Update
Beginning at 7 p.m., motorists will be restricted to one lane on eastbound Route 610 near the on-ramp to northbound I-95 and may encounter brief delays on the ramp.
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) crews will be removing the overhead directional sign suspected of having a cracked bolt. The detection was made during ultrasound testing of the anchor bolts.
Work is expected to be complete by 3 a.m.
-VDOT
NORTH STAFFORD, Va. – A familiar marker that begs drivers to look up to find their way is coming down.
Highway crews will remove a sign and its structure at the northbound on ramp at Va. 610 and Interstate 95 in in North Stafford as part of an ongoing effort to identify potentially troublesome sign structures in the region. A recent ultrasound test of the sign structure revealed one of the four bolts that hold the sign in place could have a crack, said Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kelly Hannon. The crack could cause the sign to fall as one did onto I-66 in Fairfax County on Feb. 11.
This sign in North Stafford will be one of four – two at I-95 and Prince William Parkway taken down in February and two in Spotsylvania County that will be taken down this week – that have been removed after inspections showed problems with, and gaps in joints on some of the sign arms.
Signs that once directed drivers getting on Prince William Parkway east to Woodbridge and west to Manassas still sit on the shoulder of I-95 in Woodbridge awaiting a new sign arm.
VDOT’s sign inspection and removal comes after a cantilevered highway sign crashed down on I-66 in Fairfax County on Feb. 11, near Monument Drive. The sign structure did hit a pickup but no one was injured.
Hannon said Virginia transportation officials inspect all 31,000 of the state’s highway road signs at least once every five years. For cantilevered signs, ultrasound testing is used to test the signs every two years.
