Degradation Modeling of Polyurea Pavement Markings

Polyurea is a long life, quick-curing material used in pavement markings and a material of interest to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. This article presents a performance model and the characteristics of polyurea pavement markings in North Carolina by using Ordinary Least Squares models. The performance-based models provide pavement marking managers with tools to better allocate limited manpower and resources to optimize budgets while maintaining newly proposed pavement marking retroreflectivity levels of service. This research constructed performance models for polyurea pavement markings based on the independent variables of time, initial retroreflectivity, lateral line location, and annual average daily traffic. Using the models generated by this research, pavement marking managers can predict the remaining life of a given pavement marking to maintain a standard level of service. A key finding of this article is that the type of glass bead used in the marking significantly affects polyurea pavement marking degradation.