Road Dust: A Health Hazard Hidden in Plain Sight

Legacy heavy metals from past industrial activity combine with traffic paint; asphalt; and bits of tires, brakes, and car parts to create toxic dust on our roadways.

Modernizing and Streamlining Waterborne Traffic Paint Specifications

Quick-dry waterborne traffic paints have dramatically improved since their introduction more than 25 years ago, largely because of improvements in waterborne polymer technology. Paints today can be designed to better meet the needs of the pavement marking industry, but the improved performance is only realized when specifications are kept up to date. Because of the many separate specifying agencies, there is significant disparity in specifications in terms of approach, requirements, test types and procedures, and language. Furthermore, specifications are commonly filled with historical remnants (i.e., tests that are outdated or redundant or that do not predict or correlate with performance in the field). This paper draws on three decades of laboratory and field trial data to demonstrate some of the variation in performance from one paint to another and to provide some guidance on what types of tests and specifications can help a road authority ensure it is getting good quality traffic paint. The data are presented to outline and propose strategies for updating, improving, and streamlining waterborne traffic paint specifications.