Better Mousetrap: Portable stop sign and
modified sign trailer
Joe Hodapp (above), City of Ankeny, demonstrates the modified portable sign (below).
Converted sign trailer
A couple of times a year, Bob Sledge, operator with the City of Ankeny, uses a temporary stop sign to replace a permanent one that has blown over or to provide traffic control if a power outage has knocked out a signal.
Before Sledge modified them, the temporary signs were heavy and awkward. He took care of that by using a standard two-piece, “H” design with regular polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe. He uses one or two sandbags to stabilize the base.
Now the signs are lightweight, easy to transport, inexpensive (the base only costs $11), and easy to assemble (an intersection takes about 10 minutes to set up).
However, these signs aren’t yet NCHRP-350 compliant.
Joe Hodapp, operator with the city of Ankeny, converted a utility flatbed trailer into a trailer for the new signs. He made “A” frames to hang the bases over, built a section for 20 sandbags at the front, and added a spot for the tops of the signs with a 20-foot piece of steel. He then lowered the fender and put smaller wheels on the trailer.
The trailer holds 50 tops and 50 bases and cost about $120 to make.
