That is a good thought and I’ve see it used on the right shoulder to do what you suggested. Centerlines, however, need to be reflective to be useful at night and the depressed-markings idea seems like it would allow water to pool over the stripes. Might also make for a control problem for motorcycles.
Also likely wouldn’t work in cold climates with snow… State employed snowplows are unlikely to care if they hit and remove the markers. They would simply get scraped up with the snow.
I’ve noticed that we don’t have those “round dot” markers up here, like they do in some places in the south.
Okay, do you see this occurring under the solid white breakdown lane line? Or the solid line next to the median strip? The same material is used for striping there, but sometimes they pave the breakdown lane or the far left as part of the adjacent lane. If so, there would be no joint, so this could narrow down whether it was the striping or the joint. Actually, from your further description, I wonder if water is being trapped in porous pavement cold joints below the striping, which would accelerate the freeze thaw problem.
What I don’t buy is the answer that the high heat of the thermoplastic is causing the problem. Pavement goes down at 300 degrees or more, and joints are sometimes sealed with infrared (sorry, no information as the temperature). Heat doesn’t seem to be a problem with pavement.
No, I was the guy you hated when you were raking. I work for an engineering firm, and I’ve been a paving inspector on more jobs than I can count. You know when you drive by a work crew on the highway, and one guy always has his hands in his pockets? Yep, that was me!
Was there a lap dance with that? 
…here’s an idea, and I’ll be the first to admit it might be foolish.
Could there have been anything about old striping underneath the current surface pavement that would cause that part of the surface to not adhere to the old pavement very well? Could there be any chemical in the old striping that could have caused some weakening in the last overlay?
It does seem odd that the surface pavement could fail for only the constant width observed.
STRIPER :smack: Jeeez. I used to give people crap for making that same mistake all the time. :smack:
And no, no loot rake fits these hands. I started in this field as a STRIPER, crewleader on paint and thermoplastic jobs. Later got into County programs, contracts and inspections related to Traffic Engineering. I too was the guy with the white truck and a roll of bluelines in his hand, standing around as well.
This is not to say the Out-Of-Town jobs did not include a lap dance on occasion 
I haven’t noticed, but I’ll try to pay more attention next time I’m down that way. But if those lines are not disturbed, I wonder if that can be attributed to those areas not being touched by snow plows as much.
This would seem possible only if the newer stripes were placed exactly over the older ones. That doesn’t seem likely.
Arrgh. Eating some serious foot here :smack:
Mass Highway Directive E-05-003 dated June 16, 2005.
I’ve talked to the folks in our transportation department, and they have just been made aware of this, although the reasons have not been particularly forthcoming from MHD. Well, eventually the truth will out, I suppose. Kudos to Dopers for being ahead of the curve on this.
All I can say in my own defense is that thermoplastic I have never had an issue with Top Course or Modified Top Course paving that is used in most cities and towns. This seems to be limited to OGFC paving that is used in highways.