RE-0852-01, C2201
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 30 2022 5:58PM