NY Thruway now posting county lines???

[empirestate]

I was getting onto I-87 south from McLean Ave. in Yonkers just now...as I crossed the NYC line and thus the terminus of the Thruway, right there beside the highway was a "Bronx County" boundary sign. It's in Clearview, and notably refers to the county only, not the city or borough (there have long been signs for those entities, erected by NYCDOT I believe).

I'm assuming this is a NYSTA installation...and the only reason I could think of for them posting the county name is that perhaps they're finally posting all counties on the Thruway? Can anybody confirm or deny?

[Michael in Philly]

Your guess is as good as mine, but couldn't it just as easily be the state DOT?  Are you still on the Thruway at that point?  (But I grew up in North Jersey and don't think I've ever seen one of the boroughs of New York City signed by its county name.)

[empirestate]

This is right where the Thruway ends and becomes the Major Deegan Expressway. I believe the Deegan is state-owned but expressway signage in NYC is often done by the city...and while NYCDOT does use Clearview now on street signs, I don't think I've ever seen the state use Clearview, which is why I thought Thruway. Then again, they have been resurfacing the Deegan lately; don't know if that's a city or state project but it's possible new signage went up as part of that, although I haven't noticed new signage elsewhere along the project.

[hbelkins]

No county line signs when I drove from Syracuse to Buffalo a few weeks ago.

[empirestate]

I took a quick trip today and snapped this photo of the sign:


That's right at the NYC/Westchester line...the truck is in NYC and I'm in Yonkers (at least going by the pavement change, which isn't visible). You can see that the Bronx County sign is actually blocking the zero mile marker of the Thruway; right beyond is the first NYSDOT reference marker for the Deegan Expwy. (On the gantry in the background is the small green city line sign that's always been there.) There's no corresponding northbound sign for Westchester County here.

My jaunt next involved the Bronx River Parkway in Westchester County, which is county-maintained and is now sporting a bunch of brand-new Clearview signage, including a county line sign, which this time is worded "County of Westchester". Ah ha! The sign in my photo is located between I-87 and its southbound frontage road, the latter of which is a Westchester County road (Central Park Ave.) up to the city line. Perhaps that's our answer!

Wait, not so fast...I then hopped over to the New England Thruway where it crosses the Westchester/Bronx County line, and that is marked in both directions with signs just like in the photo, wording and all. So, it definitely is a Thruway installation  (there's no jurisdiction change on the NE Thruway at the county line). The question then is, are these signs appearing anywhere else along the Thruway? H.B. says not as of a few weeks ago, and the Bronx County sign wasn't there either within that timeframe, so this is very recent, within a week or two at most.

[papaT10932]

Make no mistake! I'm thrilled to see this sign being posted and I hope the Thruway Authority follows through with posting all the other county lines. With that being said, I think this sign qualifies for the "worst of road signs" thread. It's absolutely hideous. 

[newyorker478]

Saw the same exact sign on the New England Thruway so yes i think it is a Thruway authority work.

[Snappyjack]

Riding north towards Albany at the moment. No county signs to speak of as of right now. That'd be great if they were really going through with this.

[NJRoadfan]

I seem to recall the city line being signed in both directions on the NE Thurway for some reason. The transition between NYCDOT and NYSTA maintained roadways used to be quite noticeable before the 2004 reconstruction of the Bruckner, don't know if it is now as I haven't been that way since then.

[empirestate]

I seem to recall the city line being signed in both directions on the NE Thurway for some reason. The transition between NYCDOT and NYSTA maintained roadways used to be quite noticeable before the 2004 reconstruction of the Bruckner, don't know if it is now as I haven't been that way since then.

Do you mean that is was signed for the city name rather than the county, as I saw it? There have long been (and still are) signs referring to entering NY city on both Thruways, but the county signs are new.

[Snappyjack]

I have also seen on both the Garden State Parkway section and I-287 coming from New Jersey, new signs(aside from welcome signs) that say "New York state line" and "New Jersey state line" all the in the Thruway clearview font. Still no new county line signs being posted north of there, but here's hoping they'll get to it.

[NJRoadfan]

I seem to recall the city line being signed in both directions on the NE Thurway for some reason. The transition between NYCDOT and NYSTA maintained roadways used to be quite noticeable before the 2004 reconstruction of the Bruckner, don't know if it is now as I haven't been that way since then.

Do you mean that is was signed for the city name rather than the county, as I saw it? There have long been (and still are) signs referring to entering NY city on both Thruways, but the county signs are new.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=New+Rochelle,+NY&hl=en&ll=40.886005,-73.805337&spn=0.021349,0.033817&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.553578,69.257812&vpsrc=6&hnear=New+Rochelle,+Westchester,+New+York&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=40.886084,-73.805033&panoid=xWuTWUDeIjq-FTWedZHBaw&cbp=12,109.45,,0,16

There was and still is a "Westchester County" sign on the NE Thruway heading north. Looks to be NYSDOT style too.

[empirestate]

I seem to recall the city line being signed in both directions on the NE Thurway for some reason. The transition between NYCDOT and NYSTA maintained roadways used to be quite noticeable before the 2004 reconstruction of the Bruckner, don't know if it is now as I haven't been that way since then.

Do you mean that is was signed for the city name rather than the county, as I saw it? There have long been (and still are) signs referring to entering NY city on both Thruways, but the county signs are new.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=New+Rochelle,+NY&hl=en&ll=40.886005,-73.805337&spn=0.021349,0.033817&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.553578,69.257812&vpsrc=6&hnear=New+Rochelle,+Westchester,+New+York&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=40.886084,-73.805033&panoid=xWuTWUDeIjq-FTWedZHBaw&cbp=12,109.45,,0,16

There was and still is a "Westchester County" sign on the NE Thruway heading north. Looks to be NYSDOT style too.

Interesting...that does look like NYSDOT, and has now definitely been replaced by the Clearview version as in my example.

Also interesting...I found the ostensible northbound counterpart on the I-87 mainline.
http://g.co/maps/2q3p7

That's definitively on the service road, Central Park Ave., a county highway. It's been replaced recently with a weird-looking mixed-case FHWA sign that would probably qualify for the "Worst of..." thread. Most notably, however, is that it's posted well inside the county line, at the ramp from the service road to Hall Place.

[On a side note, when I was a younger Maphead I used to have grand imaginings about what the beginning of the Thruway must be like, down there at the pearly gates of New York City, and what kind of majestic boulevard Hall Place surely was, being Exit 1 on this grandest of super-highways... Boy was I wrong!]

[empirestate]

That's right at the NYC/Westchester line...the truck is in NYC and I'm in Yonkers (at least going by the pavement change, which isn't visible). You can see that the Bronx County sign is actually blocking the zero mile marker of the Thruway; right beyond is the first NYSDOT reference marker for the Deegan Expwy. (On the gantry in the background is the small green city line sign that's always been there.) There's no corresponding northbound sign for Westchester County here.

UPDATE: There is now a northbound counterpart to this sign, for Westchester County on the NB Thruway mainline right at its terminus (in other words, just to the left of this photo). In fact, it shares an assembly with the zero milepost. That's in addition to the one farther north on Central Park Ave.

This looks to have been done along with more signage upgrades; the first 5 exits are now almost all Clearview signage (but only on the mainline; signs along the service road/Central Park Ave. are still old-school). There's even a NYSTA Clearview sign for the 233rd St. exit in the Bronx; it has no exit tab.

[Ian]

This looks to have been done along with more signage upgrades; the first 5 exits are now almost all Clearview signage (but only on the mainline; signs along the service road/Central Park Ave. are still old-school).

So I guess it means the demise of this sign:

[empirestate]

So I guess it means the demise of this sign:

Yup, that's gone. And I'm not sure I recall seeing a replacement sign on that particular overpass.

[NJRoadfan]

That's definitively on the service road, Central Park Ave., a county highway. It's been replaced recently with a weird-looking mixed-case FHWA sign that would probably qualify for the "Worst of..." thread. Most notably, however, is that it's posted well inside the county line, at the ramp from the service road to Hall Place.

Mixed case is a requirement for ground mounted signs now. Its a bit weird to see in NJ as NJDOT always used uppercase on mileage signs (Someplace XX MI) and smaller ground mounted LGSes for jughandles and exits off of arterials.

That Exit 5 sign has the illusion that its going to fall off of that overpass!

[vdeane]

I'll have to make sure to pay attention to whether they added any in the Syracuse-Rochester corridor (especially exits 39-40, which they should have just finished in September).

[empirestate]

So I guess it means the demise of this sign:

Yup, that's gone. And I'm not sure I recall seeing a replacement sign on that particular overpass.

Well, now, on a second passing, that sign seems to still be there...it was night and in my rearview mirror, but I believe I spotted it; there is at least *a* sign there.

Where there are not signs, would be at the Rockland/Westchester and Rockland/Orange county lines, at the moment. The first is on the Tappan Zee Bridge, which of course has more pressing issues than whether county lines are posted, and the second is in the midst of two work zones. Notably, there is no Clearview signage yet between exits 5 and 16 (except the overpass identifiers at the I-287/Exit 15 flyovers). I wonder if we can expect county line signs to appear alongside future upgrades to Clearview?

[Duke87]

Where there are not signs, would be at the Rockland/Westchester and Rockland/Orange county lines, at the moment. The first is on the Tappan Zee Bridge, which of course has more pressing issues than whether county lines are posted

Not a "sign", per se, but there's been a marker denoting the county line on the Tappan Zee Bridge on the side of the guardrail since forever.

[cu2010]

I'll have to make sure to pay attention to whether they added any in the Syracuse-Rochester corridor (especially exits 39-40, which they should have just finished in September).

Nothing new; I just drove through there last week.

[vdeane]

Yeah, no county route shields.  What I've seen of the exit 39 signs heading west (couldn't tell well; was heading east) is that they looked both new and not in clearview.

[empirestate]

Yeah, no county route shields.  What I've seen of the exit 39 signs heading west (couldn't tell well; was heading east) is that they looked both new and not in clearview.

I wouldn't expect to see any county shields in that stretch...only ones on the whole system is the Onondaga CR 57 shield at Exit 38. Or are you saying those are gone??

[vdeane]

No, I mis-typed.  No county line signs is what I meant.  Exit 38 signs are the same as they've always been.

[empirestate]

Ah, I see. Well, we'll all keep our eyes peeled!