This winter, Clark County installed reflective, yellow dots along the center of Cedar Creek Road from Woodland to Amboy. These were extremely appreciated by those of us who drive this road on dark, rainy nights. However, the reflective dots are almost all gone now. Did the county get ripped off by some contractor using an inferior adhesive? And will the county reapply the dots?
—Gerry Urban, Amboy
They’re bright at night, they’re useful when it’s wet — and they tend to get scraped off by snow plows. The county did warn the public about that in a press release in April 2010.
“The markers are highly visible but vulnerable to snow plows,” said the statement from Clark County Public Works.
Raised pavement markers were installed last year on Northeast Cedar Creek Road as part of a public works project to improve safety on rural roads. The work was paid for with a $400,000 federal grant.
The grant also paid for restriping traffic lanes with highly reflective paint and replacing signs with breakaway posts on some of the county’s most-hazardous rural roads: Washougal River Road, Hayes Road, Blair Road, Davis Road, Ward Road, 72nd Avenue, 179th Street and Risto Road.
Many of these rural roads with sharp curves and narrow shoulders were built more than 50 years ago. They tend to have higher accident rates than urban roads. But the county has been reluctant to install reflective pavement markers in rural, northern Clark County because of heavier snowfall and more frequent plowing.
Public works spokesman Jeff Mize said the county saved $36,700 from the grant “should the pavement markers not survive winter plowing,” and use the money this summer to install new, reflective markers that are slightly recessed into the pavement and have metal flanges to lift plow blades over them.
“The county is optimistic that by experimenting with new technology, it will be able to use recessed pavement markers to improve rural traffic safety without creating an ongoing maintenance problem,” Mize said.
