In association with WJ Group

Across the UK, highway authorities are being asked to deliver safer networks, reduce disruption, cut carbon and show stronger long-term value from public assets. CIHT describes asset management as a way to maximise value for money, mitigate risk and satisfy stakeholders, while the Well-managed Highway Infrastructure code stresses an integrated approach built on good evidence and sound engineering judgement. At WJ, we believe road markings deserve to be managed with exactly that mindset.

That matters because road markings are safety critical assets. The Department for Transport’s Traffic Signs Manual describes road markings and road studs as providing control, warning, guidance or information for road users. They shape lane discipline, reinforce priority, support speed perception and help people read the road ahead, especially in darkness and wet conditions.

For many authorities, though, road markings have historically been managed reactively. Renewal is often triggered by visual decline, complaints or maintenance cycles rather than a detailed understanding of performance, deterioration and risk. That can lead to money being spent too early in some locations and too late in others. A more effective approach is to treat markings as measurable assets: know what is on the network, understand how it is performing, and intervene where the safety, service and value case is strongest. That is the thinking behind WJ’s Road Marking Asset Management Planning.

Modern survey systems can now assess road marking performance at traffic speed and at network scale. Survey equipment can assess full lane widths in a single pass, using machine vision, GPS mapping and video tracking. It can measure the retro reflectivity of all road markings, the presence and absence of studs, capture daylight contrast information all without road closures or additional traffic management. That is a significant improvement from isolated visual inspections or one-size-fits-all renewal cycles.

Just as important as the survey technology is the range of datasets that can now be brought together. On their own, retro reflectivity readings are useful. Combined with a fuller evidence base, they become far more powerful. Today, authorities can layer together asset inventories, road stud counts, GPS-referenced survey outputs, network video, treatment performance data, durability assumptions, cost profiles, carbon values, planned maintenance schedules and Department for Transport collision data reported through STATS19. Increasingly, they can also draw on newer sources of insight, including connected vehicle and other data, to build a more continuous picture of how the network is performing between formal surveys. In some cases, that can provide more driver-centric, location-specific visibility insight under different traffic, lighting and weather conditions. When those datasets are combined, the conversation moves from “which lines look worn?” to “where is risk greatest, where can works be packaged better, and where will a higher-performance intervention deliver the best whole-life return?”

We have already seen what that looks like in practice with Dorset Council’s asset management strategy. In that case, a one-week retro reflectivity survey was combined with treatment performance data, 10-year cost and carbon information, maintenance schedules and three years of STATS19 collision records. The asset management software was then used to model targeted programmes of work. In this instance, it gave Dorset stronger evidence for investment decisions, helped increase its road marking allocation from £125,000 to £255,000, and highlighted rural unlit collision hotspots where higher-performance wet-night solutions would provide the greatest benefit. More broadly, this kind of approach helps authorities move from one-off inspection and renewal decisions towards a more structured lifecycle plan, where data can be used to agree intervention thresholds, budgets, treatment types and forward work programmes.

Numerous studies show the benefits of effective road marking maintenance and scheme design, the systematic review by Babić et al. describes road markings as one of the basic low-cost road safety measures and brings together evidence on how markings influence driver behaviour, speed choice and safety at hazard locations. More recent UK work through Project PRIME has shown how relatively simple “gateway” markings for motorcyclists can improve approach speed, road position and braking behaviour on bends. Across all trial sites, these interventions have contributed to a 61% reduction in the annual average number of motorcycle injury collisions.

This is where better data changes the conversation. A fading centre line on a lightly trafficked, well lit, urban road may not justify the same response as a deteriorating edge line on a rural unlit route with a night-time collision history. A junction that still looks acceptable in daylight may perform very differently in wet-night conditions. That is not a rigid rulebook, but it is exactly the sort of judgement that better survey data, collision context and wider performance insight allow authorities to make. Instead of blanket lining programmes, engineers can prioritise the places where asset condition and road user risk genuinely intersect.

There is also a practical delivery benefit that is often overlooked. Better asset intelligence does not just improve prioritisation; it also helps authorities align interventions more efficiently. When remarking can be planned alongside surfacing, patching or surface defect repairs, the same traffic management and site visit can achieve more. WJ’s pothole repair approach is built around that principle, with surface defect repairs and road marking renewals combined so that one vehicle and crew attend site for both activities, reducing traffic management demand and lowering delivery carbon.

The same “right treatment in the right place” principle applies to materials. Not every site needs a premium product, and good asset management should never default to that. But there are locations where the case for higher performance is clear: rural unlit roads, higher-speed bends, conflict areas, approaches to hazards and anywhere wet-night visibility is critical. That is where products from our Weatherline range can play a valuable role. Weatherline Plus and Weatherline Ultra are profiled permanent markings that enhance wet-night visibility, with an expected service life of more than five years and a low carbon formulation.  Used selectively, higher-performance materials can support both safety and sustainability objectives without turning every intervention into an unnecessarily expensive one.

For us, that is the real opportunity for the sector. Smarter road marking asset management is not about collecting data for its own sake, and it is not about installing more lines. It is about using better technology and richer datasets to support better engineering decisions: understanding where markings matter most, how they are performing, how quickly they are deteriorating and how interventions can be timed, specified and packaged more intelligently. Road markings may be one of the lower-cost assets on the network, but managed properly they can make an outsized contribution to safety, efficiency, carbon reduction and public confidence in the network as a whole.

About WJ Group:

WJ Group is the UK’s leading road marking and highway safety business, supporting the strategic road network and local authority markets by providing solutions that create safe, sustainable journeys for everyone. We specialise in Road Markings, Studs, Safety Surfacing, Retexturing, Surface Defect Repairs, TASCAR, CCTV, Stopped Vehicle Detection and other ITS solutions.