LOWVILLE — After years of talking about it, Lewis County will begin striping some of its roads later this week.

"We're just glad this is finally going to come to fruition," said Legislature Chairman Jack T. Bush, R-Brantingham.

About 160 of the county's 240 miles of paved road are slated for striping, said Thomas M. Sweet, county highway superintendent.

"This is all centerline only," he said. "No edge lines."

Crews this week will begin striping about half of the chosen roads, while the other half — some of which are now being repaved — are to be done in the fall, Mr. Sweet said.

Legislators set aside $100,000 in the 2008 budget to begin the striping program, but the cost is expected to be only about $90,000, Mr. Sweet said.

Seneca Paving Markings, Horseheads, which is handling the project, spent the first part of the summer engineering and indexing the paved county roads to show where passing and non-passing zones should be. About half the projected cost was for preliminary work, while the other half will be for actual striping.

County officials then determined the extent of striping work to be done this year.

The roads selected for striping were the ones deemed to have the most traffic, particularly at night, Mr. Bush said.

"They're more the main roads," Mr. Sweet said.

More roads may be striped in coming years, depending upon funding availability, Mr. Bush said.

The longest continuous stretches to be striped are 18.8 miles on County Route 39 (Pine Grove, Lyons Falls, Lyonsdale and Marmon roads) in the towns of Watson, Greig and Lyonsdale; 18.5 miles on County Route 46 (Osceola and Florence roads) in Osceola and Lewis; 17 miles on County Route 26 (Number Four Road) in Watson and New Bremen, and 14.1 miles on County Route 43 (Lee and East roads) in Turin, West Turin and Leyden.

All three stretches of county-maintained West Road — totaling 15.9 miles — from West Lowville to Route 12D in Leyden are also to be striped. However, a segment from Route 26 to John Street is maintained by the town of West Turin.

The portion of County Route 19 (East Road) from Deer River to the cemetery near Phinny Road is also to be striped. However, the rest of the road — ending at the county highway garage on Route 812 — is maintained by the town of Lowville.

No towns are participating in the county's striping project.

Striping county roads has been discussed on and off for many years, since surrounding counties stripe theirs.

"We've talked about this for 20-plus years," said Mr. Bush, now in his third stint as a legislator. "It just never seemed to be able to fit in the budget."

However, lawmakers last fall set road striping — along with increased funding for paving — as a priority.

The project should make for safer driving conditions, particularly during times of poor visibility, Mr. Bush said.

"The population of Lewis County is getting older, whether you like it or not," he said.

The roads will be striped with a special paint containing reflective beads, Mr. Sweet said.

Many of the lines may need to be repainted annually, since snowplow blades tend to wear them down during the winter, Mr. Sweet said.

"We'll know more after the first winter," he said.