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Carthage street department workers have added two new Route 66 street markers to fill in a gap in the new blue markers that were installed last summer.
The Carthage City Council approved on Tuesday a plan to use stencils to paint Route 66 markers and arrows on Garrison Avenue and possibly Oak Street.
Carthage City Administrator Tom Short told the Carthage City Council’s Public Works Committee it’s all an effort to help tourists follow the sometimes confusing original Route 66 as it winds through Carthage.
“(Carthage Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Director) Wendi Douglas, when she’s talked to the city before, has talked about the tremendous amount of traffic she sees from foreigners on Route 66,” Short said. “The big problem is where they get lost and that’s right through that one section at Garrison and Central and Garrison and Oak, so we figured if we can get that painted and stenciled, it would keep that lane open and everybody would see it fairly obviously. The street department has the painting equipment to do that.”
Route 66 is a magnet for heritage tourists from across the country and overseas. The Mother Road has become a dream vacation for many people from Europe and Asia.
The original route in Carthage follows Central Avenue, Garrison Avenue and Oak Street, but before the new blue Route 66 markers were installed last summer, out-of-towners, especially those traveling west, would continue west on Central Avenue and west on Missouri Highway 171 and miss about eight miles of the original road between Carthage and Carterville.
The new blue signs, including a left turn arrow on westbound Central at Garrison and on eastbound Oak Street at Garrison solved part of that problem, but until this week, there sill was no large sign telling drivers to turn right on to Oak Street if they were going west or right on Central if they were going east.
The new street signs on Garrison are one solution. Short said the city was hoping to borrow another possible solution from Webb City.
He said the city was making arrangements to borrow a stencil from Webb City to paint the Route 66 shield on Garrison Avenue.
He said the city would like to paint the shield on Central Avenue as well, but Missouri Department of Transportation rules prohibit it.
MoDOT maintains Central Avenue, also known as Missouri Highway 96, while the city maintains Garrison Avenue, also known as Missouri Highway 571, and Oak Street.
“MoDOT would not allow Webb City to put stencils on the street because it was apparently on MoDOT streets,” Short said. “Because Garrison is actually our maintenance, it’s our street, as long as we follow the manual for uniform sign design, we can probably use their stencils and stencil Route 66 on that street and put some arrows on there and keep people on track.”
Carthage street department workers have added two new Route 66 street markers to fill in a gap in the new blue markers that were installed last summer.
The Carthage City Council approved on Tuesday a plan to use stencils to paint Route 66 markers and arrows on Garrison Avenue and possibly Oak Street.
Carthage City Administrator Tom Short told the Carthage City Council’s Public Works Committee it’s all an effort to help tourists follow the sometimes confusing original Route 66 as it winds through Carthage.
“(Carthage Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Director) Wendi Douglas, when she’s talked to the city before, has talked about the tremendous amount of traffic she sees from foreigners on Route 66,” Short said. “The big problem is where they get lost and that’s right through that one section at Garrison and Central and Garrison and Oak, so we figured if we can get that painted and stenciled, it would keep that lane open and everybody would see it fairly obviously. The street department has the painting equipment to do that.”
Route 66 is a magnet for heritage tourists from across the country and overseas. The Mother Road has become a dream vacation for many people from Europe and Asia.
The original route in Carthage follows Central Avenue, Garrison Avenue and Oak Street, but before the new blue Route 66 markers were installed last summer, out-of-towners, especially those traveling west, would continue west on Central Avenue and west on Missouri Highway 171 and miss about eight miles of the original road between Carthage and Carterville.
The new blue signs, including a left turn arrow on westbound Central at Garrison and on eastbound Oak Street at Garrison solved part of that problem, but until this week, there sill was no large sign telling drivers to turn right on to Oak Street if they were going west or right on Central if they were going east.
The new street signs on Garrison are one solution. Short said the city was hoping to borrow another possible solution from Webb City.
He said the city was making arrangements to borrow a stencil from Webb City to paint the Route 66 shield on Garrison Avenue.
He said the city would like to paint the shield on Central Avenue as well, but Missouri Department of Transportation rules prohibit it.
MoDOT maintains Central Avenue, also known as Missouri Highway 96, while the city maintains Garrison Avenue, also known as Missouri Highway 571, and Oak Street.
“MoDOT would not allow Webb City to put stencils on the street because it was apparently on MoDOT streets,” Short said. “Because Garrison is actually our maintenance, it’s our street, as long as we follow the manual for uniform sign design, we can probably use their stencils and stencil Route 66 on that street and put some arrows on there and keep people on track.”
