NFCCA

Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News”

Northwood News ♦ December 2015

What the Street Markings Mean

By Sondra Katz

Wondered about the rainbow of colors and the lines and shapes you are seeing our neighborhood streets?  It turns out there is some meaning in the seeming randomness.  The colors indicate which utility either has underground infrastructure or future construction and the shapes and lines give an indication of how deep and the flow direction.  Here are the codes:

Yellow — Washington Gas
Blue — WSSC water
Green — WSSC sewer
Red — PEPCO
Orange — Comcast
Pink or White — proposed replacement of gas pipes (Washington Gas)

These colors were set up by the American Public Works Association.  The Common Ground Alliance established the lines and shapes.  Using the appropriate color, lines mark where the pipes are whether one or several in the same trench.

Montgomery 311 can tell us what the colors stand for but not which projects the colors and lines relate to.


The American Public Works Association ULCC Color Codes for Marking Excavations (image: LA One Call 811)

For more information about the colors, you can read an article at Smithsonian.com entitled “Decoding” by Jimmy Stamp from 26 April 2013, at www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/decoding-the-city-the-road-graffiti-placed-by-utility-workers-42822014/?no-ist.   ■


   © 2015 NFCCA  [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn201512h.html]