New contrast markings on Arkansas highways will soon increase visibility

Little Rock, Arkansas – Travelers should anticipate a few changes during their commute as part of the latest project from the Arkansas Department of Transportation, which aims to improve safety on select state highways.

As part of their effort to improve driver safety, ARDOT road personnel will be changing lane markings on interstates and roads across Arkansas during the next months.

According to David Weston, ARDOT is painting these contrast pavement markings on all state-wide divided concrete roadways.

“We have 380 centerline concrete miles of highways in our system,” ARDOT Assistant Division Head of Maintenance David Weston said.
Soon, motorists traveling along the 380 miles of centerline concrete around the state will notice a 10-foot black paint stripe running parallel to the 10-foot white skip lines.
According to Weston, these contrast markers improve safety.

“It’s a low-cost solution to help safety as far as reducing accidents because the motorist and autonomous vehicles can help sense the lane lines better,” Weston said.

This contrast pavement marking initiative’s main goal is to improve visibility in bad weather and in situations where glares from the sun occur.

“It’s going on concrete surfaces instead of black asphalt because sometimes the white skip lines have a tendency to lack visibility due to sunlight glare during the day,” Weston said. “This will help enhance those lane markings.”

According to Weston, the first installation will cost around $150,000 and should last three to four years before the The contrast markings need to be reapplied by the Department of Transportation.

Weston cautioned drivers in Arkansas to expect some sort of lane closure during the next few weeks as workers install the markers.

“Typically, we use a rolling lane closure with safety measures that follow the paint vehicles and our employees,” Weston explained.

Although this is a new concept, Weston encouraged motorists to use caution as road staff finish the work.

“Help protect our workers and our equipment,” Weston said. “It’s a safety enhancement for Arkansans to help them utilize our roadway.”

According to Weston, workers began putting the contrast marks along Interstate 530 in Pine Bluff and, barring the weather, will move on to the Little Rock region in the upcoming weeks.