If You’re Confused by the 195 Lines, the Painting Process Is Worse

There's a line situation that we need to talk about that goes beyond the confusion on Route 195.

Wednesday morning on Michael and Maddie, I brought up a couple of answers as to why the highway between New Bedford and Dartmouth has double lines in each lane:

Immediately, the phones lit up like a Christmas tree, but one caller who works quality control for a paving company that did work on 195 blew our minds, literally. Listen to what he had to say:

Before you say anything, I understand that it's a lot to take in, so here is Carlos's play-by-play on the current situation on 195:

"When they pave the roads, it's completely black, so you have to give the people some situation of where they know where they're at. It's a big roll of stickers that the guys will sit in the back of the truck and cut them so many lengths, and they follow the paver after the rollers have gone by and put the stickers down so the people can follow the next day and they're just temporary, they'll get ripped out and once they paint the new lines, the stickers will no longer exist.

The fat ones are temporary lines, the other ones are (the skinny lines) painted lines that the company that is going to paint the road went there and just set them up so that they can just follow them as a guide and then they'll paint the stripes down and remove the other ones out. They have to let the asphalt dry before they put the new lines down, which is painting it and then it'll be done.

You can't paint the lines on the hot mixed asphalt or it won't stick." — Carlos

Don't get me wrong, the DOT did an outstanding job repaving 195, but there are just too many lines and they are messing with the "stay in your lane" features on newer vehicles, making it difficult to control the steering wheel when the computer system is confused itself.

Hopefully, the stickers are in fact what they are supposed to be – temporary – and are removed soon before somebody gets a little too close to the vehicle beside them.

Does this help clear some questions up? No? That's quite alright, I'm riding that puzzled train, too.