WisDOT plans viewing

[DaBigE]

I mean "vintage" in the same general sense as "classic"--i.e., reflecting consistent application of the same design principles that are evident in other WisDOT projects which have included overhead lane assignment signs for roundabouts:  one arrow per lane, dot used to indicate the central island, etc.

Unfortunately, that's not totally true, especially in the SE Region.  Even though WisDOT CO has updated the standard sign plates with the designs utilizing larger arrows (as seen on the US-41 corridor), there are still new roundabout projects still using the older design with the smaller, compressed, harder to see arrows.  One of our goals was for uniformity (ideally around the state), throughout the whole project corridor, both signage and pavement markings.  Any of the sign layouts I didn't directly work on, I helped review.

[on_wisconsin]

Digging through the massive July contract I came across this mess. IMHO


(its 45 feet long!)
The few issues I see:

• The center arrow placement looks weird.
• I cant place it but the exit tabs also look off. IMO
• And just for mgk920: the WIS 32 shield has those military arrow do hickeys.

Normally, I would cheer almost any sign with the arrow-per-lane setup. But this one and the one on the next page in the PDF look quite bad. 

[mgk920]

Well, I suppose that that is the best that can be expected, the off-ramp for the Shawano Ave street interchange will diverge from that C/D roadway right after the two-lane high-speed flyover ramp to head west on WI 29 does.



Mike

(BTW, a common test of one's 'Wisconsinness' is to have him or her try to correctly pronounce 'Shawano'.     )

[J N Winkler]

I think the exit tabs look fine, but there is no way all three arrows can be centered on the lanes they represent.  It looks like the straight-ahead arrow for US 41 has been displaced to the left in order to accommodate the SR 29/Shawano Ave. legend block:  the distance between the right side of the barb of the US 41 arrow and the left side of the left barb of the double-headed arrow is given as 218", when for a lane of standard width (12') it should be a little less than 144".

This particular problem arises quite often when an arrow-per-lane diagrammatic is used (abused?) to show information for two exits in rapid succession.  Since this interchange does not involve a through-route TOTSO, it would have been entirely acceptable to use multiple signs with downward-pointing arrows instead of an arrow-per-lane diagrammatic, but this approach would have tended to conceal the option lane.

[mgk920]

I think the exit tabs look fine, but there is no way all three arrows can be centered on the lanes they represent.  It looks like the straight-ahead arrow for US 41 has been displaced to the left in order to accommodate the SR 29/Shawano Ave. legend block:  the distance between the right side of the barb of the US 41 arrow and the left side of the left barb of the double-headed arrow is given as 218", when for a lane of standard width (12') it should be a little less than 144".

This particular problem arises quite often when an arrow-per-lane diagrammatic is used (abused?) to show information for two exits in rapid succession.  Since this interchange does not involve a through-route TOTSO, it would have been entirely acceptable to use multiple signs with downward-pointing arrows instead of an arrow-per-lane diagrammatic, but this approach would have tended to conceal the option lane.

Yea, these ramps will be diverging for a collector/distributor (C/D') roadway that will run northbound between WI 29/Shawano Ave and Mason St (WI 54), just to the south.  The three actual US 41 (future I-xx) northbound through lanes there will be a separate carriageway just to the left.

Mike

[on_wisconsin]

Here are two signs I found rather interesting from a February Letting:


The one on the right seems especially unusual for WisDOT.

[DaBigE]

The W2-1 Modified must be project-specific, as its never appeared like that in the standard sign plate library nor as any recent transmittals.  I'm kinda curious as to the thought process behind this one.  WisDOT's usual treatment for adding emphasis would be to add temporary (or now "permanent") flags or a flashing beacon/wig-wag assembly.  Technically, this one violates the MUTCD, as §2A.15 only allows for diagonal alternating stripes.

[SEWIGuy]

Where is that BGS going to go? 

[on_wisconsin]

Where is that BGS going to go? 

My bad, here is the link:
ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/02February_14/20120214012plan.pdf
(The map is on the Title Page and the signs in question are on pages 203- 204.)

[SEWIGuy]

Where is that BGS going to go? 

My bad, here is the link:
ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/02February_14/20120214012plan.pdf
(The map is on the Title Page and the signs in question are on pages 203- 204.)

OK thanks.  This encourages people to take US-12 and I-43 to Delevan instead of going through town to connect with WI-11.

[on_wisconsin]

Looks like WisDOT is taking a page from CalTrans  :

From this plan: ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/07July_10/20120710007plan.pdf (page 213)

[DaBigE]

I'm surprised, but not that much...that's the SE Region for you.  They're the only region in the State to have their own sign design crew--the rest come out of the (sane-er) Central Office.  I've seen some wacky plans come out of there, but this one takes the prize for breaking from WisDOT convention.

[on_wisconsin]

The August plans are up on the WisDOT site and contain zero new sign plates.
The sole highlight is the Junction Rd- Mineral Point Rd Jug Handle in Madison.

[on_wisconsin]

WisDOT just posted the September plans, this month is just your run of the mill letting, couldn't find much of anything to note. Almost all of the plans are for the eastern side of the state. Four of them have to do with the assembly of prefab steel sections for the I-43/ I-XX interchange.
link: ftp://ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/09September_11/

[GeekJedi]

Here are two signs I found rather interesting from a February Letting:

The one on the right seems especially unusual for WisDOT.

The one on the right (W2-1) is up.  It's on a mast arm over US-12/WI-67 at the CTH-ES intersection in Abells Corners.  That's a particularly nasty area with a 35 MPH speed limit.  I've attached a really bad cellphone pic to kind of give you an idea.

[JREwing78]

On the one hand, that sign is considerably more visible than before (I drove through there a few weeks ago). But that intersection honestly should have just gone signalized instead.

WisDOT is also not a believer in flashing caution lights. WIS 26 at County N north of Milton has flashing lights for traffic stopping, but nothing warning WIS 26 traffic beyond the normal signage. Not that this will be much of a concern in the next year or so once the bypass is finished (and while County N is rerouted south along WIS 59).

[J N Winkler]

I count about 15 sheets of pattern-accurate sign designs in the latest WisDOT letting--of which probably the majority were custom workzone signs.

[SEWIGuy]

On the one hand, that sign is considerably more visible than before (I drove through there a few weeks ago). But that intersection honestly should have just gone signalized instead.

WisDOT is also not a believer in flashing caution lights. WIS 26 at County N north of Milton has flashing lights for traffic stopping, but nothing warning WIS 26 traffic beyond the normal signage. Not that this will be much of a concern in the next year or so once the bypass is finished (and while County N is rerouted south along WIS 59).

They are going to re-route Walworth County N along 59?  Do you mean from Whitewater all the way to WI-59 just east of Newville?

That makes no sense. 

[mukade]

I count about 15 sheets of pattern-accurate sign designs in the latest WisDOT letting--of which probably the majority were custom workzone signs.

I checked out the WisDOT plans which are pretty cool. The actual plans look a lot like the online INDOT plans that are also posted, but INDOT generally publishes a boatload every month. I like the simplicity to access to the WisDOT plans, but it took a long time to download a PDF. INDOT offers a two-step way to get to the plans: 1) find the contract number, 2) download the plans here.

What other states have plans online? URLs?

[J N Winkler]

What other states have plans online? URLs?

My current count is 41 out of 50.  The vast majority of the 41 make the plans available to the general public free of charge, but there are close to 10 which require payment of a subscription fee, while a few others require some kind of registration (automated self-registration is the norm but a few require you to supply tax documentation, such as a W-9, which is reviewed before access is granted).

Here is a clickable list of the states that have "walk-on" access to online plans (WI and IN, though previously mentioned, are included for completeness):

AK

*  All Region bid calendar (advertised plans):

http://www.dot.state.ak.us/apps/contracts?ACTION=BIDCAL&REGION_CODE=ALL

*  Southeast Region as-builts:

http://dot.alaska.gov/sereg/asbuilts/index.shtml

WA

*  WSDOT contracts (awarded contracts are in separate folders by contract number; current advertisements are in an "Advertised projects" folder with no contract numbers):

ftp://ftp.wsdot.wa.gov/contracts/

OR

*  Electronic Bid Documents distribution platform (requires registration; process is automated):

https://ecm.odot.state.or.us/cf/EBIDS/

CA

*  Caltrans Office Engineer (Attachment A is current week's advertisements; other Attachments are for planned advertisements, advertisements from previous weeks, etc.; plans remain available after award but retrieval may require directory browsing):

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/oe/weekly_ads/attach_a.php

MT

*  MDT FTP server:

ftp://ftp.mdt.mt.gov/contract/bid-packages/

UT

*  UDOT Project Explorer (public links go to bowdlerized plan sets only--you need an account for login access to structure plans):

http://eprpw.dot.utah.gov/Applets-Production/ProjectExplorer/ProjectExplorer.asp

TX

*  TxDOT Plans Online:

ftp://planuser:txdotplans@plans.dot.state.tx.us/State-Let-Construction/

OK

*  Oklahoma DOT Preliminary Project Plan Sheets (actually finished plans sets, but called "preliminary" so you don't confuse them with the printed plans sets, which are considered official):

http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/contracts/

KS

*  KDOT Proposals (actually includes full plans sets--the title dates from pre-2008 times when only proposals could be downloaded):

http://www.ksdot.org/burconsmain/contracts/proposal.asp

NE

*  NDOR lettings (direct links to plans are under each letting date):

http://www.dor.state.ne.us/letting/lettings.htm

SD

*  SDDOT lettings (plans are under each letting):

http://apps.sd.gov/applications/hc65c2c/HC65BidLetting/ebslettings1.aspx

ND

*  NDDOT Eplans:

http://www.dot.nd.gov/dotnet2/eplans/default.aspx

AR

*  AHTD lettings (plans are available only between advertisement and bid opening):

http://www.arkansashighways.com/ProgCon/General/JOBS.htm

LA

*  LaDOTD Plans Online (links to plans are under each "Notice to Contractors"):

http://www.dotd.la.gov/lettings/construction.aspx

AL

*  Alabama DOT lettings:

http://alletting.dot.state.al.us/

GA

*  GDOT Historical Plans search (plans for advertised projects cost money to download through third-party vendors, but are available here free of charge after award--you will need the PI number, from the award sheets, to locate a specific project):

http://www.dot.state.ga.us/informationcenter/transpi/Pages/ProjectSelection.aspx

NC

*  NCDOT letting plans:

http://dotw-xfer01.dot.state.nc.us/dsplan/

TN

*  TDOT lettings (links to plans are under the individual lettings):

http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/construction/Bid_Lettings.htm

IL

*  Illinois DOT E-plans:

http://eplan.dot.il.gov/desenv/

IN

*  Indiana DOT Netservices (requires, as noted, contract numbers for searching):

https://netservices.indot.in.gov/ViewDocs2.0/

OH

*  Ohio DOT Contracts:

http://contracts.dot.state.oh.us/

PA

*  PennDOT ECMS (use anonymous login, navigate to "Bid Packages"; requires IE):

http://www.dot14.state.pa.us/ECMS/

MI

*  Michigan DOT Eproposals (requires registration--process is fully automated):

http://mdotwas1.mdot.state.mi.us/public/bids/

WI

*  WisDOT online plans:

ftp://ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/

CT

*  ConnDOT bid advertisements (links to plans are included under each advertisement--if plans are too large to host with the advertisement, a PDF file will state that plans are available on a State of Connecticut file transfer platform and give login details):

http://www.biznet.ct.gov/scp_search/BidResults.aspx?groupid=64

ME

*  Maine DOT contracts (links to plans are under each contract):

http://www.maine.gov/mdot/contractors/

I checked out the WisDOT plans which are pretty cool. The actual plans look a lot like the online INDOT plans that are also posted, but INDOT generally publishes a boatload every month. I like the simplicity to access to the WisDOT plans, but it took a long time to download a PDF. INDOT offers a two-step way to get to the plans: 1) find the contract number, 2) download the plans here.

For many state DOTs there seems to be a tradeoff between ease of access and length of archiving.  Some states, like WI and OK, make it very easy for you to drill down to the direct links or even to batch-download if you have a download manager like IDM or enough programming skills to use wget effectively, but the plans are left online only for a short period of time--WisDOT promises six months, for example, while Oklahoma DOT takes the plans down as soon as bids are opened.  Other states, like PA, MI, and IN, essentially provide you with a Web-based front end to an electronic document management system.  This makes downloading cumbersome to do and to automate (though there are ways . . .), but plans availability extends quite far into the past (2004 with partial 2003 availability for PennDOT, 2006 with partial 2004-05 availability for Michigan DOT, and at least two years back--probably as much as six--for Indiana DOT).

A few state DOTs, like Caltrans, Illinois DOT, and NCDOT spend the extra money on disk space so they can keep advertised plans online essentially indefinitely, but I think they are the exception.  Caltrans has complete availability back to 2003, while NCDOT and Illinois DOT have good availability back to 2004, but all three states had bad letting droughts in the late noughties, so their storage demands are not as large as they might otherwise have been.

[DaBigE]

WisDOT is also not a believer in flashing caution lights.

That is not totally true. WisDOT is very selective in their use. Wis 33 approaching Wis 175 in Washington County was reconstructed a few years back and included them. They're also regularly spec'd on higher-speed approaches to roundabouts. Eau Claire has 'em and last I saw, they were on the plans for at least one of the US 10 approaches near Marshfield.

[JREwing78]

They are going to re-route Walworth County N along 59?  Do you mean from Whitewater all the way to WI-59 just east of Newville?

That makes no sense. 

Replace "reroute" with "detour" in my sentence above. That's probably the issue.

Currently, County N is detoured along WIS 59 while the WIS 26 interchange at County N is being built.

[SEWIGuy]

They are going to re-route Walworth County N along 59?  Do you mean from Whitewater all the way to WI-59 just east of Newville?

That makes no sense. 

Replace "reroute" with "detour" in my sentence above. That's probably the issue.

Currently, County N is detoured along WIS 59 while the WIS 26 interchange at County N is being built.

Ah yes...thank you

[on_wisconsin]

The November plan sets are out (no Sept letting), so far its back to business as usual with next to no mention of any US 41 construction and plenty of projects statewide.
November Plans: ftp://ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/11November_13/

An emergency bridge repair letting will be held on Oct 23 for the I-43 Valley Road Bridge (B-40-285).

[J N Winkler]

WisDOT has a new page for project advertisements:

http://roadwaystandards.dot.wi.gov/hcci/bid-letting/

I have been through the latest tranche of plans and have found 31 pattern-accurate sign design sheets, which is pretty decent given the lack of a single large contract in this letting.

I have also made some modifications to the scripts I use to manage WisDOT plans downloading.  The pdftk wrapper script which I use for extracting sign design sheets now uses taskkill to police spent Acrobat windows.  On the assumption that WisDOT construction plans will continue to "live" at the FTP URL given upthread (an assumption which I hope is not unfounded), I have also written a wget wrapper script to retrieve them automatically.  Under Windows the wrapper script can be scheduled as a task and eliminates the need to check the WisDOT FTP server every so often for newly uploaded plans.