Sign Removal OKed at City's Expense

About 30 signs will be taken down from the Highway 33 project in Port Washington, and the city will have to eat up any cost of the removal.

The highway project includes "pedestrian crossing" signs, "one way" signs," "roundabout ahead," signs, arrows and more that are meant to direct traffic around the three newly built roundabouts on the highway. Concerns had been raised both about driver confusion and the possibility of excess signage creating an eyesore.

City Engineer Rob Vanden Noven asked the Department of Transportation which signs could be removed, and the city finally got an answer earlier in September.

"The construction of the road with the signange is essentially the way (the DOT feels) best suits the project," Vanden Noven said. "However, the city does have the right … to remove signage that is not required by the (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices) and that extends to the overhead signage."

The council on Tuesday approved the removal of the signs.

Vanden Noven said he does not know what the cost of the sign removal will be, but that the overhead signs would be less than $2,000.

"We don't have heavy enough equipment to remove essentially the overhead piece … but we can work with local contractors," Vanden Noven said. The road would have to be closed while the signs are removed, which would likely take a couple hours.

The Port Washington Common Council had been discussing the abundance of signs for quite some time, at times growing frustrated with the lack of action on its complaints.