Lee from Fort Collins writes, “What’s driving you crazy? Hi Jayson, can you tell us what this marking is for? There is one on the shoulder of Hwy 14 and Weld County Road 19 between Ft Collins and Ault.”
This is the mark Lee is talking about.
It is a square with two black and two white squares making up a larger square. Since it is on Colorado Highway 14 east of Interstate 25, I brought Lee's question to Jared Fiel with Colorado Department of Transportation. He told me, these types of markings are used for aerial imagery or aerial drone surveys.
According to the website pix4d.com, these markings are better described as ground control points. They act as a reference point that the drone or other aircraft uses to know where they started and where they will come back to. These control points can be any shape or color that is easily recognized from the air but are almost always black and white squares because it’s easier to recognize high contrast patterns.
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I had to see it for myself, so I took a trip to Highway 14, and drove about 6 miles east of I-25. The marking is fairly new as it doesn’t show up on the most recent Google Street View dated May of 2024. If you aren’t looking for it, you will probably pass by without noticing it, even though it is fairly large — measuring about 4 feet by 4 feet. It sits on the right shoulder of the eastbound lanes next to Weld County Rd 19 directly under the high voltage power lines owned by the Platte River Power Authority.
I reached out to the PRPA Senior Communications & Marketing Specialist Maia Jackson. Jackson told me, this road marking is one of several of their temporary survey markers and calibration points.
“These are components of a 3D electronic surveying effort that Platte River just completed of the transmission lines," Jackson said. "They are strategically placed along the transmission line area prior to the survey and an airplane collects the 3D electronic data which includes transmission lines wiring, poles and the survey markers/calibration points. The calibration points are used to increase the accuracy of survey data — one of our many tools to monitor and maintain infrastructure safety and integrity.”
Jackson told me, some of the survey markers were made of mesh. Those were already retrieved by the contractor after the survey. She said, any of these painted markers still left on the roadways under their transmission lines should wash away with the rain. When I touched the paint on highway 14, it seemed to me that it might take a pretty substantial downpour and a fair amount of time before that paint begins to wash away.
The Colorado State Patrol uses similar markings on state highways and interstate but with permanent paint. They use solid lines as a marker used to measure vehicle speeds from the air. I asked the airborne unit about this for a previous Driving You Crazy story. They told me, they typically put two large stripes of white paint on the surface of the roadway, each exactly one-half mile apart from each other. They then use a stopwatch and start it when a suspected speeding driver passes the first and stops it when they pass the second line.
“We have been using the time/distance calculation for more than 50 years and it is fully accepted in Colorado courts,” Sergeant Dave Hall, director of flight operations, said. “It’s pretty simple math really. We then have a ground unit issue the citation.”
Even if the checkerboard marker takes a while to wash away, it shouldn’t affect the swift moving traffic on highway 14 in that part of Weld County.
Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.
