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Shhh! You're entering Iowa's second-largest city. :) (While noise ordinances are common in many Iowa cities, Cedar Rapids was the first city where I spotted such a sign.)
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I-380 and IA 27
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The Avenue of the Saints was designated as IA 27 on August 30, 2001, and the
first signs appeared in Cedar Rapids after Labor Day. This meant that many big green
signs had to be modified to make room for it. The sign on the left of this
southbound I-380 gantry had a big I-380 shield before it was replaced with
two small shields.
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The sign on the left in this gantry once simply read "I-380 SOUTH," but
two markers couldn't fit in there so the "SOUTH" banner was moved to a spot
above the two markers.
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Approaching the I-380/US 30 interchange from the south, some new big green
signs were put up in late 1999 to indicate a two-lane exit and the sign on the
left was modified in late 2001 after IA 27 was designated. Immediately after
exiting I-380, the lanes split into separate ramps, as a flyover ramp
(seen in the background) connects southbound I-380 with eastbound US 30/151 and
the Kirkwood Boulevard/Bowling Street exit. The interchange of I-380 and US 30
is a simple cloverleaf aside from this one flyover ramp. Similar interchanges can
be found in West Des Moines (I-80/I-35/I-235), Cedar Falls (US 218/IA 57/IA 58),
and Waterloo (I-380/US 20/US 218).
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This is what the sign on the left looked like in early 2000, before it was
modified. The DOT left the directional banners alone on all modified BGS and used
smaller highway markers than usual to put three markers on signs that only had
room for two. They plan to replace them once the signs wear out.
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From the US 30 interchange southward to I-80, I-380 is co-signed with US 218
and IA 27; along with the I-380/US 20/IA 27 triplex east of Waterloo, these are
the first Interstate/US/state highway multiplexes since US 6 and IA 64 were signed
with I-35/80 around Des Moines in the 1960s. This junction sign is at The
Eastern Iowa Airport/Ely exit.
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I-380 in downtown Cedar Rapids
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These are trailblazers for northbound I-380, IA 27, and IA 94 as well
as Business US 151, coming off the 5th Avenue SW/Diagonal Drive exit ramp
from northbound I-380. The photo on the top shows the assembly before IA 94 was decommissioned on July 1, 2003, and the photo on the bottom shows the assembly after decommissioning.
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Here is an overhead sign display on 3rd Street southwest of
downtown, approaching 1st Avenue. This one-way street connects the 5th
Avenue/Diagonal Drive ramps off I-380 with 1st Avenue. I-380 is in the
background. After IA 94 was decommissioned, its sign was stripped off.
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However, by September 2004, the signs — which had been up since 1979 — were completely replaced. The IA 94 sign was completely removed but the brackets are still up. Another thing to note is that the US 151 signs really should be Business US 151 signs.
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Now here is something to shake your head over — I-380 being
routed onto L Street, especially since these signs are mounted on I-380?
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This sign, with the control city of "Airport" for
I-380, is on southbound L Street approaching 5th Avenue and Diagonal Drive,
just before merging into I-380.
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Not all BGS with retrofitted markers in Cedar Rapids involve IA 27. This gantry on
southbound I-380 approaching the Cedar River has one: the sign on the right probably had
larger IA 94 and US 151 shields before US 151 was re-routed away from the city in 1989.
(Update: Now that IA 94 has been decommissioned, the sign on the right has been
changed to read "TO US 151 BUSINESS," even though the marker wasn't moved.)
The sign on the left was modified in late 2002 to make room for the Ice Arena, less
than three years after the home of the Roughriders hockey team opened. (The bottom
line originally read "Stadiums.") The Ice Arena is located near
Veterans Memorial Stadium, home of the Kernels baseball team, and Kingston Stadium,
home of the local high school football teams.
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Other downtown Cedar Rapids sights
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This street sign at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue SE is an example of a typical overhead street sign in Cedar Rapids. Its
"City of Five Seasons" logo can be found on all of its overhead street signs (sometimes the logo is green and sometimes it's orange).
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This array of traffic signals is supported by the underside of a skywalk which
connects a parking ramp with the U.S. Cellular Center (formerly the Five Seasons Center)
and the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel. This is looking northward at the intersection of
3rd Street E and 1st Avenue downtown. They're unusual but not uncommon — skywalk-mounted
lights also exist on 1st Street SE at 2nd Avenue SE near the Alliant Energy Tower as well as
southbound 1st Avenue at 27th Street NE.
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This sign on 1st Avenue was one of many signs in downtown Cedar Rapids warning drivers to
yield to pedestrians in crosswalks that parallel the railroad tracks. They were replaced
in late 2002.
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These fluorescent yellow-green pedestrian warning signs replaced the old "YIELD" signs in 2002. By mid-2007 a warning system was set up so that a bar crossing the two legs on the pedestrian crossing sign near the curb illuminates once a pedestrian or bicycle passes the two sensors near the sign.
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Here is a close-up of the pedestrian crossing sign and sensors from the above photo (the sign is not illuminated in this one).
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The I-380/IA 100 interchange
On the north side of Cedar Rapids is a tri-level diamond or "volleyball"
interchange (see Kurumi's
Field Guide to Interchanges for an explanation) which ties Blairs Ferry
Road, Collins Road (IA 100), and 42nd Street — three east-west streets
— with the north-south I-380. To make matters worse, Center Point Road
(a north-south street) is also tied with the east-west Collins Road.
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This sign at the interchange on eastbound Collins Road is for
the exit ramp leading to I-380/IA 27 and Center Point Road; westbound,
the Center Point Road intersection comes right before the intersections
with the I-380 ramps.
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Exit sign off southbound I-380. Although all three roads are
served by the same on-ramp, they are served by separate off-ramps. Northbound,
though, each of the three roads has its own off-ramp (exits 23, 24A, and
24B) but share the same on-ramp.
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Overhead signs at the intersection of the northbound I-380 off-ramp
and the eastbound Collins Road on-ramp (Collins Road itself is the overpass
in the background). Is it just me, or do the "WESTBOUND" and
"EASTBOUND" labels for Collins Road seem redundant here?
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Sign display looking eastward after exiting IA 100...
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...and this lone green sign lies before the on-ramps to northbound I-380. This interchange
is about a mile east of IA 100's west end, a
half-diamond interchange with Edgewood Road.
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Here is a view of the interchange from the northbound Collins Road off-ramp.
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This is looking northward along I-380. The highest overpass
is for Collins Road itself, while the two lower overpasses are for the frontage roads
that connect Collins with Center Point Road and the I-380 ramps. The sign on the
overpass is for the Blairs Ferry Road exit.
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This view is looking southward while waiting for a red light at Blairs Ferry Road
(which forms the boundary between Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha at this point).
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The US 30 freeway
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Oops! That should be US 218, not IA 218. This green junction sign (which is sometimes used at junctions with multiplexed routes) is on northbound 6th Street at US 30; it has been like this since it was put up after US 151 was rerouted in July 1989. A similar sign with the correct marker for US 218 can be found on southwestbound Williams Boulevard.
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Which way do you want to go again? Even though you're going
three directions at the same time, the freeway itself is east-west. The empty
bracket on the far right was where the "END" sign for IA 965 used to
stand before the segment north of 76th Avenue SW was turned over in 1990.
(More photos relating to the former IA 965's north ends can be found on its
terminus photo page.)
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Just when you thought Iowa sign arrangements couldn't get any
loonier... (This is at Williams Boulevard at US 30, about a mile southwest
of the Westdale Mall. This interchange is the southwest
end of Business US 151, which is officially IA 922 in Cedar Rapids.)
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This photo from northbound I-380 at the interchange with US 30 features an older exit sign in the middle with a center-aligned exit tab and black outlines around the US highway shields, while the exit sign on the right is a newer sign with no outlines around the highway shields and a right-aligned exit tab.
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This is a mile marker on US 30/151 just east of I-380 — one
thing to note is the miniature US 30 shield above it, much like the US
61 mile marker on the main photo gallery page. In the background is the
flyover ramp between southbound I-380 and eastbound US 30/151.
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Finding the next three exits on westbound US 30 is as easy as A-B-C!
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And here is what the signs in the middle and on the right looked like before
IA 27 was designated.
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In 2005, a loop ramp was added to US 30's interchange with Edgewood Road near the General Mills plant so traffic from southbound Edgewood Road would not have to make a left turn anymore. A yellow "RIGHT LANE" sign was put above the US 30/151/218 marker assembly, much like the emergency detour signs are.
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This distance sign was put up east of US 30's interchange with IA 13 in November 2001. Instead of listing the next city on the route (Mount Vernon), the junction with US 61 in De Witt is listed, followed by Clinton, and then, for some reason, Chicago. (US 30 misses the Windy City proper even though it does run through Aurora, Joliet, and other suburbs. Also, most drivers would presumably use I-380, I-80, and either I-88 or I-55 to get from Cedar Rapids to Chicago instead.)
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Other Cedar Rapids area sights
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This is the first known spotting of the new graphic version of a "SPEED ZONE AHEAD" or "REDUCED SPEED AHEAD" sign, which notes a speed limit drop to 40 MPH on northbound 6th Street SW. This modification of a "stop ahead" graphic sign was approved for use in the FHWA's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for 2003.
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Another new MUTCD sign that was first spotted in Cedar Rapids in 2005 was the curve sign that featured the advisory speed inside the diamond rather than on a separate square sign. This example is on southbound Rockford Road south of the 16th Avenue SW viaduct.
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In January 2002 the city of Cedar Rapids put new street signs up in the
Czech Village area to distinguish them from those in the rest of the city.
This one is near the National Czech & Slovak Museum.
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A classic car museum here gives Classic Car Court, located off J Street near I-380's exit with 33rd Avenue SW, its unique street name. One thing to note here is that Cedar Rapids signs private drives with red street signs instead of the usual green signs.
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Another weird street name; this one straddles both Cedar Rapids
and Marion, connecting Collins Road with Marion Boulevard (1st Avenue in CR).
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Like Cedar Rapids, Marion also uses its city logo on all of its overhead street
signs.
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This small green sign with US 30 and I-380 shields can be found at the intersection of County Roads W6E and E70 north of Ely. The "LINN CO" sign indicates that the road re-enters the jurisdiction of Linn County at this point rather than the city of Ely. (Photographed by Jeff Morrison)
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These two US 13 markers, which are really supposed to be for IA 13, have been spotted in Coggon in early 2008. (Photographed by Zach Simmen; submitted by Jeff Morrison)
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