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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Local governments must change street signs under federal mandate
Posted by:
Traffic News
()
Date: July 15, 2011 06:51AM
Local governments must change street signs under federal mandate
Wednesday - 7/13/2011, 2:50pm ET
Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=149&sid=2456499
FAIRFAX, Va. - Have you ever had trouble reading a street sign, especially at night? Over the next six years that is going to change, and it is going to have a big price tag.
Communities across the country will be changing street signs as part of a federal mandate. The signs will be reflective and have break-away poles.
Fairfax County is a prime example of how massive this overhaul can be for local government. The county will have to change signs and poles at almost all of the county's 40,000 intersections.
"You don't want the pole to go through the windshield, you want it to break away," says county spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald says testing and changing most of the county's street signs will cost $1.75 million over the next seven years. Each sign has to be tested first for reflectivity. In Fairfax County, they will start on any highway where the speed limit is 50 miles per hour or more. The changes must be made, under federal guidelines, by 2018.
Fitzgerald says if the current sign is green, it probably does not meet the standards. Some of the newer blue street signs can be used, but the poles may still have go be replaced.
Wednesday - 7/13/2011, 2:50pm ET
Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=149&sid=2456499
FAIRFAX, Va. - Have you ever had trouble reading a street sign, especially at night? Over the next six years that is going to change, and it is going to have a big price tag.
Communities across the country will be changing street signs as part of a federal mandate. The signs will be reflective and have break-away poles.
Fairfax County is a prime example of how massive this overhaul can be for local government. The county will have to change signs and poles at almost all of the county's 40,000 intersections.
"You don't want the pole to go through the windshield, you want it to break away," says county spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald says testing and changing most of the county's street signs will cost $1.75 million over the next seven years. Each sign has to be tested first for reflectivity. In Fairfax County, they will start on any highway where the speed limit is 50 miles per hour or more. The changes must be made, under federal guidelines, by 2018.
Fitzgerald says if the current sign is green, it probably does not meet the standards. Some of the newer blue street signs can be used, but the poles may still have go be replaced.
Re: Local governments must change street signs under federal mandate
Posted by:
ThePackLeader
()
Date: July 16, 2011 11:35PM
I'd like to know exactly how the street signs in my neighborhood will manage to last as "Break-away" items. Kids climb those things all the time, and I guarantee they won't last long.
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"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).
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"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).
Re: Local governments must change street signs under federal mandate
Posted by:
wnrsm
()
Date: July 16, 2011 11:37PM
Is this an unfunded mandate? Or are they just making it a part of "highway dollars" without increasing what's given to the state?
Re: Local governments must change street signs under federal mandate
Posted by:
KeepOnTruckin
()
Date: July 17, 2011 11:17AM
Someone just backed into the stop sign on my street and it snapped off and broke away just fine. And it was made of wood!