Institute for Transportation

About the research

The selection of pavement marking materials for state and local roads is an increasingly complex and high-stakes challenge, affecting roadway safety, long-term maintenance costs, and the integration of emerging vehicle technologies. With a wide range of available materials, including paints, thermoplastics, tapes, epoxies, polyurea, and methyl methacrylate (MMA)—with each exhibiting different performance characteristics and life spans—transportation agencies struggle to determine the most effective option for specific roadway conditions. This challenge is compounded by variations in pavement surfaces, traffic volumes, climate conditions, winter maintenance practices, and installation quality, all of which influence the durability and visibility of markings. The lack of a standardized selection process has led to inconsistencies in pavement marking choices across different regions of the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT), resulting in inefficient resource allocation and unpredictable maintenance schedules.

Many agencies make decisions based on historical practices rather than objective, data-driven evaluations of performance and cost-effectiveness. This inconsistency increases the risk of premature marking failure, safety hazards, and higher long-term costs due to frequent restriping. Driver needs have been a primary driving force behind the choice of pavement marking materials and the strategies for their maintenance. The ultimate goal of pavement markings is to provide guidance and information to road users, ensuring safe and efficient travel, especially in challenging driving conditions when other visual cues are reduced. Rapid advancements in the automotive industry have given rise to new opportunities, while also challenging agencies to keep up with these changes. Driver needs have evolved to encompass both the human drivers and the machine vision/artificial intelligence (AI) systems designed to assist them. As such, the role of pavement markings in supporting Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving Systems (ADS) cannot be overlooked. These technologies, which rely on cameras and sensors to detect lane markings, have the potential to reduce crashes caused by human error and distracted driving. However, their effectiveness is directly tied to the quality and consistency of pavement markings. Without a reliable framework for selecting and maintaining markings that meet both human and machine-readability requirements, the state risks falling behind in the transition to safer, technology-enhanced roadways.

About the research

As the number of large loads increases in South Dakota, the risk of collisions with bridges is also rising. Bridge strikes can lead to unexpected costs and safety hazards. The traveling public may experience significant consequences from these incidents, including fatal or severe injuries, detours and delays, and rerouting of heavy loads due to reduced structural capacity. To prevent bridge strikes, transportation agencies take measures ranging from passive signing of warnings or clearance heights and widths, to physical barriers placed prior to the bridge, to active warning systems that detect vehicle heights and widths, warn drivers via flashing beacons, digital message signs, or in-cab notifications, and alert the agency’s operations center. Other agencies have attempted to protect bridges with sacrificial energy-absorbing materials applied to the structure. The applicability and effectiveness of these measures depend on factors such as bridge characteristics, road
geometry, sight distance, traffic volume, travel speed, bypass opportunity, and others. Detecting actual bridge strikes is essential to incident response, assessing structural damage, initiating
repair, and identifying motor carriers financially responsible for damage.

About the research

The objectives of this five-year Transportation Pooled Fund study are to evaluate conventional and new technologies and procedures for testing concrete and concrete materials to prevent material and construction problems that could lead to premature concrete pavement distress, and to develop a suite of tests that provides a comprehensive method of ensuring long-term pavement performance. A preliminary suite of tests to ensure long-term pavement performance has been developed. Shadow construction projects are being conducted to evaluate the preliminary suite of tests. A mobile concrete testing laboratory has been designed and equipped to facilitate the shadow projects. The results of the project are being compiled in a user-friendly field manual, which will be available by summer 2006.

About the research

The ILT is a Map Objects/Visual Basic application for locate incidents such as crashes and traffic violations using a digital map. The ILT is an integrated component of an electronic forms management application called Traffic and Criminal Software (TraCS) developed by Iowa Department of Transportation. TraCS is currently a multi-state, collaborative effort involving law enforcement and transportation agencies from 23 States and a Canadian Province.

The ILT is designed for ease of use by users lacking prior technical exposure to GIS or GPS applications. The geographic data supporting the ILT serve as the basis for a multitude of programs and systems within Iowa, in contrast to the obsolete node-based referencing scheme previously used solely for the location of crashes. The ILT allowed the Iowa DOT to end the maintenance and production of nodes for crash location referencing purposes, and simultaneously, yield greater return on investment in geographic information system data developed and maintained for other purposes. The ILT has been customized for and deployed in several states (see the list of sponsors).