If you’ve ever tried finding your way around the back roads of Northeast Georgia, you know what a challenge it can be. Small county roads fork out here and there, often with barely visible road signs to follow.
But change is evident in White County.
Public works crews have been replacing some of the hard-to-read signs at intersections with new, larger, easier-to-read signs.
Director of White County Public Works Derick Canupp says the Federal Highway Administration changed the standard around 2013, requiring street name signs to be made larger with uppercase and lowercase lettering.
Canupp says they started this project last year.
“We’ve completed phase one, we’re doing this in phases, phase two is nearly completed, and we expect to start phase three next spring. We’ve taken it a step further with the help of our public safety office by adding 9-1-1 addresses with arrows on the signs so first responders, when they come up to an intersection and they are going to a particular address, will know whether to turn left or right and it makes the response time a little quicker,” says Canupp.
According to Canupp, installing new road signs is just one of the many projects his department is working on, along with the final cutback of the year on county road right-of-ways.
He reminds motorists to pay attention to the advance warning signs where crews are working, “they are there for a reason,” he says.