Mystery Marks Secret Revealed

You might have seen them on curbs around town, all around town, little circles and lines in bright, pink spray paint. The News On 6's Steve Berg found out exactly what the mystery marks are.

Most people in neighborhoods didn't know what to make of them either.

Connie Desai hadn't noticed the pink paint punctuating her neighbor's driveway.

"It looks like an exclamation mark," said Desai.

Was it utility workers, vandals, aliens?

"Is it some kind of city marking, or?" said Desai.

Actually she's right.

"The dots mark the endpoint and the dashes mark where to inspect the pavement," said Chris Cox.

Cox is with the city's public works department. Since the early 90's, they've studied the exact same locations of pavement.

"And we go back to each sample unit every five years to have a history of the pavement," said Cox.

Wherever you see a dot and a dash, go in the direction of the dash and you'll find another dot and dash a hundred feet away and the segment in between is the area that will be studied.

"From this location to the other location, they will physically measure the cracks, the different types of cracks in the pavement.  They will evaluate the condition of the pavement, if there are potholes," said Cox.

By studying the same section over a long period, they can find out if the road is performing better or worse than expected

"There is 19 criteria for asphalt and 19 criteria for concrete," said Cox. "And this information is inputted into a computerized model and it is utilized to determine the pavement condition index for the area."

The city has marked off about 5,000 sections like that around the city for study.

"So there's little pink marks all over the city..?  Hm.  It's cute," said Desai.

Like a lot of Tulsans, Desai isn't satisfied with the condition of roads, but she's glad they're studying the problem.

Inspectors will be out soon checking the sections of pavement. The study will be done by early fall.