August 14, 2009 – Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) reports the
successful implementation of coloured pavement markings in construction zones.
“The
Ministry of Transportation (MTO) enforces safety in construction zones by
requiring contractors to inform road users of construction with visual signals:
signing, lane striping, raised lane markers, painted symbols, and messages on
the road surface. With these safety measures, driver confusion may still arise
due to scarred pavement from previous marking removal and remaining traces of
old markings. In response to this, MTO has been looking to other highway
agencies and countries for additional visual solutions to improve road safety
during construction.
For
some time, the Netherlands
and Germany
have been using temporary, special coloured, pavement markings to help guide
traffic through construction areas. Similarly, MTO is adopting the use of
temporary special coloured markings to minimize the probability of driver
confusion while approaching, driving through, and exiting a construction zone.
MTO
is also taking this idea a step further by choosing fluorescent orange pavement
markings to provide colour correlation with the existing orange, visual
construction signs and barrels in Ontario
construction zones. MTO is restricting this new tool to alignment changes
in construction zones on divided multilane roadways only. This construction
season, the orange construction zone pavement markings can be seen on Highways
427, QEW, and 409, where they have received many positive reactions from road
users.”
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