Largest wastes of overhead assemblies?

[mcdonaat]

Noticing on a few freeway expansion projects that were cancelled that the overhead assemblies remain, even if it's spanning four lanes, and it has one tiny sign on it. Examples below:
New Orleans - you can only exit, since no expressway continues straight. http://goo.gl/maps/N3xl
Shreveport - can't see because of the sunlight, but its spanning the width of three lanes. All it says is 220 West By-Pass. http://goo.gl/maps/fPDl

[Scott5114]

(Photo courtesy Eric Stuve/okroads)

Apparently this once carried a single Lane Ends sign, but it was later made inapplicable and taken down. So... there's just a pointless gantry.

[mcdonaat]

That's a very nice jungle gym!

[Special K]

Noticing on a few freeway expansion projects that were cancelled that the overhead assemblies remain, even if it's spanning four lanes, and it has one tiny sign on it. Examples below:
New Orleans - you can only exit, since no expressway continues straight. http://goo.gl/maps/N3xl
Shreveport - can't see because of the sunlight, but its spanning the width of three lanes. All it says is 220 West By-Pass. http://goo.gl/maps/fPDl

Both of these are probably in place to accomodate the signing needs of future roadway widening or extension.

The first example in particular shows the potential for continuing the through lanes, in which case more overhead signs will be necessary.  It made sense to construct the full truss at this time to avoid removing median barrier rail to install the truss footings in the future.

[PurdueBill]

This sign bridge on I-77 NB used to have a pull-through and the exit sign, but then the signs were replaced.  (Insert rant about previous signs being 2003 installs with reflective lettering that were replaced solely because they had underlighting components which could have been removed/turned off but they went to the trouble and expense of completely replacing the signs after only 3 years.)  The pull-through was not replaced, and the exit sign was replaced with an identically small sign that looks weird on that sign bridge all alone.

[agentsteel53]

CA has some entirely blank green signs.  one I can think of offhand is on I-5 southbound in Orange County, in the median.  ostensibly, it once listed distances to places like Oceanside and San Diego - or the next three exits.

[Ian]

I never really thought this sign needed its own full length overhead gantry. I think a cantilever design would work just fine.


Then there is this gantry on I-476 (for the likes of me, I have no photo offhand). Exits 9, 13, and 16 all have gantries like this with one single sign.

[Scott5114]

I never really thought this sign needed its own full length overhead gantry. I think a cantilever design would work just fine.


Then there is this gantry on I-476 (for the likes of me, I have no photo offhand). Exits 9, 13, and 16 all have gantries like this with one single sign.

What is the purpose of the grated panels on gantries like this? I believe I have seen some photos of signs in WV with similar grating.

[Ian]

What is the purpose of the grated panels on gantries like this? I believe I have seen some photos of signs in WV with similar grating.

PennDOT probably just wanted to glorify the look of the highway. Both I-95 and I-676 through Center City Philadelphia have these gantries.

[bugo]

Those tubular gantries that ODOT is now using.  They're ugly and look too big.

[JustDrive]

CA has some entirely blank green signs.  one I can think of offhand is on I-5 southbound in Orange County, in the median.  ostensibly, it once listed distances to places like Oceanside and San Diego - or the next three exits.

CA 134 in Pasadena had a couple of blank green signs, but about 10 years ago, a "Colorado Blvd/Orange Grove Blvd" sign was pasted over one of the blank signs.  The other one is right at the Orange Grove overpass.  I guess they're saving them for the 710 extension...

[Mr_Northside]

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Warrendale,+PA&hl=en&ll=40.667586,-80.094538&spn=0.02054,0.045447&sll=41.349849,-79.710059&sspn=0.020328,0.045447&t=h&gl=us&hnear=Warrendale,+Marshall,+Allegheny,+Pennsylvania&z=15&layer=c&cbll=40.665676,-80.09426&panoid=P4HNIb9Rrri54fNOWe9XFQ&cbp=12,322.27,,0,-3.91

NB I-79 to NB US-19 ramp in Cranberry area....

Apparently there was supposed to be a spur ramp across US-19 to an industrial park... it never came to be but this remains.
The sign itself is kind of a waste, because you are already well on the ramp, and you have no choice to make the movement that sign indicates.



Also, I'm gonna throw out an honorable mention to this one on the Parkway East....
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Warrendale,+PA&hl=en&ll=40.442211,-79.816017&spn=0.02074,0.045447&sll=41.349849,-79.710059&sspn=0.020328,0.045447&t=h&gl=us&hnear=Warrendale,+Marshall,+Allegheny,+Pennsylvania&z=15&layer=c&cbll=40.44221,-79.824224&panoid=Lm2xtqaWZurmEOhKB0Z9kg&cbp=12,258.75,,0,-4.81

There are now VMS's using it (not pictured in the GSV image is one since added in the Eastbound direction), so it's not longer overkill... But for decades only the sign for the exit used the structure. 
It's an Exit Only sign, that needs to be over the left lane.  But this is one of the few stretches of parkway where the median is wide enough they could've probably had a post(s) there for a much smaller structure.

[roadman]

I never really thought this sign needed its own full length overhead gantry. I think a cantilever design would work just fine.


Then there is this gantry on I-476 (for the likes of me, I have no photo offhand). Exits 9, 13, and 16 all have gantries like this with one single sign.

What is the purpose of the grated panels on gantries like this? I believe I have seen some photos of signs in WV with similar grating.

It appears to me that the grating is being used as a "sub-panel" to attach the sign to the support.  And I suspect PennDOT used a full span instead of a cantilever due to the contraints at this location, which would likely preclude installing the larger diameter upright a traditional cantilever would need.

At least in this case the full span is reasonably proportioned to the sign panel on it.  On the Big Dig in Boston, nearly all the OH supports are these massive monotube structures that were painted off-purple.

[PurdueBill]

I recall a bunch of gantries like the PA one shown with the mesh behind the signs down in WV, I believe in/around Charleston, but the mesh was removed when the old button copy signs were replaced a few years ago.  It made me wonder if the mesh was simply like a glare blocker around the signs....if it was somehow structural, they wouldn't have removed it when installing like-sized new signs.

[PHLBOS]

I never really thought this sign needed its own full length overhead gantry. I think a cantilever design would work just fine.

That sign structure was erected circa 1991 as part of a sign renewal/update along I-95.  The reasoning behind using that type of structure (when new it was fully-painted brown) was likely due to:  1. Aesthetics (remember this sign and others like are located near Center City) and 2. As Roadman stated, limited space for posts.

While cantilever sign structures do exist for that style; it's usually used for smaller/lower height BGS'.  PennDOT may have thought that that particular BGS was too tall for a cantilever gantry in that style.

Then there is this gantry on I-476 (for the likes of me, I have no photo offhand). Exits 9, 13, and 16 all have gantries like this with one single sign.

If memory serves, those structures were selected in anticipation of future  VMS boards being mounted on them as well.  Obviously, those plans have long since changed since there are independent VMS sign structures mounted all over I-476.

Speaking of I-476; within the past year, the old overhead truss gantry near Exit 16B (for I-76 west) that once originally held button-copy BGS for both the exit and a pull-through sign that had Allentown as a control city for I-476 North prior to the road south of there even opening, is now completely bare.  The BGS for I-76 West that was there since 476 south of 76 opened in Dec. '91 was taken down about a year ago when PennDOT placed cattle-shutes along I-476 during the Schuylkill River Bridge construction project.  The new BGS for the exit is now mounted on a separate cantilever gantry just prior to the underpass and just after Exit 16A (for I-76 East/PA 23).

What is the purpose of the grated panels on gantries like this? I believe I have seen some photos of signs in WV with similar grating.

It made me wonder if the mesh was simply like a glare blocker around the signs.

Correct, The mesh mounting behind the signs are indeed intended to be glare blockers.

IIRC, signs along I-95 near the Fort McHenry Tunnel also sport similar-styled sign gantries.

When MassHighway purged the use of pull-through signs in the 90s in many of its sign replacement projects, many older sign gantries that once held 2 BGS', now hold just one.  The gantry along I-95 South at the MA 133 (Exit 54) is an example of that.  The gantry was originally erected as part of the 1974 widening project and featured the exit sign and a pull-through sign that read "95 SOUTH - Danvers - Boston".  When MassHighway replaced the BGS' during the 90s, the exit BGS (for MA 133) was replaced but the pull-through sign was taken down.

Along NJ 24 Westbound, I believe there's still an an empty overhead sign gantry that once held a blank BGS panel for the longest time.  The BGS was taken down years ago.  While the BGS was obviously intended for a future interchange, I'm not sure if that intercahnge was for an existing road that crossed but didn't connect or for a future highway that never came to be.

[kphoger]

All of them in Wichita and Oklahoma City.   
These things could survive a direct nuclear blast.
http://goo.gl/maps/cEJb
http://goo.gl/maps/IodK

Honorable mention goes to central Texas:
http://goo.gl/maps/hLwT (both sides say the same thing)
http://goo.gl/maps/N0dL (same deal)
I could swear I've seen some with nothing but a speed limit sign on a mini-BGS, but I can't find any on Google Maps right now.

[Central Avenue]

Not quite as egregious as some of the other examples here, but a couple on I-75 near Chattanooga strike me as overkill:

[mcdonaat]

Not quite as egregious as some of the other examples here, but a couple on I-75 near Chattanooga strike me as overkill:

Don't you mean by Tuscaloosa? Just kidding seems like something better served by a partial overhead or just a rural standalone sign.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

I wonder if anyone knows the story behind this empty gantry on I-880 south after the Marina Blvd onramp?

(Unfortunately, the gantry isn't the main focus of the pic, the shield is)

[Revive 755]

Not quite as egregious as some of the other examples here, but a couple on I-75 near Chattanooga strike me as overkill:

Didn't we have a thread complaining about excessively long sign cantilevers, particularly in TN, not too long ago?

I don't suppose any of the above cases were bridges instead of cantilevers due to foundation issues - bad soil that would require an excessively deep shaft, utility conflicts, etc.?

[shadyjay]

Here's one on I-91 South in North Haven, CT - seems like a waste for just a VMS:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=north+haven,+ct&hl=en&ll=41.343699,-72.86903&spn=0.000641,0.00142&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.677964,93.076172&t=k&hnear=North+Haven,+New+Haven,+Connecticut&z=20

And there used to be one on I-95 SB in Groton, CT just after Exit 86.  I never remember seeing a single sign on it ever, though it spanned the whole roadway.  Not sure what its purpose was.

[Alps]

= unbuilt Exit 5 on NJ 24
= former HOV lane on I-80

[PurdueBill]

Baltimore had some empty or nearly-so gantries due to canceled freeways; the western end of I-170 had an empty gantry at the end of the never-used lanes, and in the opposite direction there were the famous signs on a gantry over a never-used ramp.  Off I-95 NB there was the full gantry with a sign for the default movement to Moravia Rd. and a blank sign to its right that used to advertise the Future Exit (Windlass) that never happened. 

[Special K]

I never really thought this sign needed its own full length overhead gantry. I think a cantilever design would work just fine.


Then there is this gantry on I-476 (for the likes of me, I have no photo offhand). Exits 9, 13, and 16 all have gantries like this with one single sign.

What is the purpose of the grated panels on gantries like this? I believe I have seen some photos of signs in WV with similar grating.

It's not grating.  It's velcro.

[national highway 1]

One on the 710 stub in Pasadena: