A look inside the NJ Turnpike Authority shop where thousands of highway signs are still made by hand
Sign fabricators showed News 12 how they adhere to strict style guides, and lay letters by hand.
More Stories
Drivers pass hundreds of signs - large and small - along the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway every day without thinking much of it.
But for a small team of workers in Central Jersey, it's all they think about.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has a sign shop facility in Holmdel where the team designs, cuts and places vinyl lettering on products as small as stop signs and as large as the green exit ramps.
Sign fabricators showed News 12 how they adhere to strict style guides and lay letters by hand. Some of the most commonly used shapes - like the circles that become parkway logo signs - are pre-cut on standby.
The manager says these signs last 12-14 years, but smaller ones like stop signs are replaced more frequently.
In all, the team estimates they produce some 6,000-8,000 signs per year for the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.
