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Adventures in Utah signage

Started by CL, January 22, 2011, 10:08:25 PM

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Interstate Trav

Does anyone have or know where there are more historic highway photos from Utah.  Or know what the control city for US 91 south was from Salt Lake City, or what it was originally for I-15 south.  I had read that Los Angeles was mentioned on I-15 originally.


CL

Funny you should ask...


southbound I-15 at US-40A/US-50A, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


northbound I-15 at I-80, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


northbound I-15 at 5300 South, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


northbound I-15 at I-80, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


I-15 approaching SR-15, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


northbound US-89/US-91/westbound US-50A at I-15 in Lehi, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


US-30S at SR-158, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


northbound I-15/US-91 at US-89 in Farmington by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

All courtesy of the Utah State Historical society, all rights reserved, used with permission.

Gotta hand it to you guys, that photo of a photo trick worked perfectly! I'm pretty sure I get better quality and much better resolution taking a picture than paying $10 for a scan! And this is all from two out of 145 boxes, so there is much, much more to come.

You can view the rest of the photos I have uploaded so far on Flickr.

As for the Los Angeles thing, that's certainly possible. San Francisco was signed from Echo as a control city, thirteen hours away from there.
Infrastructure. The city.

Interstate Trav

Thank you for posting those, really cool pictures. 

national highway 1

Hope these make it onto the Shield Gallery.
"Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take." Jeremiah 31:21

CL

#29
It's been a good day today:


westbound I-215 past Redwood Rd, 1976 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


westbound I-215 at I-15, 1976 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


eastbound I-215 toward State St, 1976 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr


I-15 through North Salt Lake, 1970s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

Well shoot, found a state-name I-215 shield. No big deal.
Infrastructure. The city.

agentsteel53

big deal for me!  first state named 215 I'd ever seen.
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

CL

Haha no, it really is a big deal! That was just sarcasm. It's the first state name 215 I've ever seen too. Unfortunately, it's not three-digit width... but still. Definitely a huge deal.
Infrastructure. The city.

agentsteel53

Quote from: CL on March 30, 2011, 12:47:52 AM
Haha no, it really is a big deal! That was just sarcasm. It's the first state name 215 I've ever seen too. Unfortunately, it's not three-digit width... but still. Definitely a huge deal.

not unfortunate at all.  it is 1957 specification, as opposed to 1961.  I wouldn't be surprised if Utah was a bit lackadaisical in adopting the wider formats made available by the 1961 spec, simply because they had only one three-digit route, and even that is (for the purposes of sign layout) two-and-a-half digits.

even nowadays a lot of (all of?) the 215 shields are narrow.
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

Alex

Lots of good stuff on your Flickr, awesome to relive classic button copy sign days and see all of those classic-state name shields for Interstate 15. Thanks for your efforts!

CL

Quote from: agentsteel53 on March 30, 2011, 01:25:55 AM
even nowadays a lot of (all of?) the 215 shields are narrow.

Actually, three-digit width 215 shields have been used in the state exclusively since the late 1990s (sporadically from 1987). However, a lot of the old (as in 1980s, early '90s) two-digit shields stand that you're talking about.
Infrastructure. The city.

CL

Quote from: Alex on March 30, 2011, 10:58:08 AM
Lots of good stuff on your Flickr, awesome to relive classic button copy sign days and see all of those classic-state name shields for Interstate 15. Thanks for your efforts!

It's great to see, isn't it! It's like uncovering something long-lost each time I see a good picture in the boxes at the State Archives.
Infrastructure. The city.

Rover_0

CL, I know it might be too great of a thing to ask, but would you be able to find a picture of the US-89/89A junction, pre-1995 (when the UT-11 signs went up) in Kanab?  I've always wondered how US-89A (or US-89 Alt., as it's often called) was signed.
Fixing erroneous shields, one at a time...

CL

Quote from: Rover_0 on March 30, 2011, 08:27:27 PM
CL, I know it might be too great of a thing to ask, but would you be able to find a picture of the US-89/89A junction, pre-1995 (when the UT-11 signs went up) in Kanab?  I've always wondered how US-89A (or US-89 Alt., as it's often called) was signed.

Oh of course, I've been looking for that too. I've been taking pictures of every shield/BGS I can find, but most of the photos are from northern Utah. I have 130 more boxes to look through, so there's a pretty good chance I'll find something with a US-89 Alternate shield... well, let's hope.
Infrastructure. The city.

CL

#38
I've run into quite a roadblock at the State Archives. It seems as if all the photos past the fifteenth box are undeveloped negatives! There are a select few developed photos, but they're usually of some commissioner or some vague mountain. With that said, here is the only relevant developed photo I found today from boxes 17, 18, 19, 50, and 51 (I thought maybe skipping to 50 would get me real photos again, but to no avail). With that said:


Redwood Rd at I-215 in North Salt Lake, late 1970s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

The proof I've been looking for that Utah did in fact post three-digit width shields in the beginning. I'm estimating the date of this photo to be the late 1970s, so the age of the state-named shield in Utah had another five or ten to go from then.
Infrastructure. The city.

CL

#39

State St at Winchester St, 1979 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

Another state name I-215 shield, this time newer spec. Yup, we're getting closer to the demise of state name shields. This photo is either in the very late 1970s or early 1980s. This photo is a negative that I took a picture of on a light-table and then inverted the colors on Paint.
Infrastructure. The city.

CL

Moving on...


northbound I-15 at 9000 South, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

I think the general consensus used to be that I-415 (that odd designation for the southeastern quadrant of present-day I-215) was never signed. Well, here's proof that it actually was signed. The odd thing is the junction this signage refers to wasn't open at that time... and wouldn't open for another ten or so years. Why would the Highway Department think of signing an non-constructed interchange? Also, why would they sign a junction three miles away?


500 South at 300 West, late 1960s by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

Here's an actual photo of the scan I posted earlier. If you go on the AlpsRoads page for SR-269 (last photo on the page), you'll see that by 1976, that freeway entrance sign was removed.
Infrastructure. The city.

CL


southbound I-15 at 1000 North, September 1969 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

US-40 would stick around for another six years before being truncated from the city. Before that happened though, Utah chose to sign doomed U.S. routes quite well along with interstates.
Infrastructure. The city.

CL


westbound I-80 at I-15, 1971 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

I-80 as it begins its brief sharing of pavement with I-15 in Salt Lake.


westbound I-80 at Foothill Drive, 1971 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

First time I've ever seen routes as text on a bonafide BGS in Utah. As a real sign of progress, no overhead gantry exists here today - just ground-mounted signage for the Foothill Drive (old US-40) exit.


Interstate 80 in the Great Salt Lake Desert, 1971 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

Don't know why, but I really like this photo. It would be another fifteen years from that point until I-80 would be complete through the state.


Interstate 70 at Green River, 1971 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

Wasn't there a thread somewhere that talked about this style of "lane ends" sign? Apparently, Utah had these ones too.


400 South at State Street, 1971 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

A good example of how complicated bannered routes made things in Salt Lake.
Infrastructure. The city.

formulanone

#43
Neat photos. Wishing the Florida Photo Archives were as crisp and larger.

agentsteel53

#44
good stuff!  I really like that 40/Alt89/91 guide sign (did the ALT designation extend to 91, or was it just 89?) - looks to have a black background, too, which was a federal standard in the 1961 MUTCD but was dropped in the 1970.  corresponds with the 1970-spec shields.

interestingly, signs that were white with black legend (i.e. destination and distance signs with no shields) were not mandated to be the modern green and white until the 1978 revision of the MUTCD.

as for the THIS LANE ENDS sign with double arrow - Maryland, I believe, is the state that believes in them heavily.
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

CL

#45
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 27, 2011, 12:50:50 AM
did the ALT designation extend to 91, or was it just 89?

Yep, the State Street/North Temple routing was both 89 Alternate and 91 Alternate.

EDIT: Interstate Trav, I found a photo that confirms that Los Angeles was a control city on I-15 (though I'm still not sure if that was ever the case for US-91). In Salt Lake, no less!

Infrastructure. The city.

CL

#46
The tedium increases as the photos get less and less promising . . .


southbound I-15 at US-89 / Beck St, 1975 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

Just after US-91 was truncated its present condition. This is one of the first freeway signs in the state; this stretch of I-15 opened to traffic in 1960.


Main St at 1100 South, Brigham City, 1974 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

That I-15 shield looks like the custom Utah font, does it not? Also note a weird alternate 89/91 designation... not sure what that's about.


northbound I-15 at 200 West, 1972 by CountyLemonade, on Flickr

I-80N on a BGS. In eight years, that would be changed to I-84.
Infrastructure. The city.

CL

I took a break from the state archives and took pictures of signs that stand today. I got every exit from Provo to St. George and back. Every photo from that little roadgeeking sojourn is on my Flickr account, but here are some highlights:



Utah is hit-and-miss when it comes to signing route concurrencies. The I-15/US-6 concurrency is rather new (1996 or something like that), so it's actually signed.



On the other end of the concurrency spectrum, this is the only instance of the I-15/US-50 one being signed. This is in Scipio.



Everyone's favorite malformed I-15 shield!



First shield I've ever seen on a Utah distance sign. Also note the mixed-case series C typeface used. Looks nice, but maybe not the best for visibility.



Looks understandable enough, but keep in mind you're doing around 55 mph while exiting on the off-ramp. Difficult to parse in that short of time.



On one of my favorite portions of I-15, between New Harmony and Toquerville. That's probably the last button-copy sign on mainline I-15.



One of the 80 mph speed zones on I-15. Doesn't make much of a difference in terms of how fast everyone's going, but I guess they're nice.



And just for kicks, a big brown sign. That's not a route shield for some long-forgotten pre-state highway route... that's just the symbol for Utah State Parks.
Infrastructure. The city.

Alex

Quote from: CL on July 15, 2011, 08:43:05 PM
I took a break from the state archives and took pictures of signs that stand today. I got every exit from Provo to St. George and back. Every photo from that little roadgeeking sojourn is on my Flickr account, but here are some highlights:



Everyone's favorite malformed I-15 shield!

Sad to visit Utah in the midst of the sign replacement project that debuted those awful shields (2004):


agentsteel53

what was wrong with the shield which is on the ground?  the NORTH banner appears a bit dinged up, but the shield looks fine.
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com



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