TrafficPatternsXD crosswalks on downtown Toronto streets, still performing 11 years on, and two more Ontario jobs from the Product Portfolio Book: 14 years at a retail entrance in Halton Hills, and a heritage main street in Woodbridge.
These crosswalks on downtown Toronto streets are TrafficPatternsXD, and they are still performing 11 years after they went in. Page 91 of the Product Portfolio Book · Volume 5 puts it plainly: with “non-stop use in the toughest urban environments, this durable surface continues to perform 11 years later”.
Two more jobs in the same book show the system under two other kinds of traffic, one of them at 14 years.
Why it lasts
TrafficPatternsXD is preformed thermoplastic, 150 mil thick (about 3.8 mm), with hard aggregate mixed all the way through it: 8–9 on the Mohs scale, by the book's figure. It is heated on the asphalt and stamped into the asphalt's top layer, so the pattern is set into the road surface.
Because the aggregate runs through the full thickness, the surface keeps its grip where the wheel paths cross it. The book rates its skid resistance at 60 BPN (ASTM E303) and calls it “proven in high traffic with concentrated wheel loads”.
14 years at Toronto Premium Outlets, Halton Hills
Page 86 of the book shows the entrance crosswalk at Toronto Premium Outlets, a “14-year-old entrance feature. Still performing every day.” A retail entrance takes its own kind of wear: turning traffic, delivery trucks, salt and plows. And the owner's customers judge the property by how it looks. Read the Toronto Premium Outlets story.
A heritage main street in Woodbridge
The Village of Woodbridge is a Heritage Conservation District. When the City of Vaughan improved the Woodbridge Avenue streetscape, it wanted crosswalks in keeping with the district's character, and real brick pavers were out: plow blades catch their raised edges and knock them loose. The City chose TrafficPatternsXD for all the pedestrian crosswalks at intersections on the project.
Page 117 of the book shows a Woodbridge crosswalk under the headline “Plowed, salted, and heavy traffic.” Read the Woodbridge story.
Judge a crosswalk by its service life
A downtown street, a retail entrance and a heritage main street that gets plowed all winter, all in TrafficPatternsXD. When a crosswalk keeps coming back onto the maintenance list, judge the replacement by its service life. The book gives TrafficPatternsXD 10+ years. The Toronto crosswalks are at 11, the Outlets entrance at 14.
The crosswalks page sets TrafficPatternsXD beside the other systems a crosswalk can be built in.
