There is more to striping a line down a county road than slapping on some paint.
The process must adhere to strict state and federal safety regulations. Then, in Barton County, there is the scope of the endeavor – the county maintains nearly 400 miles of paved roadway.
 At their Monday morning meeting, Barton County Commissioners approved a quote from Straight Line Striping Inc. of Snohomish, Wash., for striping  of over 100 of those miles. The estimated cost is $80,000 which includes both the center yellow lines and the white edge lines.
The work will begin in August or September and take about a week, Barton County Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips said. There should be no traffic interruptions.
Phillips said this is the same company that has worked with the county in recent years and it does good work. Straight Line Striping provides all the supplies, and all the county has to do is provide one Road and Bridge Department employee to tag along on the project.
There are guidelines as to how much paint and beads are applied.
Road striping is done on a rotating basis for Barton County, Phillips said. Road crews seal about 110 miles per year and overlay about 35 miles.
New yellow center line striping and solid white edge line striping is then required. All striping is performed to specifications meeting Kansas Department of Transportation standards and the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual of Traffic Control Devices.
Glass beads are applied at the time of paint application to facilitate reflectivity of the strips and to dry the paint quickly for painting while traffic is still present .
Yellow strips are applied in a skip pattern as set out by the Manual of Traffic Control Devices and traffic speed of the highway, Phillips said. The edge lines are solid.
Approximately 16 gallons of paint per mile is used for painting yellow strips. Approximately 32 gallons of white paint is used per mile for edge line white paint markings.
The width of the stripes is four inches and could be six inch if the road required due to traffic situations. Barton County specifications are set at a four-inch stripe.
The cost of the annual striping has remained relatively constant recently, he said. The price of the paint is $3.82 per gallon and the glass beads used to provide the reflectivity cost 33 cents per pound.