Selection of pavement marking materials is often carried out on the basis of conventional considerations of retention of retroreflectivity of stripes, their durability, and their life cycle cost. Two additional often unaddressed considerations of marking materials are likely to be important in making such selections in the future. This is due to future regulatory controls on the volatile organic compound (VOC) content of coating materials used for pavement marking and the increased awareness of the user agencies of the potential health hazards to striping crews routinely exposed to marking materials. This study examines the engineering performance as well as these two additional attributes of common types of marking materials. The environmental performance of the marking materials is surmised from the composition of the marking formulations. A semi-quantitative approach that allows a user to obtain empirical parameters describing the engineering and environmental performance of pavement marking materials is discussed. The application of this methodology to the best available test data, the North-eastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials/South-eastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (NASHTO/SASHTO) data, illustrates its use as a powerful tool in selecting a marking material in particular situations. It is flexible enough to allow a user to take into account historical data at the location of interest as well as non-technical constraints such as cost. (A)
Abstract