CLEARFIELD – PennDOT roadway line painting begins, as crews in District 2 begin line painting in Mifflin, Juniata, and Centre counties within the next few weeks.
Emphasis will be placed on painting high volume roadways first such as, expressways, freeways, and the interstate. Lower priority routes within the district will be painted later in the summer.
To help improve the visibility of the road lines and enhance roadway safety, crews are painting lines throughout the district. By the end of this line painting season, PennDOT District 2 will paint over nine thousand line miles and will use more than 150,000 gallons of white and yellow paint. Over 520 tons of glass beads were embedded into the paint for better reflectivity.
Duane Pataky, District 2’s Supervisor for Traffic Field Operations said, “Safety is our number one concern during all painting operations”.
In an effort to help decrease smeared paint lines and to help increase roadway safety, PennDOT reminds motorists of the following tips:
• The line painting operation is a moving operation. “LINE PAINTING – WET PAINT” signs and flashing lights are mounted on the back of equipment to warn motorists of the painting operation.
• Motorists should stay at least eight to ten car lengths behind line painting equipment to avoid running over wet paint. The paint spray guns are two inches off the roadway surface and cannot spray a vehicle. Paint can only get on a vehicle if a driver runs over wet lines.
• Depending on weather and surface conditions, paint can take more than five minutes to dry. When poor conditions arise, the paint operation is put on hold until conditions improve.
• Motorists should never pass a paint truck unless instructed to do so by a police officer or PennDOT crew member.
• The paint truck will pull over to allow cars to pass when conditions are safe to do so.
“If a motorist should happen to get paint on their vehicle it can be removed by soaking with cleaning products such as “Simple Green”, “Oops”, or “WD40” and then power washing at a car wash. The paint we are using is a water based paint and can be removed with household cleaning products.” Mr. Pataky added.