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https://www.nationalacademies.org/trb/events

Evaluation of Cement-Based Pavement Markings

Pavement markings provide continuous safety information to roadway users related to the roadway alignment, vehicle positioning, and other important driving-related tasks. During nighttime hours on many roadways, pavement markings are the only roadway asset to guide and regulate traffic, and their visibility becomes even more critical during nighttime wet conditions. Additionally, today pavement markings must be visible not only to human drivers but also to the machine vision technology of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) common in many vehicles. For these reasons, it is important that pavement markings are performing well and are both durable and retroreflective (provide nighttime visibility) to aid with safe roadway navigation. However, there are many factors that can affect pavement marking performance, such as the environment, traffic, and winter maintenance practices. The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) experiences significant challenges with all of these factors. Vermont’s climate, which has low winter temperatures and harsh freeze-thaw cycles, places considerable strain on a pavement marking material’s capacity to remain bonded to the pavement surface. The repeated freeze-thaw cycles have caused marking materials to crack or peel. The tire abrasion from high traffic volumes, especially heavy truck traffic, accelerates wear on pavement markings, and winter maintenance practices, particularly in northern states like Vermont, significantly impact the longevity and effectiveness of pavement markings. The frequent mechanical abrasion from snowplows accelerates marking degradation, and deicing agents cause chemical degradation such as fading, stripping, and surface damage. Besides the potential safety risks to roadway travelers, there are other consequences for rapidly deteriorating pavement markings. The financial costs to VTrans for frequently replacing markings can be significant. Costs include not only the material, equipment, and labor for installation, but also the administrative costs for programming and managing striping contracts, as well as indirect economic costs for disruption to traffic. The traffic disruption can also have a negative impact on the traveling public, such as traffic congestion, delays, and driver frustration. However, a relatively new pavement marking material, a polymer modified cement pavement marking called Enduramark, has a high potential for being more durable than most other marking materials. The cement-based marking has performed well for over three years in heavy snowplow environments. With a longer service life, it also has the potential for having a highly competitive annualized cost. The purpose of this study is to conduct a measured evaluation of the Enduramark’s performance on VTrans roadways, determine an estimated service life, and from the service life calculate the material’s annualized cost. The study will support the Agency’s Strategic Plan Goal 2: Grow Vermont’s economy by providing a safe, reliable, and efficient transportation system in a state of good repair.