ADOT sign shop

Making signs in ADOT's Sign Shop

Making signs in ADOT's Sign Shop

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Making signs in ADOT's Sign Shop

Making signs in ADOT's Sign Shop

By Kathy Cline / ADOT Communications
August 14, 2023
Highway signs are stacked in rows on the ground, waiting to be delivered and installed.

Signs are everywhere on Arizona’s highways, providing information about speed limits, nearby locations, rest areas and more. But how and where are these signs made?

ADOT has a Sign Shop where signs big and small are produced. The shop can produce signs as large as 16 by 30 feet -- these are the big, green signs above highways. Signs are made of aluminum and many sign blanks arrive pre-cut in standard shapes and sizes. Others are screen-printed.

When a sign order comes in, it’s checked against required specifications for that particular sign and the design is entered into a special cutting machine. The sign is cut and excess film is trimmed. The sign film has transfer tape applied and is rolled onto a clean sign blank. Then the transfer tape is removed and the sign is finished!

Some signs have a special material rolled onto the blank and are hand-trimmed. These are signs that usually have a yellow reflective background.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Arizona DOT (@arizona_dot)

It's all in the signs for this ADOT employee

It's all in the signs for this ADOT employee

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It's all in the signs for this ADOT employee

It's all in the signs for this ADOT employee

By Laurie Merrill / ADOT Communications
May 27, 2021
For Tom Erickson, it's all in the signs!

Some people like to knit or sew. Others love car racing, going to the theater or solving crossword puzzles. 

Tom Erickson's passion is making signs. And, as an ADOT sign shop employee, he gets to do it every day. 

Erickson's job is his passion. 

"I just enjoy manufacturing signs. They are useful and important," Erickson said. "The signs we build help people every day go about their business."

Erickson is among a handful of ADOT sign shop employees who produce about 400 new signs every month and take care of about 500,000 a year. 

For Erickson, it doesn't matter the size, color or shape of the signs, he just enjoys the process. He is particularly fond of designing new signs. 

But doesn't he have a favorite? 

"I like making the informational signs, the D-series," he said. "They are probably the most entertaining."  

There's a wide range of D-series signs, including those very large green signs we all see on the freeways that list multiple destinations with directional arrows. 

Even on his days off, he enjoys examining signs.

"How did they make that design? Hmmm, there's this, there's that," he said. "I critique signs all over the world." 

Erickson hails from Minnesota and began making signs for a graphics company in the 1980s after he left the U.S. Navy, where he served for eight years. 

He rose through the ranks from shipping and receiving, to installation, to making screens, mixing inks and fabricating interior signs. 

About 20 years ago, he and wife decided to pack up the family and head to sunny Arizona. 

"I'd rather sweat a little than freeze a little," he said. 

He worked for a few private companies in the Phoenix area before getting laid off during the 2009 financial crisis. He applied for so many jobs every week that he forgot he had even applied at ADOT when he got a letter asking him to interview. That was more than 10 years ago.

"All this time, I still haven't lost that desire to get up and make a perfect sign," he said. "I feel that in my bones this is something I am supposed to do."

ADOT Kids: How road signs are made

ADOT Kids: How road signs are made

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ADOT Kids: How road signs are made

ADOT Kids: How road signs are made

By Laurie Merrill / ADOT Communications
February 11, 2021

Hey, ADOT Kids, do you know how all those road signs are made?

The Arizona Department of Transportation makes all its own signs at a sign shop in Phoenix, where a handful of sign technicians turn out 300 to 400 signs every month.

The signs come in all shapes and sizes and in all colors, including square, rectangle, diamond, green, white, yellow, blue and red.

But, did you know they are all made from aluminum stock?

There are two ways signs are made: Screen printing and electric cutting. 

For the electric cutting method, technicians first apply reflective vinyl onto the aluminum. If it is a red sign with white letters, the white vinyl goes on first and then the red vinyl. Then the sign goes to the electric cutter. Technicians program precise measurements into the cutter machine. Then the cutter cuts out the words that will appear white on the red sign. The red vinyl is peeled off where the letters were made, revealing the white vinyl underneath. That’s how a red sign gets white letters.

Making signs is so much fun that ADOT Director John Halikowski made some from scratch during a visit to the shop several years ago. You can watch him making signs in our video. We even had a 7-year-old sign lover named Hunter Vincente tour the sign shop. Read about that visit and the "no trucks" sign that was created just for him.

The sign techs also have fun making the signs. One of them missed making signs so much he came out of retirement to return to the sign shop!

If you want to learn more about our highway signs, you can read this other ADOT Kids story we did about them. And if you would like to learn more about what goes into building and running highways and freeways, check out our ADOT Kids website for fun videos and activites to bring our your inner engineer!