Answer Woman: Why has NCDOT stopped painting highways? How are road markings maintained?
ASHEVILLE - Today's burning question is about NCDOT road paint, and if markings are keeping pace with driver needs. Got a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Interim Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your question could appear in an upcoming column.
Question: Why has NCDOT stopped painting highways? Road after road, highway after highway has such weak faded lines you can't see center or edge lines. School zones are not marked either. Even more dangerous with all the distracted drivers.
Answer: Though it may sometimes feel like road stripings aren't up to snuff, the North Carolina Department of Transportation offered assurances that this work is always underway.
Anna Henderson, NCDOT Division 13 traffic engineer, told the Citizen Times that 164 miles of NCDOT roadways in Buncombe County had new pavements markings placed in fiscal year 2022.
According to a Dec. 14 email from Henderson and her team, NCDOT maintains 10,875 lane miles of roadway in Division 13, which encompasses Buncombe, Burke, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford and Yancey counties.
Lane miles are the length of the roads multiplied by the number of lanes, and is equal to 5,116 road miles.
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In fiscal year 2022, NCDOT striped 17% of its roads, including 18% of NCDOT roads in Buncombe County.
This comes to 164 road miles in Buncombe County, and 748 in the six other counties it maintains. All of this is in addition to scheduled resurfacing, which includes restriping.
Division 13 pavement markings placed on NCDOT roads in fiscal year 2022 (in linear feet, lane miles and road miles):
Buncombe County: 3,460,450 linear feet; 328 lane miles; 164 road miles
Remaining counties (6): 15,797,895 linear feet; 1,496 lane miles; 748 road miles
Totals: 19,258,345 linear feet; 1,824 lane miles; 912 road miles
"Interstates, U.S. Routes, N.C. Routes, and other higher traffic volume state roads are restriped with long-life markings that last 5 to 7-plus years," Henderson said in an email. "We stripe with paint on lower traffic volume routes — unless they are dead-end roadways less than a mile long — that can last 2-3-plus years."
The striping season generally runs from May to October due to temperature and pavement moisture constraints.
As pavement markings wear over time, they are restriped as needed in between the resurfacing schedules, according to NCDOT. The department identifies which routes in the division would benefit from restriping and prioritizes resident requests within the plan as part of its planning process.
Those with concerns can contact Henderson at aghenderson@ncdot.gov to recommend roads in need of restriping.
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Keep in mind that while the bulk of Buncombe County roads are maintained by NCDOT, the city of Asheville is responsible for 404 miles of city streets, according to its website. Asheville has a total of 564 miles of city and state-maintained streets within its city limits.
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The Public Works department maintains an official inventory of streets that have been accepted for city maintenance, all other streets in the city are maintained either privately or by NCDOT. Find the complete city maintained street inventory here.
If you would like to report potholes or other maintenance needs, use the Asheville App or call 828-259-5832.
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Answer Woman: Is NCDOT still painting Buncombe County roads?
