Wind blown signs?

[3web]

I was wondering if wind blown signs exist anywhere else than Vegas.

heres an example: www.aaroads.com/shields/show.php?image=NV19940931

And no, it's not peeling because of age, it's because the wind speed gets so high that it causes it to start peeling off the paint on the signs. Infact where I live, there was a wind blown speed limit sign, but it was replaced a couple of months ago.

(it's also more common to see the black peeling rather than the white)

[tdindy88]

I was in Vegas a few years ago and saw those signs, I always thought that it was just some weird font they were using for the U.S. highway shields.

[corco]

Yeah this is pretty common in Montana and Wyoming. I even saw it in Oregon a couple weeks ago. I don't know if the peeling is necessarily the wind.

[ET21]

I suspect many areas in the High Plains/Great Plains region experience this too, given the fact storm systems tend to bring in the strongest winds right down the mountain ranges and rush across the region.

[Bruce]

These ones in Seattle might fit the bill:


Poorly-made I-5 shields on Roanoke Street by SounderBruce, on Flickr

[Brian556]

I guarantee you that damage has nothing to do with the wind. Those signs are made with black film, which does not last as long as screen-printed letters or reflective sheeting. Black film very frequently shrivels or peels prematurely due to sun exposure. I hate it, and I wish it was not used for sign fabrication.

[Brandon]

How about when the wind knocks over the sign?

Here's one I'd been meaning to get a picture of the last three times it blew over, but caught it finally on the fourth time.


It's for Exit 267, IL-53, Bolingbrook/Romeoville - 2 miles on I-55 nbd.  The original was FHWA font.  After the first time it blew over, IDOT replaced it with Clearview.  Then it blew over two more times and was replaced, albiet damaged from the fall.  This time, they replaced the whole sign again (with Clearview again).

This is sadly, not uncommon around Illinois.  The wind knocks over the sign at one of the break points.

[jbnv]

How about when the wind knocks over the sign? [snip] This is sadly, not uncommon around Illinois.  The wind knocks over the sign at one of the break points.

This happens a lot in Louisiana when hurricanes come through. I suspect this is by design. The logic is that this event does less damage to the sign. If the posts were rigid, the wind could rip the sign off the posts. This way. the structure just falls over but stays intact.

[jbnv]

I guarantee you that damage has nothing to do with the wind. Those signs are made with black film, which does not last as long as screen-printed letters or reflective sheeting. Black film very frequently shrivels or peels prematurely due to sun exposure. I hate it, and I wish it was not used for sign fabrication.

This also happens a lot in Louisiana, and why DOTD keeps letting it happen is a mystery to me.


Peeling La. Highway Sign by Jay Bienvenu, on Flickr

[3web]

How about when the wind knocks over the sign?

Here's one I'd been meaning to get a picture of the last three times it blew over, but caught it finally on the fourth time.


It's for Exit 267, IL-53, Bolingbrook/Romeoville - 2 miles on I-55 nbd.  The original was FHWA font.  After the first time it blew over, IDOT replaced it with Clearview.  Then it blew over two more times and was replaced, albiet damaged from the fall.  This time, they replaced the whole sign again (with Clearview again).

This is sadly, not uncommon around Illinois.  The wind knocks over the sign at one of the break points.

Well I guess signs knocked over by wind count.

This never happened in Vegas before (not that I know of) but I do remember a couple of years ago the wind getting so intense, that one of the bolts broke on the stop sign right out side my and it flipped upside down.
I did have pictures of the upside down sign, but that was on a phone that's long gone.
I was told that the stop sign was town maintained since I live in an unincorportated town, but I don't think they would come out to fix it, so my dad fixed it with another bolt.

[Mohkfry]

There's an exit sign on I-94 in Indiana that the Indiana 912 sheild is peeling. Sadly I don't have pics (the road is too busy and I'm always the one driving) and I can't post streetview links on an iPhone.

[roadfro]

Well I guess signs knocked over by wind count.

This never happened in Vegas before (not that I know of) but I do remember a couple of years ago the wind getting so intense, that one of the bolts broke on the stop sign right out side my and it flipped upside down.
I did have pictures of the upside down sign, but that was on a phone that's long gone.
I was told that the stop sign was town maintained since I live in an unincorportated town, but I don't think they would come out to fix it, so my dad fixed it with another bolt.

Signs blowing over due to wind rarely happens in Nevada. This is because of the three-point bracing that most larger post-mounted signs use. Example from AARoads (Summerlin Pkwy in Las Vegas):



Note on the town/stop sign issue:  Unincorporated towns in Clark County nowadays are little more than geographic areas on maps. They all have "town boards", which are typically just advisory boards to the county commission on planning and development issues. Towns have no separate employees or maintenance forces. Your stop sign would have been fixed by Clark County Public Works employees had it been noticed or reported.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'll have to dig up some pictures but I have an I-17 (Arizona), I-10 (Arizona), I-25/BL (New Mexico) that are all 0.125 gauge as opposed to the standard 0.80.  My theory always was that they were designed that way to deal with the high winds from dust storms, all of them are a single sheet of vinyl as opposed to having raised numerals.