Traffic Sign Posts

Every sign on a highway, state route, or city street sits on a post system that must accomplish two things: hold the sign panel stable through wind and weather, and break away cleanly if a vehicle strikes it. Road Safety Systems installs sign post systems across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

Sign Post Systems

**U-Channel Posts**: The most commonly used sign support for ground-mounted signs. Galvanized or painted steel U-channel posts driven into the ground with breakaway bases when required by proximity to travel lanes.

**Breakaway Steel Posts**: Wide-flange and tubular steel posts with slip-base or frangible-base breakaway systems for larger ground-mounted signs, required for interstate and high-speed highway signs where vehicle impact energy is high.

**Multi-Post Installations**: Large guide signs require two or more posts supporting a horizontal span, installed with breakaway bases, cross-bracing, and splice connections per agency structural design drawings.

Specification Compliance

Sign post selection is not arbitrary — the applicable agency's standard drawings specify post type, size, embedment, and breakaway requirements based on sign panel area, mounting height, wind zone, and proximity to the travel lane. We install per those standard drawings and applicable MASH breakaway requirements.

Clear Zone Considerations

Whether a sign post needs a breakaway base often comes down to its location relative to the roadway's clear zone — the area alongside the travel lane where a errant vehicle is expected to have room to recover or come to a stop. Posts within the clear zone generally require breakaway hardware; posts set back far enough may not, depending on the applicable agency standard. We verify post location against the clear zone requirements for each sign location before selecting the post type and base assembly.