About Those Signs Along The Interstsates...

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Until now I have never seen any highway signs that looked "out of the ordinary". Just last night in northern Pennsylvania along I-81, I drove past some "interesting new signs" near exits 64, 65, 66 & 67. All of these exits are located in a very mountainous area, with few alternative routes to get through without using the Interstate.

These are small, rectangular, black on orange signs reading "1/2 Mile", "1500 Feet", "1000 Feet" and "500 Feet". On a particularly long downhill grade approaching exit 64 there is also a "1 Mile" sign.

The color of these signs would indicate that the purpose is construction. But it's winter and here's no construction on that stretch of highway. In fact that stretch was just rebuilt last year.

It is kinda odd that the "500 Feet" signs are more than 500 feet from the exits where they are placed. Almost like the signs are spaced for something before the exits.

But what prompts me to post is the other place I saw the same signs located. On US-11 there is one spot where the road passes through a completely uninhabited area, with no possible place to turn around or to leave the highway. On one side there's a rock face and the other has railroad tracks and then steep a drop-off.

To my militarily trained mind, this is a great traffic choke-point. The one thought of what goes with those distance signs is something like "Prepare to Stop". What else needs additional warning distance on a downhill grade beside slowing a vehicle to a safe stop?

Now I DO wonder if the stories about the "Road Closed By Military Order" signs don't have a real basis. Maybe there are some "Stop. Checkpoint (x distance) Ahead" signs, also. Seems like the roads around here already have the distances marked off at the best possible locations.

I've talked with some other folks and a lot of locals have noticed these signs. But nobody knows the reason for these signs and the usual local knowledgeable sources are shut out in the cold also.

But the National Guard Armory and the State Police Barracks are located within the stretch of I-81 where these signs are located. Interesting concidence.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), December 18, 1999

Answers

Please photograph then post a url to shots. I keep hearing rumors of these signs, but have yet to see a shot. I have seen white busses and chemtrails though, heh.

-- Hokie (va@va.com), December 18, 1999.

What about the towers? The towers are sprouting up along the freeways, especially on / off ramps. There are 2 or 3 clustered across the freeway from each other at @ 1-mile intervals. Long tall columns with enormous spokes coming out so somebody could climb up. Triangular walking platform with rails around on top. Panels. Surrounded by fence and barbed wire (facing inward), with huge metal box around base.

Somebody mentioned cell phone repeaters. Maybe some are decoys mimicking that? They are going up fast. Watchtowers for controlling freeway movement is what it looks like. Many towers.

-- What (are@towers.for?), December 18, 1999.


Normally I would not have said anything about this sign bit, but I have seen some very suspicious looking signs, covered, being put up around the intersections in our city, which is in Georgia and is about a hundred thousand population. They are cover, but they are firmly planted at some very busy intersections of our city. By the way, our local news media says nothing at all concerning Y2k, unless it is on the positive side. This burg is blind as a bat concerning the tidal wave headed this way.

-- Notforlong (Fsur439@aol.com), December 18, 1999.

About the towers....I seem to remember a story about the freeway in Los Angeles and heavy traffic areas. Cal-trans was working on cameras along the freeway in those spots to monitor traffic. They had a control room with monitors and could keep track of the hot spots. Perhaps this is what the towers you speak of are.

-- Cin (Cinlooo@aol.com), December 18, 1999.

Cameras going up near McConnell AFB in Wichita, KS. Actually the ones I saw are being placed at a "not so busy" intersection (looking all four ways, 4 cameras) that leads to a power sub-station, which I assume feeds the base (2 miles from base). Sure did peak my interest. Installation began on these cameras 3 weeks ago. Maybe nothing, maybe something.

-- rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 18, 1999.


Some simple questions occur to me --

What would highway checkpoints be checking?

What necessity would require monitoring highway traffic?

Occasionally an emergency makes it necessary to close a highway to traffic. A bridge out, say, or a landslide. Recently here in Atlanta a major gas main next to the road was broken by a construction crew, and I-85 was closed for about 9 hours in both directions. This included the evening rush hours. At frequent intervals a checkpoint is set up on I-85 south of Atlanta, a major corridor for bringing in drugs and illegal immigrants.

My point is that the facilities and expertise necessary to stop traffic when desired already exist.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 18, 1999.


The freeway system in Atlanta installed traffic watch cameras quite a while back. There are well over a hundred of them on towers throughout the system now. But these towers are slender, nothing on them except a tiny TV monitor at the top, nothing special at the base. Nothing at all like the cellullar towers.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 18, 1999.

There is a cell tower looking thing about 3 miles from my house. When the residents of my city contacted City Hall to find out what it was for, they told them they officially couldn't tell them. Period. End of story. We never found out what it was for.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 18, 1999.

Notforlong:

About three weeks ago we noticed what appeared to be stop signs that were folded in on themselves at every intersection with lights. They have small padlocks on them. I understood immediately and drove my husband out the next evening to see them. Sure enough, last week in our dinky local paper was a brief article about what our little 'burb has been doing (mostly nothing) and it mentioned the stop signs. This did not give me warm fuzzy feelings!

-- lvz (lvzinser@hotmail.com), December 19, 1999.


what is interesting is there is absolutely NOTHING peculiar here in Washington DC. NADA from what I can see. I can see why because people would raise a stink if we saw peculiar things. Makes me wonder how quickly they will have to do what they are going to do if they decide to enact emergency powers or martial law? overnight?

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), December 19, 1999.


Perhaps this helps guys.

The cameras you see on traffic signal intersection poles replaced the detector loops in the pavement. Ever notice the octoganal or square saw cuts with black sealant in the pavement at an intersection? Those are detector loops, which signal the signal controller when a car passes over them or sits on them. That's why you get your left turn signal when waiting to turn into a Wal-mart. Loops are expensive to cut into pavement and destroyed when pavement is milled and resurfaced. The cameras are being used to replace the loops. The image the controller "sees" is a square blob that looks like the old "Pong" games. This, in turn, signals the controller on cycling times.

-- trafficjam (roadwork@ahead.soon), December 19, 1999.


I would like to believe this last post but just can't, given the location of the camera's I have seen. Sensors will do the same thing. Why install camera's ?

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 19, 1999.

Thirty years ago (in fact, a bit *over* thirty years ago) when I lived in the Bronx, they put up poles with a thing that *looked* sort of like a camera. They looked down on certain intersections. It was -- if I recall correctly -- a "sonar" type device, used to control a traffic light. They used them at intersections where one of the cross-streets was a high-traffic street, and the other was a moderate-traffic street. The High traffic street would have a green light unless a car rolled up to the intersection on the cross-street, or a pedestrian pushed a button on the pole.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 19, 1999.

Well. there are a LOT of news cameras in Cleveland, that show congestion on many of our arteries.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 20, 1999.


on Gary North's site today:

Gates, Covered Signs: Road Closed and Do Not Enter on Highway Ramps: Chesapeake, Virginia

Comment: I [Gary North] received this e-mail.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The city of Chesapeake, Va. has just installed garbage bag covered stop signs at all intersections controlled by traffic signal lights. The local newspaper carried an article about this on Saturday, Dec. 18th page B3 (the Virginian-Pilot). The article was by Lou Misselhorn at lmisselh@pilotonline.com. At least 123 intersections are involved. I have visually confirmed this.

Gates are now being placed on the entrance ramps to our interstates (I-64, I-664, I-264). The gates have two signs on them (covered by plastic bags - obviously not for long term storage). My wife saw the signs uncovered over in Hampton near her school. "Road Closed" and "Do Not Enter" are the signs.

We currently have 5 CVN aircraft carriers (nuclear) sitting in a row at the Norfolk Naval Base... we've never done that before... what is the thinking behind this???
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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 20, 1999.



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