Everything that’s hiding behind the lines painted by the pavement marking workers on roads that you never imagined
Sadly, each of these safety-improving works of art lasts a few years at most. Punishment by tires, heating, and ultraviolet sunlight work hard to turn even the toughest latex, epoxy, and thermoplastic road paints into dust in short order — some crack and fall apart after just 9 months.
“The degree of durability of a road marking is assigned to it based on the wear simulator test”, explains Francisco Javier Guerra Pineda, director of the AETEC laboratory, who goes on to add that there are several levels of durability in ascending order: P1, P2, P3… and up to P7 (4,000,000 million wheel roll-overs).
“To reach these levels, all the minimum values for all the performance characteristics which define a safe road – as already mentioned previously – must be met after 4,000,000 wheel roll-overs.”
What happens if the road markings are worn? “In most cases, if they are within the warranty period provided by whoever applied them (the contractors using the basic material rather than the manufacturers), then such contractor must provide a solution, either by repainting (placing a new coat of basic material over the “old”), or by scraping off the old and applying new material on “clean” asphalt.
The concessionary company of the road is responsible for deciding which of these solutions to apply”, the AETEC laboratory director confirms. So take a moment to admire these paintings the next time you roll over them.
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/IxOBTrOEom0
- https://www.insider.com/how-workers-draw-words-streets-white-paint-2016-8
- https://blog.ferrovial.com/en/2017/10/lines-painted-on-the-road/
- https://revista.dgt.es/es/multimedia/infografia/2016/0218Marcas-viales.shtml#.WPe8kdLyiM8
- https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/polly/home/SynthesizeSpeech
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