Highway Sign: Check out this pic I found!

Share your memories of working at Marriott's GREAT AMERICA in Gurnee
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BrianPlencner
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Post by BrianPlencner »

Wanted to show the progress of the modified sign. This picture was taken today.

I'm guessing that the new top should be up by the end of next week.

Image

By the way, the parts laying on the ground is the new top.

Now, not sure how long it will take to get it working. I also hope that whatever caused the old one to stop working (I had heard rumors of birds/small animals getting inside the base and chewing on the wires) is fixed...it would really be bad that the new sign get "fried" a few weeks after is operational! :)
Last edited by BrianPlencner on Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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WhizzerSFGAm
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Post by WhizzerSFGAm »

The new sign is finished.

http://www.midwestcoastermadness.com/ph ... 4380#14380

I'm kind of disappointed. It looked really cool in the drawing, but I don't like the way the LED is angled. Unless you're pretty far away, you cant even see the Hurricane Harbor part from ground level.
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SFGAmfreak4life
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Post by SFGAmfreak4life »

That looks terrible.
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BrianPlencner
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Post by BrianPlencner »

I took a few pictures of the new sign on my way to work this morning.


Image

Image


I'll re-size them down to 800x600 when I get home from work.

I also agree that it did look better on paper. I do like the top logo, and I agree the LCD is going to be a good benifit, but I think the design of the LCD's is not what I expected it to be. I think if the LCD's were in line with the top / bottom, it would look a lot better. Either that, or design the top to match the triangle shape.

I said it before and I'll say it again...while the old sign was outdated, the problem was not that, but the fact that animals kept getting inside and causing it to not work. Hopefully, they address those issues, otherwise we did not really gain anything did we! :)
Last edited by BrianPlencner on Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Papas
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Post by Papas »

Very nice! Although it looks strange driving southbound it looks awesome driving north. I hope they fix and paint the part directly under the screen though because it looks like it was damaged.
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saturn93
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New sign

Post by saturn93 »

It does look strange.

I was wondering when I looked at the picture. The sign is not as high as the old one, at least from the camera's point of view.

Now, I can't wait to see what it looks like at night, when everything is lit up.
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thadpk
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Post by thadpk »

This sign is pretty bad.... Does anyone know where to old one went?
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GreatAmerica4ever
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Post by GreatAmerica4ever »

I agree that the new sign is not as eye-friendly as the last one. I guess the company has to show the name Six Flags more predomiently than the name of the theme park.

Unfortunately us old timers will never forget how nice life used to be in the 70's and 80's ;)

Let's just hope that the park stays with its theming and does not stray from that anymore!!
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Glorfindel7
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Post by Glorfindel7 »

I think I figured out why the sign appears to be slanted on the message board.

Maybe it's because they want the drivers on I294 going toward wisconsin (and the Grand Avenue exit) to be able to see the video display without straining their heads as it should directly be facing traffic?

Isn't that nice of them? Sure helps to eliminate some of the distractions (like the expressway driving) :)
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NotBill
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Post by NotBill »

Glorfindel7 wrote:I guess it really depends on what's on the video... The vast majority of people on I294 will probably drive down the road enough so that they won't be distracted.

However someone on a cell phone who is also looking at the sign might be a problem :shock:

I don't think anyone on I-294 will be distracted by the sign since I-294 ends at Lake-Cook Road! :twisted:


Seriously though, I don't think the GA sign has ever been a problem since it's after the 132 exit, there isn't another exit for several miles and the next backup is the Waukegan Toll which I'm told is finally completed now. Not sure if they're still doing that bridge work on Stearns School Rd or not but that was causing some problems as well.

The problems were always with the 132 exit and once they finally fixed that with longer exit lanes and two lanes instead of one I haven't seen many problems over there any more.

I've never had much love for Gurnee politics, they seem to love to bite the hand that feeds them quite often as I heard SF wanted a bigger sign than that one but the village wouldn't let it fly. They had to go through zoning since the old sign was out of code but grandfathered in, hence they got their new sign but it's smaller.
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