North Star Highways
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Sign Goofs
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With millions of signs around,
it's inevitable that few get screwed up in various ways. Other get left
behind when they should be removed or replaced, and some are just weird.
These are some I've found in my travels.
*Click on any image to enlarge*
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Warning: Inverted Signals Ahead!
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I can see construction
workers messing up one sign, but THREE? These were all part of the
Future US 212 / Prairie Center Drive interchange construction project
in Eden Prairie.
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Is
this Hamline or Hamline?
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No question
about what street this is, perhaps due to a lack of coordination between
Mn/DOT and the city of St. Paul. This is at the I-94 ramps.
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If you were
trying to cross 86th Street at Nicollet Avenue this winter day
in Bloomington, you sure would have had a mixed message. The pedestrian
indication for Nicollet Avenue was twisted 90 degrees to line up
with the 86th Street indication, probably by an errant snowplow.
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Although Minnesota
decomissioned US 61 north of the Twin Cities years ago, it seems to have
trouble letting go. In the top photo, we see some signs off the mainline
have escaped the dismantling crew for a number of years. The left
sign is at the back exit to the Thompson Hill rest area in Duluth,
the middle sign is on Lake County Road 3, and the right sign is at
the MN 1/MN 169 diverge in Ely.
In the bottom photo the saga of US 61 shields where they don't
belong continues here in Pine City, 34 miles from where US 61 actually
ends. These signs should read MN 361. Note that this one is mounted
right by the Mn/DOT mailbox! I don't know if this error was a contractor
goof or done deliberately because this road is called "old highway 61"
by the locals.
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Wisconsin feels
that they can better the design of Minnesota highway signs, or else
are too lazy to get it right. The sign at left is a standard county
road marker with "MIN" instead of the county name. The sign at center
is a standard state marker and is found at the same intersection. The
sign at the right is a state marker with "MINN" added, and is found on
US 8 in St. Croix Falls. At least these won't fade like real Minnesota
markers do..
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Low Budget
Construction Sign
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I guess a can
of spraypaint is cheaper than having a sign made up. This was at
Buck Hill Road and 150th street in Burnsville.
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As evidenced by
the leftover 61 shields above, signs off the mainline sometimes tend
to get missed by replacement crews. This old-style 71 shield in good
shape is at the south exit from Itasca State Park. The US 10 shield
is on a county road in Arkansas, WI.
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Here we have two
examples of standard highway signs mounted wrong in an attempt to convey
a different meaning. On the left, on the main street in Fairmont, a "Right
Lane Ends" sign has been mounted upside down in order to mean "Left Lane
Begins". On the right, at a shopping mall in Maple Grove, a "Two Way
Traffic" sign has been mounted sideways instead of the proper "T-Intersection"
sign.
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Andy Filer provides
this photo of a county abomination. Yes, that's supposed to be Minnesota
Trunk Highway 89
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It's unfortunate
that as Wisconsin state markers evolved from an inverted triangle into a
square and triangle, they wound up looking a lot like US highway markers,
to the point that it's easy to confuse them. Contractors do to, and this
sign in La Crosse is hardly unique.
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