Any government that maintains public roads must have a sign maintenance program in place by next year.
Most traffic signs such as stop and speed limit signs must meet the new standard by 2015 and all signs, including for street names, must comply by 2018.
The city of Springfield and Clark County have already spent more than $220,000 combined to comply with the regulations — mostly in grant dollars — and expect to likely spend more as they replace about 13,700 traffic signs.
Research has shown that the more reflective signs improve safety, said David Rose, ODOT spokesman.
“Anything that we can do to make the roads safer, ultimately that’s what this is about,” he said.
Champaign County Engineer Fereidoun Shokouhi will use a $50,000 grant, matched with $12,500 in local money, to buy about 1,400 traffic signs.
County crews will install them beginning later this year or early next year.
He hopes to secure another similar grant to replace the remaining 1,800 signs.
The signs are better quality and replacing them is a good idea, Shokouhi said, but he would rather spend the money and time on improving the county’s roads.
He compared the mandate to a car — a working rear defogger is good and improves visibility, but a running engine is more critical.
“There are other priorities,” he said.
Last year, the city of Springfield used a $50,000 grant to inventory and measure the reflectivity of its more than 13,600 signs.
The study found that about 4,700 need to be replaced.
To start that process, city commissioners recently approved a $46,000 contract to buy about 3,100 replacement signs. The city will use another grant to pay for those signs and city crews will install them, likely starting later this fall.
The reflectivity standards make sense to City Engineer Leo Shanayda.
“It’s for driver safety and visibility,” he said.
Clark County Engineer Johnathan Burr agreed, saying the new signs are much more visible, particularly at night and on unlit, rural roads.
“It’s a night and day difference,” he said.
Clark County needs to replace about 9,000 traffic signs. It received a $50,000 grant last year and matched that with about $12,500 in local money to replace about two-thirds of the signs. It received another $50,000 grant this year, again matched with $12,500 in local money, that will go to redoing the remaining signs, Burr said.
Springfield Twp. has about 1,000 road signs to change. It’s still working on assessing its signs, Administrator Jeff Briner said, but it could cost $30,000 to $50,000 for replacements.
It doesn’t have grant dollars for the work, he said, and intends to spread out the expenses over a few years, considering the tight budget climate.
But while the expense could be a hardship, Briner said the improvements are a necessity and the requirements allow plenty of time to comply.
“Safety is the first issue,” he said.
The regulations give communities more than a decade to comply, Rose said, so they have time to make room in their budgets.
“That’s a long time to implement a plan,” Rose said.
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