1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,037 (dramatic whoosh) 2 00:00:08,305 --> 00:00:09,138 - [Voice-Over] There's 3 00:00:09,138 --> 00:00:11,170 a multimillion dollar maintenance problem 4 00:00:11,170 --> 00:00:14,020 that's occurring in Texas's cold country. 5 00:00:14,020 --> 00:00:17,050 Snowplows are inadvertently scraping off 6 00:00:17,050 --> 00:00:19,850 the retroreflective pavement markers, 7 00:00:19,850 --> 00:00:21,300 which are applied to pavements 8 00:00:21,300 --> 00:00:23,020 for safety purposes. 9 00:00:23,020 --> 00:00:25,440 - When that takes place, our road is now 10 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:27,440 without an additional safety device 11 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:28,510 for a period of time 12 00:00:28,510 --> 00:00:30,720 until we can get it reinstalled. 13 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:32,510 And then the second thing is, 14 00:00:32,510 --> 00:00:36,120 is that when those RPMs are knocked off the road, 15 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,050 there's a significant reinstall cost 16 00:00:39,050 --> 00:00:41,760 that TxDOT spends placing those back. 17 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:43,440 And that can be millions of dollars 18 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:44,920 across the whole state. 19 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:46,350 - [Voice-Over] It's a nagging problem. 20 00:00:46,350 --> 00:00:47,580 But thanks to researchers 21 00:00:47,580 --> 00:00:49,510 with the Center for Transportation Research 22 00:00:49,510 --> 00:00:51,330 at the University of Texas, 23 00:00:51,330 --> 00:00:53,410 help could be in the works. 24 00:00:53,410 --> 00:00:54,740 - We did conduct a survey, 25 00:00:54,740 --> 00:00:55,970 as part of this project, 26 00:00:55,970 --> 00:00:57,620 to various TxDOT Districts 27 00:00:57,620 --> 00:00:59,250 to try to get a better understanding 28 00:00:59,250 --> 00:01:02,620 about how large is this problem. 29 00:01:02,620 --> 00:01:04,210 Is it only 10% of the markers 30 00:01:04,210 --> 00:01:05,600 that are being removed? 31 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,050 And you had some districts such as Amarillo, 32 00:01:08,050 --> 00:01:09,606 I believe they said around 90% 33 00:01:09,606 --> 00:01:12,380 of their RPMs are removed every single year 34 00:01:12,380 --> 00:01:14,350 just due to snowplow operations. 35 00:01:14,350 --> 00:01:15,400 So, for this project, 36 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:16,900 what we decided to do was 37 00:01:16,900 --> 00:01:18,730 to look at rumble strips. 38 00:01:18,730 --> 00:01:20,270 However, the really cool thing 39 00:01:20,270 --> 00:01:21,330 about these rumble strips are 40 00:01:21,330 --> 00:01:22,780 that they have grooves. 41 00:01:22,780 --> 00:01:25,400 So, the idea behind this project was 42 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,657 maybe we can use these rumble strips grooves 43 00:01:28,657 --> 00:01:30,940 and use those grooves as a way 44 00:01:30,940 --> 00:01:34,210 to protect the RPMs from being dislodged. 45 00:01:34,210 --> 00:01:36,180 You want to put these markers 46 00:01:36,180 --> 00:01:37,500 as deep as possible, 47 00:01:37,500 --> 00:01:38,620 because that is going to 48 00:01:38,620 --> 00:01:39,920 provide the most protection 49 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:41,090 against the snowplow. 50 00:01:41,090 --> 00:01:43,900 But, the purpose of these markers are actually 51 00:01:43,900 --> 00:01:45,680 to provide nighttime visibility. 52 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:47,860 So you have this optimization problem 53 00:01:47,860 --> 00:01:50,268 in which you want to put them as low as possible, 54 00:01:50,268 --> 00:01:53,820 but still have good nighttime retroflectivity. 55 00:01:53,820 --> 00:01:55,230 - [Glenn] We picked a road out 56 00:01:55,230 --> 00:01:56,890 and then we put these RPMs 57 00:01:56,890 --> 00:01:58,130 inside the rumble strips, 58 00:01:58,130 --> 00:01:59,890 and we ran the snowplow over it 59 00:01:59,890 --> 00:02:01,440 as a short test strip. 60 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:03,420 And then with a positive outcome 61 00:02:03,420 --> 00:02:05,240 from that result, then we took that 62 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:07,010 and we put it in one location 63 00:02:07,010 --> 00:02:08,749 in the Wichita Falls District. 64 00:02:08,749 --> 00:02:10,730 And then we put it in another location 65 00:02:10,730 --> 00:02:12,950 in the Amarillo District, two different roads. 66 00:02:12,950 --> 00:02:16,410 And so we got to see 'em function 67 00:02:16,410 --> 00:02:18,810 in a pretty small test section, 68 00:02:18,810 --> 00:02:21,400 but actually in the field after a snow storm. 69 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:23,820 And we had positive results. 70 00:02:23,820 --> 00:02:25,110 - We're finding that, 71 00:02:25,110 --> 00:02:27,019 when we have snowplow operations, 72 00:02:27,019 --> 00:02:29,460 when we're taking these low profile markers 73 00:02:29,460 --> 00:02:31,970 and just embedding them into the rumble strips 74 00:02:31,970 --> 00:02:34,520 that you'll have around 75% to 80% 75 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,100 of your markers still being present 76 00:02:37,100 --> 00:02:40,650 on the pavement surface compared to 90% 77 00:02:40,650 --> 00:02:43,070 of your markers being dislodged. 78 00:02:43,070 --> 00:02:44,940 We do see qualitatively 79 00:02:44,940 --> 00:02:47,490 that we have really good retroflectivity. 80 00:02:47,490 --> 00:02:50,240 So, the next stage for this project 81 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:52,650 is actually to do an implementation project 82 00:02:52,650 --> 00:02:56,150 in which we're utilizing this method 83 00:02:56,150 --> 00:02:58,600 in highways across Texas. 84 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,040 - Hopefully, if all this is successful, 85 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:03,780 we can can work maybe 86 00:03:03,780 --> 00:03:05,930 to start getting this put into some 87 00:03:05,930 --> 00:03:08,850 of our standards and start trying 88 00:03:08,850 --> 00:03:10,670 to implement more statewide. 89 00:03:10,670 --> 00:03:11,760 - [Voice-Over] For more information 90 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,300 and to find the publications for this project, 91 00:03:14,300 --> 00:03:17,200 please visit the TxDOT research library 92 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:18,763 at the link shown below.