As the man in charge of putting the stripes on roads throughout Vermont, Combes is always on the lookout for ways to paint longer-lasting lines. The paint the Agency of Transportation has been using lasts about six to nine months.
Trouble is, roads are repainted annually.
A new paint that had good results in Maine is being tested on Vermont's state highways this year. Salt and sand eat away at road paint, and high traffic adds to the problem, Combes said. The result is that drivers often have to guess where lanes start and end. They can only hope that the person next to them guesses correctly as well. It is a bad thing.