I travel the whole thing and THEN it gets new pretty signs.
May 14, 2010: The current style of Great River Road shields in Iowa is a square smaller than square highway shields. This is at the north end of old IA 364 in Harpers Ferry.
When the Iowa DOT introduced a “graphic identity” for the state’s 10 official scenic byways plus the Lincoln Highway in 2010, the Great River Road was left out, perhaps because it already had a unique shield. Wisconsin and Illinois use Great River Road shields equal in size to regular highway signs, but Iowa’s were smaller.
At the end of last year, the DOT had a sign letting to replace every Great River Road sign with a larger one matching the new scenic byway style. The GRR logo will be centered in a larger black rectangle with a rounded top and the words “National Scenic Byway” underneath.
The DOT’s byway-signing manual is available online (PDF), with two recent and important changes:
- The arrows that go under highway shields will now all be 21 inches by 15 inches, conforming to the latest standards in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. This is three inches shorter in width than a square shield (24×24), which will annoy me to no end. Arrow shapes that until now have been squares and the “ahead” arrow, which had been interchangeable with left/right arrows (see the IA 96 page for examples of all of these), will be squeezed into this new shape.
- “Beginning with the 2016 construction season, the Iowa DOT will require Perforated Square Steel Tube (PSST) posts for new sign installations.” That means no more wood, which again, is a change from what’s been used in Iowa since forever. I think the metal poles look flimsier than wood, but they may be better in windy conditions because they’re more flexible.