2 Del. Admin. Code § 2E.24

Current through Register Vol. 28, No. 5, November 1, 2024

Section 2E.24 - Signing for Interchange Lane Drops

Standard:

01 The provisions of this Section shall only apply to lane drops at exits that do not have an optional exit lane. At exits that have an optional exit lane in addition to the dropped lane, the provisions of Sections 2E.20 through 2E.23 shall apply.

02 Major guide signs for all lane drops at interchanges shall be mounted overhead. An EXIT ONLY sign panel shall be used for all interchange lane drops at which the through route is carried on the mainline.

03 Except on Overhead Arrow-per-Lane and Diagrammatic guide signs (See Sections 2E.20 through 2E.22), the EXIT ONLY (down arrow) (E11-1 or E11-1f) sign panel (see Figure 2E-13) shall be used on all signing of lane drops on all overhead Advance Guide signs (see Figures 2E-14 through 2E-16). The number of arrows on each sign shall correspond to the number of dropped lanes at the location of each sign. Placement of the down arrow shall comply with the provisions of Section 2E.19.

04 For lane drops, the Exit Direction sign (see Section 2E.36 and Figure 2E-26) shall be of the format shown in Figures 2E-15 and 2E-16. The bottom portion of the Exit Direction sign shall be yellow with a black border and shall include a diagonally upward-pointing black directional arrow (left or right) for each lane dropped at the exit, with the sign designed and placed so that each arrow is located over the approximate center of each lane being dropped. The words EXIT and ONLY shall be positioned to the left and right, respectively, of the arrow on the E11-1d sign panel for a single-lane drop. For a two-lane drop, the words EXIT ONLY shall be located between the two arrows on the E11-1e sign panel. The number of arrows on the sign shall correspond to the number of dropped lanes at the location of the sign.

Option:

05 EXIT ONLY messages of either the combination of E11-1a and E11-1b, or E11-1c formats may be used to retrofit existing signing to warn of a lane drop situation ahead.

Standard:

06 If used to retrofit an existing Advance Guide sign, the E11-1a and E11-1b sign panels (see Figure 2E-13) shall be placed on either side of a white down arrow. The E11-1c sign panel, if used to retrofit an existing sign, shall be placed between the lower destination message and the white down arrow.

Guidance:

07 Except as provided in Paragraph 8 for an auxiliary lane, Advance Guide signs for lane drops within 1 mile of the interchange should not contain the distance message.

08 Where the dropped lane is an auxiliary lane that is provided between successive entrance and exit ramps of two separate interchanges and the distance between the two ramps is less than 1 mile, the first Advance Guide sign in the sequence downstream from the entrance ramp should contain the distance message.

09 Wherever the dropped lane carries the through route, signs should be used without the EXIT ONLY sign panel.

Support:

10 Sections 2E.20 through 2E.23 contain information on the signing of lane drops at exits that also have an option lane.

11 Section 2B.23 contains information regarding regulatory signs that can also be used for freeway lane drop situations and Section 2C.43 contains information regarding warning signs that can also be used for freeway lane drop situations.

2 Del. Admin. Code § 2E.24