Roads are our lifeblood. I’m sure we can all think back to when we were kids, the whole family squeezing into the car and heading out on our nation’s roads to beaches and baches for family days out and holidays every summer. If you’re anything like us, the road markings and sign posts you saw along the way during heated games of ‘I spy’ are etched into your childhood memories.

Keeping New Zealand safe

It may seem mundane or dull to some, but at Coastline Markers this is our life. We understand the role our nation’s roads play in our everyday lives. The condition of our roads is critical to our families’ safety, as well as our nation’s economy. In remote areas like those in our country’s upper North Island, safe and well-marked roads and highways are a vital part of our livelihood.

Minimising disruptions

We are acutely aware of this at Coastline Markers so whenever we carry out a project we make sure to minimise disruptions as best we can. As winter winds and rain lash the North Island, we are currently making the most of whatever dry periods we get to lay the road markings for a 200km stretch of road on State Highway 1 from Ohaeawai to Puhoi in Northland. We’ve been installing audio tactile paving (ATP), also known as rumble strips, along the centrelines and in missing areas of the edgelines.

Wet weather really hampers how much work we can do because we need the roads to be dry and the cold overnight temperatures affect drying times. We never want to adversely affect the public and their journey times so we try to work at night so as to minimise the inconvenience people experience.

A large fleet of the latest, computer-controlled line marking and line removal vehicles and equipment aids this cause while providing the highest possible levels of safety. As we start to get some warmer and drier weather we will be back onto night shifts to get the job completed inside a month.

Reducing crashes

Safety is the core reason for our existence. ATP road markings have been shown in a raft of studies to significantly reduce all types of crashes1. Centreline ATP markings help to reduce head-on and sideswipe crashes1, so we see this project as a much-needed addition to the region.

The project also included the installation of cold applied plastic (CAP) road markings from Dargaville to Ruawai on State Highway 12. A section of road had recently been resurfaced and needed CAP and ATP installed. Despite the prevailing rain, we were able to get enough work done in the gaps of dry weather to complete this additional job inside 5 days. CAP road markings are our bread and butter at Coastline Markers.

We are the leaders in Cold Applied Plastic application and technology in Australasia. Our CAP road markings provide a high and consistent level of retro reflectivity over a long period of time throughout the toughest of conditions. The 3D structured application provides excellent wet night visibility, helping to promote driver safety.

Read more about the safety benefits of ATP road markings…

http://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/audio-tactile-profiled-roadmarkings-guidelines/docs/atp-guidelines.pdf

1 Guidelines for using audio tactile profiled (ATP) roadmarkings (2010). NZ Transport Agency. http://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/audio-tactile-profiled-roadmarkings-guidelines/docs/atp-guidelines.pdf