United States Department of Transportation
i
Develop Improved Methods for Eliminating Striping on Roadway Surfaces: Final Report
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2023-02-01
[PDF-2.25 MB]
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Edition:Technical Report September 2020 – February 2023
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Abstract:This project investigated current stripes removal techniques, and a laser system was assembled and tested in the field. Current removal techniques, such as flailing and water blasting, can cause damage to the road surface and leave ghost stripes that may distract drivers. A literature review and survey responses from various DOT districts have shown that both flailing and water blasting leave scars, resulting in ghost markings. A laser system was assembled and tested on in-house-made samples for three different types of stripes (i.e., thermo by truck, hot tape, and paint) on concrete, and for white paint on asphalt. Photos were used to evaluate the cleanliness using a MATLAB script calculating Root Mean Squared Errors (RMSEs). Although the stripes were successfully removed, leaving the surface undamaged, the removal speeds were way below other methods (i.e., 1.7 ft/min (0.0193182 miles/hr) for thermo (by truck) stripes, 0.065 ft/min (0.0007386 miles/hr) for paint stripes, and 0.31 ft/min (0.0035227 miles/hr) for hot tape stripes), due to the relatively low output power of the laser (200W). The laser system was also tested in the field, using a pickup truck, showing that the system worked well in a real environment. A higher output power laser (i.e., 1000W) could significantly increase the removal speed of stripes on the road. A similar laser with an average output power of 1000W can be projected to have a removal speed of ~53 ft/min (0.60 miles/hr) for thermo (by truck) stripes, 44.6 ft/min (0.51 miles/hr) for hot tape stripes, and 158 ft/min (1.79 miles/hr) for paint stripes. This report presents the findings from this study, including test procedures and field test implementation of the use of laser technology for stripe ablation.
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