Does Caltrans D7 Speak English Anymore???

[AndyMax25]

As part of the Reyes Adobe bridge project, Caltrans D7 has done 2 more crazy things to add to their VERY long list.

1.  They replaced a less than 5 year old sign that said "Agoura Hills/NEXT 4 EXITS".  I thought signs are supposed to have a service life of 25 years.  Looks like the state does not mind spending extra to remove perfectly good signs.  More likely, the plans were checked and approved by multiple folks who have English as a second (or 3rd) language; as seen in #2

2.  They completely misspelled the City name. The new sign reads "Aquora Hills". 

UNBELIEVABLE!!!  This means the plans called out the removal of the perfectly good sign.  The sign was designed and approved with a misspelling, the contractor delivered the sign to the site and was inspected and approved and installed.  At least 3 engineers and 2 inspectors must have seen it before it was put up.  See for yourself:

Original


New

[NE2]

Agoura comes from a French guy's name...

[AndyMax25]

You're right...this area has been prone to name misspelling since 1927 ha ha!

Via Wikipedia:
"To obtain a post office of their own, the residents were required to choose a one-word name, and in 1927 chose the shortest name proposed: a misspelling of the last name of Pierre Agoure, a local Basque man and French immigrant"

[andy3175]

Is it possible that the old sign was knocked down or damaged beyond repair? Or did one sign go down one day and the new one came up the next?

Regards,
Andy

[Scott5114]

There's a sign for an attraction in Prague, OK that does the same thing, spelling it as "Praque". It's a little more understandable, though, since that sign is in Clearview, so you have the curved descender on the Q.

[AndyMax25]

Is it possible that the old sign was knocked down or damaged beyond repair? Or did one sign go down one day and the new one came up the next?

Andy, I have written confirmation from an Agoura Hills official that the new sign was part of the Reyes Adobe interchange project.

[DTComposer]

Almost daily I am baffled by the signage that goes up in District 7. Sloppy is the nicest word I can think of. As mentioned above, multiple people must be signing off on these plans, and yet:



And it's not like they were doing a new layout or verbage or anything:


(photo from AARoads)

Is there someone to contact? I'd be happy to volunteer my time to proof their sign plans.

[agentsteel53]

argh, another perfectly good porcelain sign replaced.

I had been hoping to blame d11 for this, but indeed the sign is in d7.

[venturafwy]

As part of the Reyes Adobe bridge project, Caltrans D7 has done 2 more crazy things to add to their VERY long list.

1.  They replaced a less than 5 year old sign that said "Agoura Hills/NEXT 4 EXITS".  I thought signs are supposed to have a service life of 25 years.  Looks like the state does not mind spending extra to remove perfectly good signs.  More likely, the plans were checked and approved by multiple folks who have English as a second (or 3rd) language; as seen in #2

2.  They completely misspelled the City name. The new sign reads "Aquora Hills". 

UNBELIEVABLE!!!  This means the plans called out the removal of the perfectly good sign.  The sign was designed and approved with a misspelling, the contractor delivered the sign to the site and was inspected and approved and installed.  At least 3 engineers and 2 inspectors must have seen it before it was put up.  See for yourself:

Original


New

And on the northbound 101 just before Chesebro Rd, Agoura Hills is once again misspelled as AQOURA HILLS.  Unbelievable indeed!

[formulanone]

Just caught this yesterday on my drive back to the hotel...Aqoura, indeed.

Northbound on US 101:


Southbound on US 101:

[hotdogPi]

So close to a 3-cherry win! Fortunately, some slot machines have a win for 2 cherries.

Does "Ave" have to be that far to the right?

And, why "Cherry North Ave" and not "Cherry Ave North"? That must be the biggest fail.

[formulanone]

Even Google has a surprising number of hits for "Aqoura Hills".

[hotdogPi]

Even Google has a surprising number of hits for "Aqoura Hills".

Somehow, randomly, it will give either "did you mean" or it will correct it for you. Here is a better link: here

[Occidental Tourist]

Is there someone to contact? I'd be happy to volunteer my time to proof their sign plans.

This one drives me crazy, too.  I tweeted and e-mailed them about it -- no response.

I am also trying to figure out their position on Lakewood Blvd being signed as SR-19.  Most of it south of the 91 was relinquished to local control with no continuity signing requirement.  District 7 went so far as to scrape some SR-19 shields off existing button copy signs on the 405 in response.  But now the new retroreflective signs being installed on the 405 are putting the shields back on.

I'd love if somebody with a sense perspective in that office would figure out what the policy is before spending tens of thousands of dollars on replacement sign contracts.

[Occidental Tourist]

Just caught this yesterday on my drive back to the hotel...Aqoura, indeed.

Northbound on US 101:



Southbound on US 101:

You know when they fix it, they'll put a green-out "g" over it that will either (1) be in a smaller font than the original text, or (2) be completely misaligned with the rest of the text.

[machias]

Just caught this yesterday on my drive back to the hotel...Aqoura, indeed.

Northbound on US 101:



Southbound on US 101:

You know when they fix it, they'll put a green-out "g" over it that will either (1) be in a smaller font than the original text, or (2) be completely misaligned with the rest of the text.

The "q" in the first sign is an upside-down and reversed "b".

[SignBridge]

Did anyone notice that besides the use of a q instead of g, that the o and the u are reversed also? That might be a little harder to correct unless they green out the whole word.

It appears to me that Caltrans is suffering the same illiteracy (that means can't read/write) as the rest of the younger population in America today. Gotta wonder what they teach in schools since my days as a school kid in the 1960's when they taught us how to read, write and spell. It is a crying shame.

But getting back to Cherry Ave. and Agoura Hills, yes it is a disgrace that nobody involved in the design and production process caught those errors. That Cherry Ave. mess-up strikes me as maybe a computer generated error. I have seen some similar oddities in the New York area that I think could be the result of inflexible computer programming in the sign design programs. Just a guess of course.

[NE2]

Did anyone notice that besides the use of a q instead of g, that the o and the u are reversed also?

No. Nobody fnord noticed that.

[Scott5114]

My guess is either someone utterly didn't realize that was a Q, or someone unfamiliar with the town had to make up the sign going off of someone else's terrible handwriting. Once the G is a Q, it makes sense to rearrange the O and the U to have the U follow the Q like normal.

[formulanone]

I'm barely informed on how this stuff works, but if those letters are really reversed, I'm guessing somebody was tinkering with vector settings and controls which they weren't experienced in using. Couple that to a looming deadline, and violq! screwed up sign that appears to have been made on another planet.

[707]

Reminds me of a problem Medford, New York had, where they spelled all kinds of street names wrong. My Aunt lives on Narragansett Avenue, which had an erroneous "Naragansette Drive" sign placed on it. It drove her mad.

[JustDrive]

Drove on that stretch yesterday.  The "Aquora Hills" signs on both directions have been removed.

[sdmichael]

Unless I missed it, the NB 405 Cherry Ave sign has also been fixed and looks quite nice. I went by there today.

[AndyMax25]

A friend of mine noticed a misspelling of La Cienega along northbound 405 carpool lane exit sings at I-105.  The signs say "LA CIENGA".

See links below.  I'll try to notify Caltrans.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.926182,-118.367976&spn=0.001048,0.001148&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=33.926182,-118.368231&panoid=PXxBs9Ta1MaabaJfOmTacA&cbp=12,287.65,,2,2.4

https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.929406,-118.368243&spn=0.001048,0.001148&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=33.929484,-118.368243&panoid=jHLDH7g3qkgXX-xglvPCvw&cbp=12,307.28,,2,3.27

[The High Plains Traveler]

If CalTrans misspells "La Cienega", how is that an example of not knowing proper English?