Road Trip Days 5 - 7 (SD, NE, KS, OK)

[rte66man]

Spent a day seeing the sights in and around Rapid City. Got to clinch I190 


Never seen a wooden-beamed bridge outside a national park before this one where US16A veers off towards Mount Rushmore:


The overall condition of the roads in and about Rushmore were superb except for this:


The Needles Highway was quite an adventure plus it cost $15!!! It's in Custer State Park. If you want to drive the road, you have to pay the day fee. 

Headed out from there south on US385 to Chadron, NE.  More construction:


Not much of interest until I came across the following sign (discussed in a separate thread):


I80 in Nebraska was under construction in large stretches. However, I like the way they are handling it. You are narrowed to one lane for 4-5 miles, go back to 2 lanes for 2-3 to allow for passing, then back to one lane.  I wish OK would do that.

Hit US81 at York and headed south towards home.  Did not care that the NE part bypassed towns yet slowed the speed limit to 55 or lower. KS did not do that.  We made much better time south of the border. 

Clinched I135 and saw some VERY large grain elevators. Also saw this odd BGS:

Does anyone know why KS is using such a small font?

rte66man

[apeman33]

Those small-font Kansas BGSes are from a period of time when KDOT was making some very shoddy signs (roughly from the mid 90s to the very early oughts). There used to be such signs on U.S. 69 at K-68 near Louisburg but those have been replaced.

[US71]

Never seen a wooden-beamed bridge outside a national park before this one where US16A veers off towards Mount Rushmore:

http://bridgehunter.com/sd/pennington/52308412/

[route56]

Clinched I135 and saw some VERY large grain elevators. Also saw this odd BGS:

Does anyone know why KS is using such a small font?

Could I get a higher-resolution shot. It looks like that K-104 shield has a black border.

If there is a black border on the shield, I'd guess that this is a contractor-designed replacement sign.

[rte66man]

Clinched I135 and saw some VERY large grain elevators. Also saw this odd BGS:

Does anyone know why KS is using such a small font?

Could I get a higher-resolution shot. It looks like that K-104 shield has a black border.

If there is a black border on the shield, I'd guess that this is a contractor-designed replacement sign.

Looks orange to me.

rte66man

[M86]

SDDOT is/was actually considering decommissioning I-190 into Rapid City.  I believe this idea has been thrown out (as it should have).
Here is the planning info:  http://sddot.com/transportation/highways/planning/specialstudies/i190/default.aspx

[route56]

As I thought.... It's a contractor built sign (presumably) replacing a wreck-damaged sign. KDOT had replaced all the signage along this stretch of I-135 when they rebulit the roadway a few years back.