Jaclyn Figg

Staff Writer

Environmentalism or going green, is a movement most people, especially college students, are aware of, although the transition from a routine process into one with reduced environmental impact can be troublesome.

Recycling, building a compost, or using alternative power sources are ways to help the environment, but painting traffic lines with a less invasive latex paint is something else to consider.

“We had to switch to latex because of the volatile organ compounds in [oil based] paint; that’s just been a mandate that has come about,” said Tom Kirkman superintendent of the street operations department. 

After the reconstruction of Martin Luther King Jr Way (MLK) last year, the adjoining intersections traffic flow underwent realignment.

City workers blacked out old traffic lines with a fuel coat according to Kirkman and then striped on new lines using a latex based paint.

“What they used to cover the old lines has worn off,” said Jason Adams, ISU facilities services project manager and engineer.

According to Kirkman, Pocatello went through a rough winter with a lot of precipitation wearing off the new lines as well as the oil off the old stripes.

MLK traffic stripes are arranged different from before construction so the intersections with old lines showing through are awkward and the lines don’t quite add up.

“I’ve heard maybe one or two complaints,” Adams said. “The city is aware of it and they’re just waiting for the weather to be appropriate so they can go out there and fix it.”

Unfortunately, to fix the problem, weather conditions must be appropriate and somewhat consistent.

Temperatures must be warmer and must stay above 50 degrees at night before the city can apply paint to the roads.

“We’re asking people to be patient until we can get some good weather to go in there and correct the problem,” Kirkman said.

The city is considering grinding off the old stripes to avoid this problem reoccurring.

Initially, the seal coat was used to prevent future maintence.

“We tried to blacken out the stripes because to go grind the stripes off is labor intensive and hard on the pavement,” Kirkman said.

Normally a seal coat is preferred; the paint was so thick it didn’t stick but rather just wore it off.

Another issue with grinding the stripes off is at night or when it rains, they are still visible because of the depressions in the ground.

“There’s really not a good solution for fixing the realigning intersections like that,” Kirkman said.

“It’s complicated, it’s definitely not the way we wanted it to work out but that’s where we’re at and we’ll address it when we get some good weather,” Kirkman said.

Pocatello roads are restriped every year due to deterioration of the lines.

The latex paint now used for the lines does not last as long as the oil based paints used in the past.

“With the environmental concerns people had with the other oil based and enamel paints we’re not allowed to use them anymore so we use latex paint,” Kirkman said.

The city purchases its paint in 500 gallon totes which then go into the striping machines.

Suppliers quit making the oil based paint in these quantities.

There have not been reported accidents due to the misaligned road lines.

“From my observations people have been safe as they travel the road,” Adams said.

Plans are in the working to fix the lines adjoining MLK Drive as soon as weather permits.

“That will be one of the first one’s when we go striping,” Kirkman said. “That will be the first one on the list to get taken care of.”