California Covered Shields

[RoadMaster]

For some stupid reason, CalTrans is a cheapskate when it comes to signage. If they put a new number on a road, instead of putting up a totally new BGS, they just do this:

from AARoads Shield Gallery

The shields could peel off, causing a mistake like this one:

from WestCoastRoads

Oy.

[agentsteel53]

the old signs with patches are of incredible historical value, and - if they were just power-washed a bit more often - would be perfectly serviceable. 

where else are you going to find the evidence for the fact that this intersection was, in 1960, signed as the split between US-60, and I-10/US-70/US-99?  Furthermore, where else are you going to find a sign that is 49 years old and remains completely and perfectly comprehensible to all who pass by it.

It beats the hell out of a state like Arizona that insists upon replacing every dang sign in the state once every five years, with the latest new-fangled optional font.

now quit hotlinking to the shield gallery in an attempt to mock and discredit its contents.

[agentsteel53]

I understand that, agentsteel53. By the way, I'm sorry about the shield gallery thing. Those 2 pics are the best ones I could find.

well yeah, for that first gantry a friend of mine went out there with a zoom lens and got some dang good shots of that sign, and one on the 10 freeway mainline with another old 60 shield.  It's not by accident that they're the best you can find!  The photos are to be used as historical evidence, not as "hurr hurr look at how dumb California is".  If that's the dumbest thing you can find about CA, you clearly haven't lived there much



here's a decent picture of a resurrected US-50.  Note the green cover plate under the sign on the catwalk.  The photo floats around the internet so much that I have no idea who took it in the first place.

I don't know if the 7 shield you reference was due to a fall-off, or if they just plain forgot to patch it in the first place, because the 7 and 60 shields appear to show the same quantity of wear. 

somewhere I have a picture I took of an uncovered 17 shield under a 580 patch in the Bay Area; it's an awful photo since I took it at 10 at night - when I returned at 7am the next day, it had been already patched.

[agentsteel53]

what's wrong with the signs the way they are?  the only real fundamental flaw that CA signs have is the lack of exit tabs.  Otherwise the vast majority work great. 

sometimes highway departments seem to get too caught up in replacing signs just for the sake of replacing signs, as opposed to focusing on the important concerns like how they never actually built the 7 to go to Pasadena!

(see also the Akron thread.  Brand new signs.  The place remains ... Akron.)

[mightyace]

(see also the Akron thread.  Brand new signs.  The place remains ... Akron.)

O.T.
Well, call me crazy.  (agentsteel53 probably thinks I am anyway. LOL)  But,the 10 years I spend in Akron were the 10 best years of my life.  I much rather live there than California with the exception of the Sierra Nevadas and Feather River Canyon.

[agentsteel53]

O.T.
Well, call me crazy.  (agentsteel53 probably thinks I am anyway. LOL)  But,the 10 years I spend in Akron were the 10 best years of my life.  I much rather live there than California with the exception of the Sierra Nevadas and Feather River Canyon.

well, it may be a nice place to live, but putting up shiny new Clearview signs on I-77 isn't the most effective way to try to fix the above-national-average unemployment rate.

(and no, there isn't a need to remind me that California and employment go together as well as Breezewood and efficiency.)

[myosh_tino]

Agentsteel53,

I was browsing through "California @ WestCoastRoads.com" and noticed that the old, heavily patched I-40 exit sign in Barstow was replaced with a new reflective sign complete with exit number.  While I like the fact that the new sign has an exit number on it, I'm kind of sad this old sign dating back to when the freeway was built is gone for good.

New Sign...

[agentsteel53]

indeed, that old sign was quite serviceable.  It's not like there isn't a perfectly delineated patch of empty space for the exit tab on the old sign!



The new sign is an exact carbon copy of the old, just with the tab added.  Same slightly haphazard location for the arrows.  Why bother?  Call it $500 to patch, as opposed to $4000 to replace.  Budget crisis?  What budget crisis?

here, btw, is what the sign looked like before the patches.



the 15 shield was actually moved over by a foot or two to recenter it better, while the 40 shield was kept the same.  Furthermore, the older standard of "down arrow to indicate an exit" was replaced with "up-and-over arrow to indicate an exit on the very last sign before the split". 

There are a lot of CA signs where the arrow-update patches have fallen off and no one has bothered to replace them because they are not critical.  I'll try to find one.

[Alex]

You're right, AS53. I haven't lived in the Golden State much at all!

I'm not making fun of CalTrans. I'm just saying that they should do a little better when replacing signage. In fact, this was a place to show pics if you find a good covered shield. Those were the only 2 pics that I knew of, so I used them.

Andy and Alex said that CA-7 shield was actually where an I-710 overlay was. Right, AARoads?

Actually the patches/greenouts are a good thing IMO, as they indicate something that has changed for us road enthusiasts to research later (if we want to). As for the CA-7, its probably a green out that fell off. I did not take the photo nor write the caption, so Andy would have to answer that question...

As for some signs in CA lasting 40-50 years, think of the climate there and the low rainfall and lack of freezing temperatures in a lot of places. That prolongs sign life and as Jake said, with the budget crisis they have had now for many years, sign replacement should be placed low on the totem pole of funding expenditures if the existing signs are still serviceable.

[AZDude]

Be glad that you got pictures of it before the change. 

[Rover_0]

Well, hopefully the CA-60 greenover sign can be removed if CalTrans and AzDOT manage to get US-60 extended, like what's been mentioned in a thread at the Fictional Highways section.  As for the others, cleaning needs to be made at the very least.

[agentsteel53]

there are a couple of greenout US-66 shields on the 215.  Including one that fell off in 2005, but alas I missed it!

[agentsteel53]

Yeah. I wish US-66 never was decommissioned.

By the way, what is that wire around the signs for?

so that people don't make unauthorized field modifications...

[Scott5114]

Be happy your signs last that long in CA... Oklahoma's don't age nearly as gracefully!



(signs original to this portion of I-35, since replaced. Photo courtesy Eric Stuve.)

[agentsteel53]

oh they'd age gracefully if they were built better.  See those non-retroreflective button copy signs we found on US-62.  Those were dang near perfect.

also, they'd age gracefully if they weren't borrowed.  See that US-62 shield below the west banner.

[TheStranger]

Is it me, or is Ankrom's "NORTH" addition a greenout plate?  Talk about a brilliant emulation of CalTrans practices 

[Alex]

Is it me, or is Ankrom's "NORTH" addition a greenout plate?  Talk about a brilliant emulation of CalTrans practices 

It sure is:

[Scott5114]

His "5" is button copy too 

[andy3175]

Indeed the CA 7 shield shown above was underneath an I-710 shield that fell off. It has since been replaced.

We have done as much as possible to photograph as many old signs as we can before the new sign is posted. There's plenty we're still posting on westcoastroads.com.

Andy

[TheStranger]

Speaking of covered shields...in Sacramento, that US 99 sign from a month ago on the WX stretch of eastbound US 50/Business 80/southbound Route 99 has been covered now with a retroreflective greenout plate for (state) Route 99.  I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did exposed!

[TheStranger]

Highwaymaster: Okay, did I just actually see that?

101 South _TO_ South I-5, East I-10, East Route 60? 

A TO sign by Caltrans, instead of signing a route for its post-terminus successors?!  Amazing!!!  

How new is this?  Looks like there are no exit numbers there, similar in style to the complete avoidance of exit numbers at the brand new signage in metro Sacramento located within the I-80/US 50-Business 80 and Route 99/US 50/Business 80 freeway-to-freeway junctions.

[US71]

Is it me, or is Ankrom's "NORTH" addition a greenout plate?  Talk about a brilliant emulation of CalTrans practices 

TOO good. The BGS's have been replaced and his sign was sold as scrap to China.
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-12-31/la-life/richard-ankrom-s-freeway-art-caltrans-buys-into-the-prank/

[roadfro]

TOO good. The BGS's have been replaced and his sign was sold as scrap to China.
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-12-31/la-life/richard-ankrom-s-freeway-art-caltrans-buys-into-the-prank/

A "fan" of Ankrom's sign wrote this piece which somewhat reminisces about the sign.
http://www.good.is/post/the-fake-freeway-sign-that-became-a-real-public-service/

[TheStranger]

The Ankrom sign is still up on Google Street View!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Four-Level+Interchange+loc:+Los+Angeles&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=22.233176,73.476563&ie=UTF8&hq=Four-Level+Interchange&hnear=Los+Angeles,+CA&ll=34.055531,-118.25645&spn=0,359.991031&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=34.055627,-118.256368&panoid=zT5-pd5ko7mxFkPLNccGpw&cbp=12,61.74,,0,-3.78

[rawmustard]

The Ankrom sign is still up on Google Street View!

Uh, it's perfectly normal for Street View pics to be a year or more behind.