Crews will spend six months, from mid-April through October, restriping more than 4,500 miles of highways around Puget Sound. Next to snow and ice removal, striping is our top safety priority. Each gallon of paint contains thousands of tiny glass reflector beads to help increase visibility in dark or rainy conditions.
Remember to give striping crews plenty of room and watch for the “wet paint” signs on Puget Sound highways. Although WSDOT uses fast-drying, water-based paint, driving over fresh stripes or changing lanes when following a striping crew removes the reflectivity of the stripe and can splatter paint onto the vehicles.
We can only stripe when the road is dry and the temperature is above 50 degrees.
Watch out for "wet paint" signs
The paint we use is engineered to last, so it may be very difficult to remove from your vehicle if you drive on it while it's wet. Once we spray the paint on the roadway, it can take as little as thirty seconds or as long as five minutes to dry. We recommend you try not to drive over these freshly painted lines as doing so can remove the reflectivity of the paint.
View more photos on our Flickr site.
Be prepared
- Listen to traffic reports for information about when and where striping crews will be on the road.
- Watch for “wet paint” warning signs and warning trucks.
- Don't change lanes behind a striping truck.
Find out where crews are striping for the week of May 5
If you do happen to drive over wet paint, it should be removed within the hour by a high-pressure hose. The state will deny all reimbursement claims if a driver crosses wet paint when wet paint warning signs are present.
What's so special about the paint?
The paint we use is water based (better for the environment) and contains thousands of little glass beads which allows it to reflect lots of light even at night.
When vehicle headlights hit the paint, tiny spheres in the glass beads reflect the light, making the stripes brighter for drivers in dark or rainy conditions.
By the numbers
- In 2008 we will use 70,000 gallons of paint mixed with 548,492 pounds of recycled glass beads
- A typical striping crew can put down 40 miles of stripes per day
How can I get more information?
Contact:
WSDOT Communications
Broch Bender
15700 Dayton Avenue North
PO Box 330310 MS: 103
Seattle, WA 98133-9710
Phone: 206.440.4455
E-mail: benderb@wsdot.wa.gov
