If you've driven through the detour on North Salina Street in Syracuse, you may have noticed not only more traffic, but drivers who go straight out of turn only lanes or vice versa. But it might not be entirely their fault. As our Katie Gibas reports, a number of the painted directionals on the pavement have faded or disappeared all together.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Summer is the busiest time of year for the Syracuse DPW. In addition to pothole repair, paving roads and fixing traffic signals, one of their biggest tasks is painting the lines on the roads.

"We do all the main roads first and so we get all the center lines, double yellows, all the ones in the high volume traffic areas. Also, when we come right back when we're doing that, we try to do the arrows, the bike lane symbols, everything like that at the same time," said Pete O'Connnor, the Syracuse DPW Commissioner.

This year, they started the task in late May.

"The painters that paint the markings are also the people that do the painting inside in the winter. They also paint the pools. All that stuff has to be done before we open up the pools. So as soon as they're done with the winter projects that they had and also when they've got the pools all painted and they're ready to open, then they start releasing the painters to us and that's when we start to do all the pavement markings," said O'Connor.

But driving down Syracuse's streets, you may notice the lines have faded or disappeared in several spots.

"We have to use water-based paint here in New York State because that's the law. So it fades," said O'Connor. "It doesn't last a whole year and that's why we have to get back there and do those high traveled areas. So we try to do them just before the season closes and we try to get right back out there as soon as the season starts back up."

Now the intersection at North State Street and North Salina Street seems to be one of the biggest areas of confusion for drivers because there are a lot of different streets, lanes coming into the same point and you can't see any of the markings on the street anymore as to what's a straight only lane and what's a turn only lane.

"If people know it and they're familiar with the areas, they usually know. But with a detour, you have people who aren't familiar, it can be more of a problem. And obviously, if there's been a complaint in there, I will talk to my transportation people and we'll be up there and address that ASAP," said O'Connor.

While DPW crews paint the main streets first, their goal is to refresh all the pavement signs for the entire city every year.

If there's an area where the painting may have faded and you're concerned, you can contact the Syracuse DPW at (315) 448-CITY.