Signage along highways with reminders of what once was

[freebrickproductions]

I'm making this thread for signs along highways that used to contain information about roads or highways that no longer exist in that location.
I'll start it off with some from Huntsville. Along I-565, there are some signs that still have places where a state route shield used to go. I think they were for AL-20, but I can't say for sure. All that's left of the shields are places where the signs aren't as faded that are in the shape of Alabama.
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.718533,-86.632533&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.718533,-86.632533&panoid=UcU8ySAYgTuga2GdayoS1Q&cbp=12,139.26,,1,-18.6
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.721343,-86.62295&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.721343,-86.62295&panoid=OhThkfihkg_Tu6H4u1o-Yg&cbp=12,235.6,,2,-16.3
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.718513,-86.632643&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.718513,-86.632643&panoid=ZSEzheexEIXmKLV8gnczTg&cbp=12,114.22,,2,-13.26
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.703722,-86.682224&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.703722,-86.682224&panoid=Q94YIwZ89WRHpnvE1li9lw&cbp=12,70.74,,2,-12.88

There are also some remainders of it at the interchange with Research Park Blvd (AL 255).
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.708335,-86.671313&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.708412,-86.671315&panoid=pjjvKP9LmQ5_BQNqWW4n1g&cbp=12,184.23,,2,-14.78
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.705743,-86.671383&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.705743,-86.671383&panoid=_kQkBhsh30gkBTK3HFmcag&cbp=12,185.71,,1,-20.5
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.705869,-86.671087&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.70595,-86.671085&panoid=GziY3Q5G4fsR1COPeXdkWg&cbp=12,28.87,,0,-38.1
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.707686,-86.671043&spn=0.000002,0.001032&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=34.707602,-86.671047&panoid=sQHpgoXYYYa2KwL05Rop2w&cbp=12,43.66,,0,-31.11

Over at the Huntsville International Airport, there is also a space on a cantilever for a sign over an unused turn lane. Looking at Google Maps, it would've been for a parking lot entrance.
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.652608,-86.774349&spn=0.000012,0.008256&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=34.652608,-86.774349&panoid=pFjnxmuM3uy26tweRIdd3w&cbp=12,225.87,,3,-1.92

[Eth]

If you squint at this one on I-285, you can see the outline of a Georgia state route shield above the text. That would be GA 260, which was truncated to I-20 in 2006. I expect this sign won't be here much longer; the advance signs for this exit were recently replaced and bear only the road name.

[hbelkins]

I have some old pictures of the exit signage for US 68 on I-24 in the Paducah area where you can see the outline for the Downtown Loop I-24 and US 68 markers before it became Business Loop I-24 and was moved from that exit to the Husband Road exit, and the US 68 marker was centered on the sign.

[roadman]

On I-95 approaching Neponset Street (exit 11) in Norwood, MA, there are BBS panels for Norwood Hospital.  When the signs were first installed, Norwood Hospital was owned by a firm called Caritas.  At some point, the hospital changed ownership and the Caritas portion of the legend was removed from the signs.  However, you can still see the outline of the letters on the sign background.

[DandyDan]

Numerous roads in Iowa which used to be state highways still have mile markers for highways which no longer pass along that particular road.

Also, Center St./W. Center Road in Omaha has old mile markers from when it was NE 38.

[agentsteel53]

plenty of greenout in California.  one sign even has the ears.

[TEG24601]

There used to be a lot of these on and around I-69 when I drove it regularly after US-27 was truncated to Ft. Wayne.  I also remember seeing an US-10 dust shadow on the Saginaw St. Exit of I-75 south of Flint, MI before the sign was replaced.

[Pete from Boston]

There is a plethora of signs along or near Providence Highway, VFW Parkway, the Jamaicaway and the Riverway in/near Boston for US 1, that hasn't run there in 25 years.  Nobody at the dcr seems to care.

[bing101]

California seems to have the most examples of this with greenout on Button Copy signs.
although Newer signs are removing the greenouts

How About "Historic Routes" I know in Monrovia, CA and Arcadia, CA, Huntington Drive has "Historic Route US-66" signs but its city and county managed. "Lincoln Highway" is co-signed with CA-113 and "Historic US-40" in Dixon, CA. do these count.

[Laura]

There used to be 2 button copy BGSs that were modified once I-195 was built (south of Baltimore). These photos are from Alps' site (http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/md/i-95/s2.html, with the first one taken by Lou Corsaro):

[SectorZ]

Until the freeway stretch of US 3 in Massachusetts was widened, the last exit (36) for Middlesex Ave had a missing space to the left that appeared to be a state route shield that was removed. Odd thing is, there has never been a state route on it, but methinks someone put a 3A sign up there, because at the end of the off ramp there is an erroneous "3A North" sign pointing left into Nashua NH. Eons ago, before the US 3 freeway, Middlesex Rd was US 3, but 3A there has always been on the other side of the Merrimack River from Tyngsboro center northward.

Also another odd instance on 3, down in Chelmsford. On the northbound side, the MA 110 junction used to have an A-B exit for each direction. Upon widening the highway, they built a long c/d ramp for I-495 and 110, and knocked 110 down to just one exit (like the southbound side). However, on the c/d ramp, there is a sign for 110 and "Exits 31 A-B", which haven't now existed since 2002. Been wondering how long that will last, and why that sign was a handful not replaced when they widened the highway.

[roadman]

Most of the signing on US 3 between Burlington and Tyngsborough had been updated a few years before the widening project began.  As such, the sign panels were incorporated into the widening project "as-is", or with minor changes - usually relocating structures on new foundations.  Because the widening project was an accellerated design-build contract, it doesn't surprise me that some legend modifications were overlooked.

And yes, the Exit 36 sign Cjzani mentions did have a 3A shield on it when first installed as part of the pre-widening sign replacement project.  It was removed shortly thereafter once the error was pointed out to MassHighway.

[SidS1045]

Perhaps the best examples are the signs on the German autobahnen with the legend "Ehemalige innerdeutsche Grenze" (former border between East and West Germany), with an illustration of the fortified walls and watchtowers.

[BakoCondors]

Perhaps the best examples are the signs on the German autobahnen with the legend "Ehemalige innerdeutschen Grenze" (former border between East and West Germany), with an illustration of the fortified walls and watchtowers.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/12625973.jpg

[cl94]

Many of New York's current/former state highways have reference markers showing former designations. There used to be some US 15 signs in Rochester (don't know if still there). In Glens Falls, NY, there's an "end" marker for NY 9L at its former southern terminus, three blocks north of the current terminus. Until recently, there were some REALLY old hand-painted wooden crossbucks on NY 240 about halfway between Orchard Park and Springville, the railroad line being abandoned and torn up for several years. Signs in Manhattan point to I-495 West at the Lincoln Tunnel.

[cpzilliacus]

My FTP is not working right now (which is how I normally get images online for display on AAROADS), but here are some that might be appropriate for this thread - buttoncopy signs in Maryland from the completion of I-495 in 1964 - on Facebook (you do not need a Facebook account to see these):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203354853424196.1073741843.1596953667&type=1&l=fbc3fcfc56

[roadman65]

I-78 in New Jersey on the One and one quarter mile guide signs for WB Exit 18 show clearly that there was a NJ 31 South Shield on it once as NJDOT wanted you to use two local streets through Annandale, NJ to make the connection instead of exiting NB on NJ 31 and making the turnabout to NJ 31 SB for Flemington like they do now.

The New Brunswick Avenue overpass across both US 9 and the Garden State Parkway in Fords, NJ, I believe, still has a sign at the base of the bridge on NB US 9 that was left over from when the GSP NB used to use current US 9 NB lanes as its carriageway before NJ 440 was built.  Only the GSP used this type of signing for overpasses as other places place the street name on the girders above the freeway.

[Alps]

There used to be 2 button copy BGSs that were modified once I-195 was built (south of Baltimore). These photos are from Alps' site (http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/md/i-95/s2.html, with the first one taken by Lou Corsaro):

Negative, the photos you pulled were 4th and 5th in the run, and Lou only took the first one.

[DevalDragon]

The one at Georgia Avenue is gone now? There was one left in Aug of 2013.

My FTP is not working right now (which is how I normally get images online for display on AAROADS), but here are some that might be appropriate for this thread - buttoncopy signs in Maryland from the completion of I-495 in 1964 - on Facebook (you do not need a Facebook account to see these):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203354853424196.1073741843.1596953667&type=1&l=fbc3fcfc56

[DevalDragon]

And Interstate 95 doesn't go to Richmond anymore.



Still don't know why they went through the trouble to take this off the sign.

[Billy F 1988]

Well, US 10 isn't completely gone from Montana's not-too-distant past, despite it being truncated to West Fargo, ND in 1986. Just in case you happen to be on West Broadway Street and wondered what it was, there 'ya go. It was once multiplexed with US 93 and possibly MT 200 before Missoula County approved building the bridge over the Clark Fork River to move Reserve Street traffic down to US 12 and shifted US 93's mainline role from Broadway to Reserve. This explains why we have US 93 Business because of US 93 being multiplexed with I-90 and MT 200.

[huskeroadgeek]

The freeway portion of Sam Cooper Blvd. in Memphis is still signed as it was when it was part of I-40. The exit numbers follow what would have been the mile markers on I-40 if it had gone through the middle of the city as originally proposed and there is still pull-through signage eastbound for Nashville and westbound for Little Rock with a big green space where the I-40 shield would go. I'm surprised they've kept the pull-through signs, particularly for WB traffic since the road carries primarily local traffic and there's no signage at the end of the road to tell anyone which direction to head to get to Little Rock anyway.

[PHLBOS]

In Birmingham Twp., Chester County PA along PA 926, remnants (bare posts) of signage that once carried PA 100 shield & NORTH cardinal as well as a destination LGS.

I'm surprised that nobody yet mentioned this gem in Cambridge, MA that's had a ghost I-95 shield since 1975.

Further east, in Charlestown, MA; remnants of a similar (early-70s) vintage overhead gantry post at the Rutherford Ave./MA 99 intersection.

[The Nature Boy]

And Interstate 95 doesn't go to Richmond anymore.



Still don't know why they went through the trouble to take this off the sign.

I'm actually confused here. I-95 does still go through Richmond and it seems like a logical control city for that area of Maryland. Why get rid of it?

[PHLBOS]

And Interstate 95 doesn't go to Richmond anymore.



Still don't know why they went through the trouble to take this off the sign.

I'm actually confused here. I-95 does still go through Richmond and it seems like a logical control city for that area of Maryland. Why get rid of it?

I guess MDSHA no longer wanted 2 control destinations listed on pull-through signs.