Freeway stubs with original signage with hints of what could've been

[Mergingtraffic]

Any more freeway stubs with original signage that was put up when the stub was built expecting it to be completed?
They could be signs on a never open portion or signs on the open portion that have been adapted. 
Examples are:

US-40/I-170 in Baltimore

Korean War Veterans Pkwy in Statin Island, used to have an "Arden Ave" sign on the never opened portion of the stub.  Gone now.

Henderson Bridge in R.I.




Highway was meant to continue and the other sign on the gantry says RI-152 North but is covered up.  RI-152 was never numbered here, although back then they expected it to.



Map:
https://goo.gl/maps/x8klQ

[jbnv]

There are probably quite a few such never-built stubs in Texas, given how they like to reserve the ROW and build the service roads first. One notable example is Spur 5 in Houston, which only goes to the University of Houston. Though I don't know if any of them have original signage.

[Alps]

NJ 75, Newark

[TheOneKEA]

On I-95 north at Exit 59, there used to be a blank button-copy-era BGS that would have indicated MD 149 East for the Windlass Freeway. The entire gantry was taken down and not replaced during the MdTA's resigning projects along that segment of I-95.

[national highway 1]

The I-710 stub in Pasadena:

and the other end approaching Valley Blvd

[kurumi]

No photo (sign is long gone), but CT 72 EB in New Britain approaching CT 9 had a covered-up BGS with an I-291 marker. This was for the left exit (now CT 9 NB) for SR 506, the planned connector from CT 72 to I-291 in Newington, which was quite stubby at the time and not open to traffic.

[1995hoo]

In a similar vein to what "national highway 1" posted, you can find the assembly shown below on westbound I-66 near the Kennedy Center in DC. I'd love to get up there with a pry bar of some sort to see what's underneath the wooden panel on the left!

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.897902,-77.053007,3a,75y,197.55h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sueb4qbm25ZGUfEnvlHw8tw!2e0


These signs used to be over the I-295 stub end in DC on the north shore of the Anacostia River, but they are now gone as the road is rebuilt into a "boulevard." The lane the Street View car is using came from the RFK Stadium Access Road and the dilapidated I-295 BGS on the left was there primarily to direct traffic leaving the stadium over a now-demolished ramp that led to the old 11th Street Bridge (itself now also demolished) and then onto southbound I-295. Had the road been completed as proposed, the ramp would have carried the thru lanes of I-295.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.877626,-76.982757,3a,75y,247.08h,75.9t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1suS_H_znxWJVCJ3A1MPuFIg!2e0

[froggie]

That signpost, along with the now-torn-down one on the Southeast Freeway, were part of the 2009 DC meet.

[1995hoo]

That signpost, along with the now-torn-down one on the Southeast Freeway, were part of the 2009 DC meet.

That was before I had discovered this forum, but either way, I assume there are other people here who were not in attendance and that there are also people who have not been to DC.

[Laura]

Most of the original button copy BGSs for I-170 in Baltimore still exist on and around the road (but with US 40 shields instead.


iPhone

[Alex]

Long gone was this blank overhead for the ramp meant for NJ 18 south from NJ 138 east. That ramp was replaced when the cloverleaf interchange with NJ 18 was reconfigured into a trumpet in 2003.

[Henry]

The I-710 stub in Pasadena:

and the other end approaching Valley Blvd

Ah yes, the old I-710 stub! I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in wanting this completed ASAP.

[briantroutman]

What would be the purpose of installing a completely blank guide sign panel? Wouldn't the blank panels likely be taken down and transported back to a local DOT sign shop to install the legend anyway?

I could imagine minor additions or modifications being performed on-site, but not creating the entire sign.

[getemngo]

What would be the purpose of installing a completely blank guide sign panel? Wouldn't the blank panels likely be taken down and transported back to a local DOT sign shop to install the legend anyway?

I could imagine minor additions or modifications being performed on-site, but not creating the entire sign.

Hey, if the DOT paid the contractor for the metal to make the signs, it's going to get used, dammit.

[PHLBOS]

What would be the purpose of installing a completely blank guide sign panel? Wouldn't the blank panels likely be taken down and transported back to a local DOT sign shop to install the legend anyway?

I could imagine minor additions or modifications being performed on-site, but not creating the entire sign.

Back in a day, most sign lettering & shields for BGS' were more easily mountable/demountable; especially button-copy.  Such made installing an entire message on-site on a blank panel much easier and more practical.  If one inadvertently placed a letter/number on the wrong spot; it could be easily removed and relocated in short order. 

Today, with letter/numeral/shield mounting being mounted adhesively on panels in many states; such practice is no longer done.  Once a letter is placed on the panel; it's there essentially for good.  Which explains the reasons why partial message updates/corrections are now done w/panel sheets that are bolted over the old message.

[Bitmapped]

What would be the purpose of installing a completely blank guide sign panel? Wouldn't the blank panels likely be taken down and transported back to a local DOT sign shop to install the legend anyway?

I could imagine minor additions or modifications being performed on-site, but not creating the entire sign.

Back in a day, most sign lettering & shields for BGS' were more easily mountable/demountable; especially button-copy.  Such made installing an entire message on-site on a blank panel much easier and more practical.  If one inadvertently placed a letter/number on the wrong spot; it could be easily removed and relocated in short order. 

Today, with letter/numeral/shield mounting being mounted adhesively on panels; such practice is no longer done.  Once a letter is placed on the panel; it's there essentially for good.  Which explains the reasons why partial message updates/corrections are now done w/panel sheets that are bolted over the old message.

It depends on the state.  West Virginia still makes extensive use of demountable copy on BGS.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky uses demountable copy, even for its new Clearview installations.

[Alps]

Oh, blank signs? www.alpsroads.net/roads/dc/i-66

[roadman]

What would be the purpose of installing a completely blank guide sign panel? Wouldn't the blank panels likely be taken down and transported back to a local DOT sign shop to install the legend anyway?

I could imagine minor additions or modifications being performed on-site, but not creating the entire sign.

Back in a day, most sign lettering & shields for BGS' were more easily mountable/demountable; especially button-copy.  Such made installing an entire message on-site on a blank panel much easier and more practical.  If one inadvertently placed a letter/number on the wrong spot; it could be easily removed and relocated in short order. 

Today, with letter/numeral/shield mounting being mounted adhesively on panels; such practice is no longer done.  Once a letter is placed on the panel; it's there essentially for good.  Which explains the reasons why partial message updates/corrections are now done w/panel sheets that are bolted over the old message.

It depends on the state.  West Virginia still makes extensive use of demountable copy on BGS.

As does Massachusetts, at least for extruded BGS panels.

[mrsman]

I know I've seen somewhere else here that on Sam Cooper Blvd in Memphis there is a  "Little Rock" BGS, indicating that the road was supposed to be I-40.  Of course, it was stopped before it reached Overton Park.

[PHLBOS]

As does Massachusetts, at least for extruded BGS panels.

Through the mid-80s, MassDPW always used demountable copy. 

However, when the original late-80s BGS' along MA 128 between I-95 North and Lowell St. had some minor changes to them (I-95 North BGS reading Portsmouth NH instead of the original NH-Maine and Salem replaced Lynn for the Lowell St. BGS' along 128 North); the edits were done with placing a sheet bearing the new legends on top of the old legend.  Whether the old legends were kept in place or stripped off are unknown for those BGS'.

I do know that one now-gone 70s-era BGS for Lowell St. exit ramp off 128 South had the Lynn letters literally taken off (one could still see the ghostings); but that BGS was made in the era when all BGS' in the Bay State featured demountable copy lettering and replacement lettering was typically placed over the old, removed lettering with no separate steel sheet.

[amroad17]

I know I've seen somewhere else here that on Sam Cooper Blvd in Memphis there is a  "Little Rock" BGS, indicating that the road was supposed to be I-40.  Of course, it was stopped before it reached Overton Park.

Yes.  Going east, the BGS's have...

                                 EAST


                              Nashville

[MikeTheActuary]

It looks like the "WEST          Little Rock"  signs of my youth are still there too (albeit without the I-40 shields I initially saw them with).

Another sign, however, is new to me.

While I was growing up in Memphis, my father was in the Memphis/Shelby County planning office.   My mother was a docent at the Memphis Zoo.   We didn't talk about road construction over dinner.   

[amroad17]

I had to amend my prior post as far as the look of the sign.  The EAST was supposed to be above the non-existent I-40 sign, not beside it.

The thru trucks sign has been there for at least 12 years as I saw it posted in 2002.

[Mergingtraffic]

Got these at the RI-138 stub in RI.  Cool but sad to see as the expressway was supposed to be MUCH more.

The eastern stub:


Signs on that gantry: