Advocacy & Safety - Removing thermoplastic from new Superpave

Our local road engineers are looking for a better way to remove thermoplastic striping from Superpave where striping was improperly applied following a major road repaving. (The transportation plan called for wide outside lanes but they were striped as narrow outside lanes.)

The contractor experimented with a Stripe Hog http://www.waterblastingtechnologies.com/WhyTheStripeHog/tabid/227/Default.aspx
but the Superpave is so porous that they cannot extract all of the thermoplastic without leaving a ghost line and damaging the surface (especially loss of fines). As a result, NCDOT may not accept maintenance of the road if they use this method to remove the stripe. An alternative is griding, but this still leaves the ghost line as well as deeper grooves. Worst case is they rip up the whole road and start over. Yes, they are actually considering this despite the cost. Bizarre, IMO.

Does anybody know an alternative that will leave less scarification?

black paint.

What road is this for?

What road is this for?

Cary Parkway. Black paint will quickly fade and the thermoplastic will show through, especially with its retroreflective embedded glass spheres. They may end up grinding it off, but that may leave deeper scars that will be audible when rolling over them. Hydroblasting is usually the best, but the new Superpave is so porous that the hot thermoplastic seeped pretty deep into the nooks and crannies.

bummer, Cary pkwy's a pain to ride on sometimes, but there's really no other convenient way to get across cary, sometimes. A wol would be great.

bummer, Cary pkwy's a pain to ride on sometimes, but there's really no other convenient way to get across cary, sometimes. A wol would be great.

The transportation plan specifies 14' outside lanes for new throroughfares, and had specified that existing roads with four 12' lanes would be restriped as 11' inside lanes and 13' outside lanes. But I think this latter issue was forgotten.

Parts of Cary Parkway had the 13' outside lanes, but when they repaved it, they striped the repaved section to four 12' lanes. Part of it is striped with permanent thermoplastic and part temporary paint. When another cyclist noticed the error and I forwarded his concern to Cary's planner in charge of bicycle transportation planning, this set off a firestorm of communication. It seems that the engineering department was unaware of the 11'/13' striping policy. Now they are trying to figure out how to fix it without damaging the road and reducing its longevity.

Beautiful. Inter-agency communication at its best. It would be nice if instead of spending money on something they should have done right the first time, they could spend it filling in the death-trap potholes on Kildaire.

Beautiful. Inter-agency communication at its best. It would be nice if instead of spending money on something they should have done right the first time, they could spend it filling in the death-trap potholes on Kildaire.

Yes, and I've talked to the engineer about Kildaire (I bike commute that section). It's a state maintained road, which the Town of Cary ordinarily won't touch. They made an exception for Cary Parkway, I think partly because of the amount of damage done by utility work along it, and possibly because of the volume of complaints from Cary residents. (The fact that it's called "Cary" Parkway probably factored in as well.)

Black paint has been used here for same purpose which as Steve points out wears off. It is also very slippery as it is nothing special black paint.

Heat? Sounds like someone didn't read the specs. Mfg should also have some ideas.

http://www.ranjos.com/ARS/ARS.htm

http://www.ranjos.com/bucket%20razor.htm

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TP_RES/research_notes/rsn02-05.pdf

Make one lane a bike lane. Apply bike lane stencils. Two narrow lanes versus one WOL right?

Until it needs resurfaced in 10-20 years, just put up signs "use left lane to pass cyclist, cyclist may use full right lane"

I have to agree with CB HI...

13' vs 12' really isn't enough to justify the cost to redo the road. Seriously... 13' still isn't -REALLY- wide enough to safely share.... and it's wide enough that a lot of people will think it IS safe. Sounds like a recipe for lots of very close passes to me.

This is a busy arterial posted 45 mph with infrequent intersections and only a few commercial driveways; most cyclists ride on the right edge of the lane next to the wide gutter pan, which, fortunately, is in good condition and level with new asphalt. There are occasional close passes on the 13' sections when cyclists ride to the right. (I personally ride the right side of the lane on this road except when descending hills or approaching intersections, or riding with a group.) The close passes are more frequent in the 12' sections.

Given the lack of alternative routes, and the original striping with 13' WOLs (and some sections appear to be 14') Cary signed the road as a bike route and marked it on the city bike map. If the road is returned to 12' lane widths I expect there might be some pressure to remove its bike route status.

Of course, I'd rather the road had 15' or wider outside lanes and lots of practical alternate routes, but given what we have to work with, I think Cary Parkway would be better with the stripe moved left a bit.