Work continues on 29 to remove paved markers

Work continues to progress on state Highway 29, as the Shawano County Highway Department is in the process of removing paved markers.

Single lanes have been closed between Shawano and Bonduel, something that people traveling through the area could see for the next month.

“Those raised pavement markers are reflectors in the middle of the lane, right on the white center line, and they have reached their service life,” said Shawano County Highway Commissioner Grant Bystol. “None of them reflect anymore.”

Bystol said that the highway department is working to remove them because of their service life ending as well as reducing the risk for potential damage to vehicles.

“We have been having problems with potential vehicle tires getting punctured,” said Bystol. “We are going through and finding all of the loose ones and just removing them.”

He added that when the highway was built in the mid-1990s, those paved markers were part of the design process.

“That was just a reflective marker — I think they are every 100 feet — just to delineate,” said Bystol. “Headlights used to reflect off of them; now the current standard is more of a reflective tape that is grooved in.”

Bystol called the paved markers an old standard and a hazard.

“It is an old standard, plus they are all broken and none of them reflect anymore anyways, so they are just a hazard,” said Bystol.

Since the project is being fit in between other highway projects, Bystol said work will continue on removing the paved markers, depending upon the weather. He estimated that the process will be off and on for the next month or so.

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com