A major line marking trial in Victoria is improving lane visibility in road-work zones.

By Cyndi Tebbel

Helping motorists safely navigate during road construction and maintenance can be an expensive exercise in futility. In Australia, for example, the practice generally involves painting over original white lane markings, blasting them clean with high-powered water jets or grinding them off before applying new white lines to indicate the lanes drivers should use during road works. 

The problem with these methods is that they leave behind ‘shadow’ line markings that are still visible to motorists, particularly at night, in the wet and when there’s glare from the sun. This makes it difficult for drivers to know which lane is the right lane.

“The only completely effective method of avoiding shadow lines is a total reseal of the road”, says Dean Crutchfield, Executive Manager, Roadmarking Industry Association of Australia (RIAA). Depending on the extent of the road works, this can be a costly option for contractors and road authorities, which must balance their primary concern – safety – with running a business. 

“It’s a very delicate process to come up with the right result,” says Crutchfield, a former contractor and qualified line marker.  “If you’re working in traffic you’ve got to get in and get the job done so the road can be reopened. Under those conditions, you’ve got to be really careful about the method you use because it’s not only cost related, but there are time restraints getting the road open again.”

Parallel lines

In what has been described as a first for Australia, VicRoads is undertaking a major line marking trial covering three significant sections of Melbourne’s busy M80 Ring Road. It began in March 2012 and will finish up in the middle of 2013. Based on road-works practices in Europe, the US and Canada, it leaves original white lines in place and delineates temporary lanes with yellow paint.

“We want people to get the message that when they see yellow lines, they’re in a road-works zone and will be required to slow down,” says Trevor Boyd, the M80 Ring Road Upgrade Director for VicRoads.

Large static and variable message signs have been installed to alert motorists to the changes and VicRoads is engaging with motorists, the auto industry, freight movement, trucking groups, unions and the RACV throughout the trial, inviting suggestions and feedback.

“We’ve got an online survey and it’s all been very positive from the community and the industry,” says Boyd. The new markings are not only safer, “They’re also considerably cheaper and save quite a bit of time.”

As part of the trial, VicRoads is testing four different grades of paint for longevity, reflectivity and skid resistance. Boyd says low-grade paint only lasts two-to-three months before it has to be redone, which can be costly on long-term projects such as the M80 trial.  

“There’s a high-grade yellow paint that lasts between six and 12 months, and when we reinstate it with glass beads it can last from three to five years,” he says.

While the differences in the cost of the paints are often small, Boyd says the savings in time and money are far greater. “Contractors don’t have to spend night after night grinding or blasting over existing markings,” he adds.

Test drive

When the trial wraps up in mid-2013, VicRoads will have amassed a lot of evidence about the performance of the yellow lines. But the RIAA’s Dean Crutchfield is one of many millions of motorists who’ve experienced it firsthand. 

He was “very impressed” when he drove over it one wet Friday night before a long weekend. “It’s working really well and I know VicRoads is getting good numbers on their retro readings, which means the lines are bright at night,” says Crutchfield.

“They should be congratulated for trying something different on one of the busiest roads in the city.” 

Road authorities in other states have shown interest in the trial and VicRoads is happy to share what its learned throughout the process. It presented a paper on some of its results to a recent RIAA conference in New South Wales and Boyd says there’s no need to wait until the trial is over to benefit.

“It’s been in place long enough and has undergone sufficient analysis to demonstrate it’s a worthwhile proposal. 

I would suggest it become standard practice in road-work zones across Australia. 

“It’s been so successful in terms of saving time and money, but also making it enormously safer for drivers to easily identify where they need to drive. It’s a no-brainer,” says Boyd.

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