All photos on this page courtesy Michael Summa and taken in 1983.


W. Aspen Ave. WB, connecting the western end of C-340 to US 6. You definitely won't see this assembly with its old 18" direction banners because the road straight ahead has been dead-ended - all traffic to US 6 turns left.


In the other direction on W. Aspen Ave., as C-340 begins to the right and heads to I-70 (see tiny shields in background).


That is indeed green button copy, EB at I-70 Exit 19 in Fruita. CDOT was trying this out around the time Michael saw this, although I'm sure they would have worked better against a non-reflective background (Michael tells me this was the case on the mainline).


B 1/2 Rd. WB on the south side of Grand Junction in Orchard Mesa. Why would a county road have such old signs as these, with CO's old shield spec and rattling buttons - and a trumpet interchange? It's because this was C-340 into the 1970's, following a short multiplex with US 50 across the Colorado River, and heading east via all sorts of lettered, numbered, and fractional (i.e. laid out within the interstices of the mile grid) roads to US 6 outside Palisade. The verb I saw was "stair-stepping." Here's the progression: B½, 32½, C½, 34½, D, 35, E, 35½, E½, 36, F, 37¼ (and that's after passing 36 5/8), F¼, 38. The numbering system is maintained on the north side of the river, and so in addition to eighth roads on the south side, there are tenth roads (G 7/10, for example) up there due to a different grid division methodology. Hey, as long as you're not mathematically challenged, it's about as informative as a numbering system can get. A is the southern boundary of eastern Mesa County, and 1 is the Utah line; since western Mesa goes lower than the eastern part, the lettering continues as B South, C South, etc.

Onto US 6
Onto I-70
Onto US 50
Back to Colorado Roads
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