Special-Color Pavement Marking for Highway Work Zones: An International Practices Literature Review

Roadway lanes are often repositioned to accommodate highway work operations, resulting in a need to alter pavement markings. Although there are various methods for removing or obscuring existing pavement markings, “ghost” markings often remain at the locations of the old lane lines. These ghost markings can be quite conspicuous under certain lighting conditions, creating the potential for road user confusion. The Canadian province of Ontario and several European countries routinely use a special marking color (orange or yellow) to increase the salience of temporary lane lines. Special-color markings have also been used experimentally Australia, New Zealand, Quebec, and the United States. As a first step toward identifying the benefits and risks of special-color markings, existing practices from several countries are reviewed and summarized in this paper. The review identified a significant policy difference among jurisdictions: in some jurisdictions special-color markings override existing markings (such that the old markings are left in place), while other jurisdictions use special-color temporary marking but also attempt to remove old lane lines. The recent special-color marking demonstration projects in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States have been on major freeways, but European practice suggests that special-color marking could have significant benefit for urban arterial streets.