After using portable digital messaging road signs in recent months, the Town of Chapel Hill has begun installation on 10 new permanent digital message boards – also called “variable message signs” – on major roads in the area to increase the availability of crucial travel-related information.

The signs – currently being put in place along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Fordham Boulevard (US Highway 15-501) and NC Highway 54 – will provide “critical messages to people driving through town about traffic congestion, construction, incidents, and special events, like festivals, sporting events, or celebrations” according to a release. The messages will be displayed according to NCDOT guidelines and placed with combined input from the NCDOT, the town of Chapel Hill and UNC.

Construction of support structures for the signage began in December of 2019, the message boards themselves began to be installed the week of August 3, and the ten digital signs are expected to be fully operational by early September.

A map of digital sign locations on major Chapel Hill thoroughfares. (Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill)

Featured image courtesy of the Town of Chapel Hill.

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