Like novelty-sized pages of redacted government documents, blacked-out road signs are hanging over I-95 and I-395. And inquiring drivers (WLRN contributor Nancy Klingener, for example) want answers:
@RadioMalone What's the deal with the redacted signs on I-95? Visiting islanders (@keywestbirder and I) want to know.
— Nancy Klingener (@keywestnan) March 20, 2014
“The new sign structures are currently covered not to confuse drivers,” explained Brian Rick, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation in Miami-Dade County.
The signs are temporarily blacked-out to avoid sending drivers towards a yet-to-be-completed project: The Port of Miami Tunnel.
In total, about two dozen of the redacted signs will go up in anticipation of the tunnel’s scheduled opening on May 19. The roughly $1-billion project will allow trucks and other port traffic to avoid downtown Miami. Construction began in May of 2010.
“The night prior to the opening of the tunnel,” says Rick, “our contractor will remove the black overlays that you see and that will reveal the new signage for the traveling public.”
For those unable to wait for that wild evening of sign-striptease, find below a comprehensive map of the naked signage to come.
