M40 Line Marking Motorway Safety Improvement Scheme
Introduction
Line markings are a fundamental contribution to road safety. Essentially, they turn a non-descript, black surface into a road; shaping a driver’s perception of space and influencing behaviour.
During the hours of darkness, the retro-reflectivity of road markings on the highway is essential to enable the driver to follow highway geometry. The miniature glass spheres embedded within road markings return light from a vehicle’s headlights back to the driver and it is this feature which is particularly important during adverse wet weather or on unlit carriageways where visibility of the road is greatly reduced.
The M40 motorway is one of the principal arteries linking London and the southeast to Birmingham and the greater northwest region. The (Design, Build, Finance and Operate) DBFO Area 30 (M40) network operations and maintenance contract was originally awarded to Egis as a partner within UK Highways M40 Limited and covers the majority of the route, starting at Junction 1A on the M25 Orbital to Junction 15 for Warwick. The operational and maintenance project consists of 123km of 3-lane motorway and 7km of 4-lane motorway in both directions with the current maintenance contract running until January 2027.
Egis collaborates very closely with UK Highways M40, Highways England and other stakeholders undertaking core services of Network Management, Accident and Emergency Response, Winter Maintenance, Safety Inspections, Cyclical and Routine Maintenance including the replacement of Road Marking and Road Studs.
As a business, Egis looks for effective treatments which provide best performance and cost savings. To ensure high drive comfort and safety standards, the pavement surface is regularly inspected with a pro-active maintenance routine.
Quality Marking Services has differentiated itself within the line marking industry by innovatively developing environmentally sustainable line markings that demonstrate high retro-reflectivity performance from the day of installation and throughout service lifetime.
Believing in better is a major component of continual improvement and ingrained within the QMS culture. Always abreast of technology enhancements, the decision was taken early 2019 to develop a new service by investing in survey equipment. QMS LifeLine™ is an award-winning service offering, utilising a mobile retro-reflectometer driven at traffic speeds, to test and record line markings and road studs, producing a fully detailed condition survey of the network and enabling improvements in the strategic maintenance programme.
All road markings and studs are assessed in accordance with Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, CS 126 Inspection and assessment of road markings and road studs and BSEN:ISO 1436.
Requiring no Traffic Management, the QMS LifeLine™ survey is undertaken whilst driving according to traffic conditions. Scanning the road at over 400 times per second, QMS LifeLine™ utilises the latest technology Laserlux LLG7 equipment, automatically adjusting height from the surface to maintain 30 metre geometry and accuracy of readings.
QMS LifeLine™ is GPS and Marker Post enabled, precisely measuring visibility and retro-reflectivity levels of road markings and road studs. Arrows, letters and ancillary markings are pinpointed with GPS reference for their location. The condition of road markings and symbols can also be detailed with user intervention. The technology simultaneously counts and categorises road studs to assist with future maintenance planning.
The survey vehicle, including the Laserlux LLG7 equipment, is maintained within the traffic lane during testing without the need to travel the equipment directly on top of the road marking. Safety for the driver and passing motorists is ensured as positioning within the traffic lane is no different to the standard driving position.
The road network is also captured on forward facing video enabling visual verification of surface conditions and providing a valuable record of additional information. The references embedded within the video files link directly to the spreadsheet and KML files for easy viewing and identification.
Results
Egis Road Operation M40 identified that replacement and renewal line marking programmes based on visual inspections were subject to human bias and could not be independently or retrospectively audited. They commissioned the QMS LifeLine™ survey of their whole network in May 2019 in order to use the intelligence gained for enhanced asset management.
On presentation of the results the variety of viewing formats made the data very quick and easy to interpret. The accurate retro-reflectivity performance and asset condition mapping enabled a new maintenance strategy to be implemented.
The detailed breakdown of the pavement asset meant it was simple to instigate a location-specific maintenance regime rather than a blanket “overspray” or “remove/replace” of line markings.
The Egis M40 technical team decided to trial our award winning QMS HyperLine™ ULTRA on lane lines rather than using their traditional treatment with the aim of improving lane guidance with high visibility markings especially during wet conditions.
Quality Marking Services developed and introduced the proprietary QMS HyperLine™ system for the overmarking / rejuvenation of existing markings in 2006. This system was awarded “Road Marking Product of the Year” in 2009 with QMS HyperLine™ ULTRA achieving RSMA “Innovation of the Year” in 2016 and continues to excel with its durable performance.
QMS HyperLine™ is a cold applied, high-performance road marking system containing no solvents, no lead chromates and no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The reflective glass beads are locked into the resin by the electronically controlled application of sprayed acrylic resin to the highway substrate. Drying in less than one minute, the capillary action of the resin film around each individual bead ensures that they remain firmly embedded within the pavement surface material resulting in an extremely high-performance road marking which retains outstanding retro-reflectivity values throughout the functional life of the line.
Proven on high-speed networks for over 17 years, QMS HyperLine™ is considered the highest performing, most environmentally friendly and cost-effective line marking maintenance solution currently available.
QMS HyperLine™ is suitable for the overspraying of raised rib edge lines and lane lines (flat or profiled) and contains glass beads manufactured from recycled glass otherwise destined for landfill.
QMS HyperLine™ ULTRA is designed specifically for lane lines in locations where greater retro-reflectivity performance is required. The base material is the identical solvent free, acrylic resin with the addition of a unique formulation of multi-sized glass beads with a higher refractive index. These specially selected glass beads concentrate the beam of light more than ordinary beads increasing the power of retro-reflective performance.
The acrylic resin locks the beads into the line and due to the size of the beads they protrude above the water level providing enhanced wet-night visibility. The light reflected back to the driver from the vehicle’s headlights is therefore intensified because QMS HyperLine™ ULTRA creates an exceptionally bright contrast to the dark-night road surface, especially in wet conditions.
