Complicated highway signage in
Maysville KY - Aberdeen OH and surrounding area

I was in Maysville in October 2002, with the intention of documenting signage on US 68. Navigating through this area can be difficult and/or amusing (depending on how comfortable you are with where you're going) for a couple reasons:

• US 68 is signed as an east-west route in Kentucky, but it's north-south in Ohio. This is where the signage changes.
• US 62 is signed as an east-west route in both states, but it could just as easily be considered more of a north-south road in this area. And partly for that reason, there are some confusing "wrong-way" multiplexes.

I could've used at least a roll of film documenting all this, but unfortunately I didn't have time to do a comprehensive job. What I did get is marked "October 2002" below. Also, for contrast, I've posted several H.B. Elkins photos from a year or two earlier, to show how these roads were originally signed when the Harsha bridge was first opened in January 2001. Clearly, even Ohio officials themselves have struggled with how best to sign these roads.

This first group is in Aberdeen OH, looking south from US 52 across the old (Simon Kenton?) bridge over the Ohio River into Maysville. This used to be mainline US 62/68...

Elkins, March 2001

...and that photo shows how the signage probably appeared for decades. Interestingly though, when H.B. was there, the Harsha bridge was already open, mainline US 62/68 had been routed over it, and this segment had actually been re-signed as "Alternate US 62/68" (more on that below). Sometime later in 2001, Ohio replaced the "Alt" routing with a "Business" routing:

October 2002

Anyway, in both photos, you can see that US 68 is signed as "South" at that point. Across in Maysville, the next couple shields just had arrows, but here is the first assembly I saw with a directional tab included:

October 2002

As I recall, that's just past the intersection with KY hwy. 10 (Kentucky Avenue). There, US 68 is an east-west route. So that old bridge marks the spot where US 68 used to change its direction.

Imagine turning around and crossing the bridge back over into Ohio. On the Aberdeen side, business loop signage directed me left (west) on US 52:

October 2002

Again, US 68 is a north-south route on this side. Also notice the confusing "West-East-North" multiplex.

A mile or two ahead, you come to the landing for the Harsha Bridge. This serves as the new US 62/68, so its landing marks the Ohio terminus of Business 62/68. Here's how that spot was initially signed:

Elkins, January 2001

But US 68 is north-south everywhere else in Ohio, so by the time I visited, that assembly had been changed:

October 2002

There aren't many places where you can see a sign like that one - notice there were both "North" and "West" US 68 signs on the same assembly.

To cross over into Kentucky, you take a right where the minivan is, loop around, and fly back over to the left. Traffic coming over from Kentucky loops around using the same road and ends up at the same intersection. Initially, approaching that intersection, drivers viewed these signs:

Elkins, January 2001

And, while waiting at the stoplight, there was this across the road:

Elkins, January 2001

Notice how US 52 is signed with a different format than the other routes. But, in my opinion, that assembly as a whole was a lot easier to decipher than the signage I saw there nearly two years later:

October 2002

(That's visible to the left of the minivan, above.) They kept the odd US 52 signage. But now one can make additional observations: Notice how - apparently on this sign only - Ohio signs US 68 (both the mainline and the business route) as an east-west road. Also notice how west on 52 is "east" for the other two routes, and vice versa. I think this is a case where we'd be better off without directional tabs. As it is, it's very perplexing; I'm imagining tourist traffic backed up for miles as people try to figure out which way to turn...

Anyway, turning right from there (west on US 52), we used to have this:

Elkins, January 2001

That would've been in front of the minivan above. Note US 68 was still shown as "East" at that point. But I saw this:

October 2002

If you whipped a u-turn there, the signage on eastbound US 52 used to look like this:

Elkins, January 2001

I didn't photograph the modern equivalent, but at the least those "Alt" tabs have been replaced with "Business"; there may be directional tabs now as well.

So in summary, my observation was that the signs were all consistent, except for the one at the Ohio end of the Harsha bridge. Other than that one, they all seem to indicate that landing in Aberdeen marks the spot where US 68 changes from east-west to north-south.

By the way, that wrong-way multiplex exists for another 8 miles to the west, where US 62/68 splits off from US 52 at Ripley OH. Below is the signage heading east out of Ripley towards Aberdeen:

October 2002

Most trailblazers between those two towns lacked directional tabs, but that was one exception.

Finally, one more photo I thought was interesting: this assembly was posted where US 62/68 splits off from the "AA" highway (also KY 9/10) and begins its approach to the Harsha Bridge.

October 2002

I don't know that I've ever seen a "Formerly" tab before. Incidentally, this is not the last trailblazer on the Kentucky side; there's one more just past the junction with KY 3056. But all signs I observed in Maysville were consistently east-west.