Background

Section 1907 of Public Law 109-59 (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users-SAFETEA-LU) directs the Secretary of Transportation to "…conduct a demonstration project in the State of Alaska, and a demonstration project in the State of Tennessee, to study the safety impacts, environmental impacts, and cost effectiveness of different pavement marking systems and the effect of State bidding and procurement processes on the quality of pavement marking material employed in highway projects. The demonstration projects shall each include an evaluation of the impacts and effectiveness of increasing the width of pavement marking edge lines from 4 inches to 6 inches and an evaluation of advanced acrylic water-borne pavement markings." Furthermore, the Secretary is directed to "…submit to Congress a report on the results of the demonstration projects, together with findings and recommendations on methods that will optimize the cost-benefit ratio of the use of Federal funds on pavement marking." The report is due by June 30, 2009.

The demonstration projects required under Section 1907 are expected to provide answers to four very different questions related to the efficacy and safety of pavement markings. Therefore, the FHWA has divided the legislative directive into the following main topics (discussed in details later on):

• Durability study: a study of the cost effectiveness of different pavement marking systems, including advanced acrylic water-borne.
• Safety study: an evaluation of the impacts and effectiveness of increasing the width of pavement marking edge lines from 4 inches to 6 inches.
• Environmental study: an evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of the alternative pavement marking systems that are included in the demonstration projects.
• State bidding and procurement processes study: a review of the effects of State bidding and procurement processes on the quality of pavement marking materials.

The FHWA project managers and the research team agreed that it is not feasible to conduct the durability and safety studies on the same test decks due to different data requirements. Thus, the durability and safety studies will employ separate test decks.

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