The clocks have gone back, the evenings are darker and winter is well on the way.
It’s a time of year when road markings become even more important as we go to work, school, or the shops.
In fact, white lines on the road are so common it’s easy to take them for granted, and painting them can be time-consuming and costly – as well as causing disruption to traffic.
To try and prevent this and help improve road safety, East Ayrshire Council has invested in a portable line marking machine, to be used by the Ayrshire Roads Alliance (ARA) on minor roads and housing estates.
Led by East Ayrshire Council, ARA is Scotland’s most innovative public sector partnership and shares Council roads and transportation services across East and South Ayrshire.
Councillor Tom Cook, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety said: “The new machine will allow ARA to paint small sections of lines quickly and efficient and our team is now tackling replacement lines on a priority basis.
“Although the process is weather dependent, the machine uses cold paint technology, so it is faster, the paint is more durable, dries quickly and the whole operation is safer for operators, especially with the days drawing in and winter approaching.
“White lines are now getting refreshed, repaired or replaced in one go by one team, making the process cheaper and much more flexible – and the savings mean the machine will pay for itself in less than two years.
“The additional benefit is that we can quickly make sure road markings are kept clean and visible and that’s an invaluable benefit when driving during the darker hours.
“It’s a practical, common sense solution to an impractical, but very common problem.”
The white line machine cost £40,000 and trained ARA operators are now hard at work on the roads, repairing markings, improving safety – making sure they keep road users on the right lines.
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