Gribblenation

On Christmas Eve, I traditionally take a brief four or five hour loop trip to an area of Southwestern PA I haven't been to before.  This Christmas Eve was no different as I headed east into the Laurel Highlands. Route: PA 48, PA 51, I-70, PA 31, US 119, PA 982, US 22, PA 217, US 30, PA 711, PA 31, PA Tpk, I-70, PA 51, and PA 48. The entire photo set on flickr is here . When I got on PA 982 North, I immediately came upon this sign. Obviously, I was curious about the Iron Furnace (more on that later); however, the sign style intrigued me.  The sign's font, besides being the same font from Law & Order, is what is used for the destination signs throughout the Laurel Highlands.  These signs come from the Laurel Highlands Visitor Bureau.  The style is slightly similar to the Keystone Town Markers we all know and love, but aren't exact. So I did travel the four or so miles up PA 982 and then took a quick right turn onto Oremine Hill Road and came to the Mount Verno

  Over the Christmas holiday, I was able to explore parts of Southwestern Pennsylvania.  On December 23rd, we took a drive up to and walked around the town of Butler. To visit the entire photo set on flickr, head here . Butler is a unique town of 15,000 located about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh.  It is the county seat of Butler County.  The County Courthouse (shown below) was built in 1885 and is still in use today. One of more unique buildings in Bulter is the Butler County Motor Company Ford Dealership. This is the first time I had seen an automotive dealer be housed in a multi-story building like this.  The Butler County Motor Company (aka Butler County Ford) has been around since 1918 and was one of the first Ford automotive dealerships authorized by Henry Ford. Walking down Main Street in Butler - there are a number of great older building, storefronts, and ghost signs. One of the buildings that caught my eye at the end was the home of the Penn Theatre. 

While in the Raleigh/Durham area in October, I had a few hours to check out progress on building the Western Wake Freeway (NC 540) portion of the Triangle Expressway (TriEx). Work had largely been completed along the Triangle Parkway (NC 147) portion, but I was about 6 weeks too early to be able to drive on it. I did get to drive over and around it though on my way to NC 540. Here's the approach to the Hopson Road interchange area: They were still working closer to the intersection at Davis Drive on a Saturday: Turning right on Davis I proceeded to the Davis Drive interchange, a C/D ramp and signalized intersections connect the two interchanges together: Note the fancy brick face on the bridge approaches. Here's the approach on Davis from the other direction: Since I could not use the Parkway, I had to approach NC 540 using I-40. Approaching the former Davis Drive exit on West 540 I got to see the future Triangle Expressway/Parkway interchange signs covered up: The content of

Having been back in Mass. for more than a year now, I've gotten a chance to check the progress of the various MassDOT freeway sign replacement projects (more photos below). Over the last 4-5 years there has been a binge in new sign replacement projects. Whether this is due to deferred maintenance catching up, stimulus funds, new department priorities, or a combination of any of these, signs have been updated on most of the interstates, such as I-195, I-495, the Mass Pike and along with many state limited access highways-MA 2, MA 3, MA 25, and others. The most recent contracts have been along I-95 (MA 128) and I-93. Under 3 current contracts almost all signage along I-93 (with the exception of the Big Dig portion) should be replaced in the next 1 1/2 years. The last major contract for I-95, from MA 9 in Wellesley to MA 4/225 in Lexington was advertised last week. Work has been completed north of there, including the MA 128 only section from Peabody to Gloucester (with new mileposts