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Pavement Markings – Regulations / Standards

SUPPLEMENTAL NOTICE OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT (SNPA)

At this time, there are no federally required minimum levels of retroreflectivity for pavement markings. On April 22, 2010, a standard for maintaining minimum retroreflectivity of longitudinal pavement markings was published as a notice of proposed rulemaking in the federal register. A Supplemental Notice of Proposed Amendment (SNPA) proposes a revised set of standards to be incorporated in the MUTCD. The documents listed below are final drafts. The official version was published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2017, and may be viewed along with all the official supplemental documents at www.regulations.gov. Search for FHWA-2009-0139.

• MUTCD Supplemental Notice of Proposed Amendment (SNPA) – Federal Register Notice [HTML, PDF ]
  This document, developed as part of the rulemaking process, provides the background and detail explaining the proposal.

• SNPA Proposed MUTCD Language [HTML, PDF ]
  This link shows the proposed pavement marking retroreflectivity MUTCD text.

• Methods for Maintaining Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity – Draft Report for the SNPA [HTML, PDF ]
  This report is referenced as guidance in the SNPA MUTCD Language. It provides detailed information on methods that may be used to comply with the proposed standard.

• Revised Assessment of Economic Impacts related to the SNPA [HTML, PDF ]
  This report explains the analysis that was performed to estimate costs and potential benefits associated with SNPA.

Please submit all comments to the docket.

For background on what was proposed in 2010:

NOTICE OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT (NPA)

• MUTCD Notice of Proposed Amendment – Federal Register Notice [HTML, PDF ]
  Proposal for a standard for maintaining minimum retroreflectivity of longitudinal pavement markings published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2010. This document, developed as part of the rulemaking process, provides the background and detail explaining the proposal.
• MUTCD Language – Maintaining Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity:
  This link shows the proposed pavement marking retroreflectivity MUTCD text. Note that this proposal was named Revision 1 to the 2009 MUTCD at the time this NPA was published. Since that time, FHWA published Revisions 1 and 2 to the MUTCD, unrelated to pavement marking retroreflectivity. Amendments are numbered in the order that final rules become effective, therefore the actual revision number for pavement marking retroreflectivity will not be assigned until a final rule is published.
• Summary of Proposed MUTCD Retroreflectivity Pavement Marking Standard:
  This brief summarizes the technical details of the 2010 Notice of Proposed Rulemakings. [Publication No. FHWA-SA-10-015]
• Revised Assessment of Economic Impacts of Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity:
  Final Report: Revised Assessment of Economic Impacts of Implementing Minimum Levels of Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity. This updated report estimates increased costs of 3.2 percent of the current costs to implement the improved retroreflectivity of longitudinal markings in the proposed rulemaking. [Publication No. FHWA-SA-10-16]

For hard copies of documents with publication numbers, please send a request to report.center@dot.gov and include the publication number and title, along with the number of copies and your mailing address and phone number. Requests will be filled based on availability.

For information about traffic control devices and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), other than visibility or retroreflectivity, please see FHWA's MUTCD website