Retroreflectivity is the primary metric for assessing how visible a marking is at night. It is a measurement of how much light from a vehicle’s headlights reflects off the pavement marking back to the driver’s eye. In July 2022, the Federal Highway Administration released Revision 3 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). The revision includes guidance on maintaining longitudinal markings on roadways at or above minimum retroreflectivity levels.

This presentation covers ARA’s three-year effort to support the North Texas Tollway Authority in managing pavement markings at the network level. It begins by introducing the basics of pavement marking retroreflectivity testing, followed by the case study. The presentation explains how ARA adopted NTTA’s requirements and laid the groundwork for the project. It also covers the steps involved in data collection and processing, the creation of a condition rating system, and the annual reporting of condition category percentages. Additionally, it highlights the development of degradation curves and the anticipated service lives of markings, concluding with enhancements made in later years to provide a more granular analysis by corridor and segment.