Standard centre-lines

A centre-line is one or more broken or solid lines of paint or raised studs (or any combination of those lines and studs) intended to define the portion of a sealed roadway available for travelling in each direction and separate opposing traffic. It also provides a simple and continuous form of delineation.

Legislation

The TCD rule (clause 7.2) specifies that:

A road controlling authority may mark a centre-line on a roadway that is 5.1 m or more in width. A centre-line must be marked with:

(a) a white broken or continuous single line that is not less than 100 mm wide; or

(b) a regular pattern of raised white pavement markers; or

(c) a no-passing line in one of the forms described in [Section 2.4.4]; or

(d) a continuous white line bounding a flush median as described in [Section 2.4.3]; or

(e) wide centre-lines as described in [Section 2.4.2].

Application

A marked centre-line is desirable on all sealed rural roads and on all arterial/primary collector urban roads and should be marked in the following situations:

Rural roads

Where the sealed road is 5.1m or more in width, or desirably 5.5m, markings are as summarised in Table 2‑5.

Table 2‑5

Where there are isolated sections of road, a centre-line may be required where there are: frequent horizontal and / or vertical curves;

• frequent horizontal and / or vertical curves;
• horizontal and / or vertical geometrically substandard curves;
• crash records that indicate a need; (centre-lines can address loss of control and head on type crashes); and / or
• a need to provide continuity of road marking along a route.
  
  

Table 2-5: Centre-lines for rural roads

Table 2-5 notes:

1. The traffic volumes in vpd above which the marking or device should normally be applied.
   
   

Urban roads

On arterial and collector roads.

Special conditions: in addition to the information provided above, marking of other continuous or isolated sections may be desirable where special conditions apply.

In some circumstances (where there is a wide road width, safety concerns or where the function of the road may dictate a higher standard of cross section) a centre-line may be replaced by a wide centre-line, flush or raised median.

Wide centre-lines

Flush medians

Layout/design

Centre-lines should be marked as per Table 2‑6. For standard markings refer to the typical layouts section.

Typical layouts

Table 2‑6: Standard centre-line marking standards

Table 2-6 note:

1. Except where a continuous white centre-line or yellow no-passing line is used. Refer to no-passing lines and to Figure 2‑34(a).

No-passing lines

Figure 2-34(a)

For information on the use of RRPMs on centre-lines refer to raised pavement markers.

Raised pavement markers