Check your answer

by Katie Greenwood

A maintenance crew measures a curve at 480 feet and figures its radius to be 320 feet.

Using the chart below, how far apart should the chevrons be?

Curve radius (feet)	Approximate chevron spacing (feet)
< 200	40
200 – 400	80
400 – 700	120
700 – 1250	160
> 1250	200

For a curve with a radius of 320 feet, the chevrons should be spaced 80 feet apart.

To find out how many chevrons are needed (N), the maintenance crew divides the length of the curve (X) by the spacing listed in the MUTCD handbook (Sc). The equation is N=X/Sc as illustrated below. 

Since the crew already knows the curve is 480 feet (X) and that the chevrons should be spaced 80 feet apart (Sc), they can now solve the equation to figure out how many chevrons they need for the curve.

The specific equation looks like this:

N=480/80

So, how many chevrons does this curve need? The maintenance crew needs to install 6 chevrons spaced 80 feet apart to meet MUTCD guidelines, as show below.

Go back to the Curves ahead article.