^ OK–semi-related to the above: Could anybody shed some light on the history and logic behind the control cities listed at the I-95/I-495 split at the DE/PA state line?
I was driving that way a few days ago, and what I believe was the first diagrammatic guide sign caught my eye. (I used to drive this route often when I lived in the Philadelphia area before, so I’m not sure why it didn’t stand out before.) The I-495 half of the sign read something along the lines of:
(495)
[ ]y/Port of
Wilmington
Baltimore
Then on a subsequent sign, I could read it fully:
(495)
City/Port of
Wilmington
Baltimore
According to GSV “City/Port of” was added on an awkwardly loose greenout panel (obscuring part of the diagrammatic arrow) at some point before 2007. Then most of “City” on the first diagrammatic sign was either cut off or again greened out at some point between November of 2015 and July 2016.
It’s my understanding that DelDOT has been making efforts to encourage through I-95 traffic to use I-495 instead, going so far as to mark I-95 as
LOCAL TRAFFIC and I-495 as
THRU TRAFFIC, and possibly (I can’t recall if this was an actual proposal or a roadgeek pipe dream) considering demoting the city route to BL status and marking I-95 on the bypass.
Despite all that, the existing I-95 route through the city would seem to be the logical route to most downtown destinations. So why would they want to direct Wilmington City-bound traffic over I-495? I assume these signs are maintained by PennDOT, but I assume any changes to the sign are a coordinated DE/PA effort.
Never mind...I found the answer in a different thread.
Again, to be clear; the City/Port of patch was placed over the original Port of patch during a reconstruction of I-95 that took place in the late 90s/early 2000s. That patch was supposed to be removed when the project was completed. The original distinction was just Wilmington for I-95 South and Port of Wilmington for I-495 South.
So a follow-up question: If Wilmington traffic was supposed to take I-495 during this project, was a different greenout patch placed over “Wilmington” on the I-95 side? And if so, what did it say (if anything)?