Mike Natale finds a Pennsylvania Sign Relic

Mike Natale, who hosted one of the first Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike pages and his discovery of a 1963 Pittsburgh Freeway Planning map sent Jeff Kitsko and I to the libraries in the early 2000s researching dead Pittsburgh Expressway plans, recently sent me some PA Keystone Town Markers.

But he also sent me the sign photo below from West Mayfield, PA.

This is the first I have seen of this type of decorative geographical sign in blue on white. These signs were typically Yellow on Blue, as this example for the Village of Huntington Mills from Doug Kerr shows.

I believe these signs were phased out sometime in the 60s. But the discovery on a blue on white decorative geographical sign may mean they were posted into the 1970s

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Goodbye Interstate 495; Hello Interstate 87

It seems like yesterday when I blogged about new Future Interstate 495 signs that were going to be installed along US 64 along the Knightdale Bypass and along the way to Rocky Mount. Well after just three years, Interstate 495 is officially no more. This week NCDOT crews began to install Interstate 87 shields along the Raleigh Beltline and Knightdale Bypass from Southeast Raleigh to Rolesville Road in Wendell. The new interstate designation follows Interstate 440 west from I-40 near Garner leaving the Beltline at the Knightdale Bypass and following US 64/264 about another 12 or so miles until the six lane portion of the Knightdale Bypass ends just beyond Business US 64.

Eventually, Interstate 87 will continue east along US 64 past Zebulon, Rocky Mount and Tarboro to Williamston where it will head north and northeast along US 17 into Virginia and Norfolk. The new signs reflect the first official section of Interstate 87 in North Carolina - as the Knightdale Bypass meets national I…

The story on how the unbuilt US 40 Expressway in Brownsville took 40 years to complete.

For nearly four decades, the four lane US 40 just east of Brownsville came to an abrupt end - shown in the photo above - at Grindstone Road in Redstone Township. In the late 1960s, what was then the Pennsylvania Division of Highways (PennDOH) extended a new four lane alignment of US 40 eastwards from Broadway Street slightly over one mile to Grindstone Road where an incomplete diamond interchange was built. Earlier in the decade, PennDOH had built a four lane US 40 in Washington County into Brownsville complete with a new crossing over the Monongahela River known as the Lane Bane Bridge. This new highway and bridge allowed US 40 to bypass the older Intercounty Bridge and downtown Brownsville.

After this new highway opened, nothing would happen to it for nearly forty years. US 40 traffic would use the ramps for this planned diamond interchange and then jog on Grindstone Road briefly before continuing towards Uniontown on the original National Road.
What is unknown (at least to…

Hunting for forgotten history; Old US 99 in Fresno

Coming back from my Great Lakes Trip the other day I encountered this sign goof at Fresno-Yosemite International Airport which incorrectly displays US Route 99.

That little US 99 sign was the inspiration I needed to start tracking all the former alignments through the City of Fresno. Fresno in general has had a huge shift in highway layouts over the decades which is something I intend to finish with California 41 and 180 perhaps later this month. Based off my research I came with the following three maps progressing northward through Fresno showing every iteration of US 99 before it was downgraded to a State Highway in 1967.

Essentially the route alignment history of US Route 99 in Fresno is as follows.

1926-1930 Alignment

Progressing northward into Fresno US Route 99 would have followed:

- Railroad Avenue
- Cherry Avenue
- Broadway Street
- Divisadero Street
- H Street
- Belmont Avenue
- Golden State Avenue

1930-1934 Realignment off of Railroad Avenue

Sometime between 1930 to …

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