Faulty freeway sign: The speed limit is not 20 mph

Jeff Ehling Image
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Sign glitch suggested freeway drivers go 20 mph
Sign glitch suggested drivers go 20 mph on Southwest Freeway

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- New signs had drivers doing a double take on the Southwest Freeway Wednesday morning. The reason -- the speed limit. The signs told drivers to go 20 miles an hour. It turns out, it was just an error.

Almost every driver on the road was not going anywhere close to 20 miles an hour while approaching the 59-610 interchange. For some, the 20 mile per hour sign message caused quite a bit of concern.

"I don't want to get a ticket, but that's weird," said driver Paul Mboumba.

It turns out the signs are newly installed by TxDOT to warn drivers of lane closures as construction on the interchange ramps up, but the signs were not supposed to flash any speed limit message at all.

TxDOT officials say a glitch caused the wrong message to flash, but it has since been fixed.

TxDOT spokesperson Danny Perez said, "We have new portable message boards as part of new 69/610 project smart work zone technology and they are malfunctioning. We are working to get it resolved."

Some drivers say there are times the incorrectly posted speed is not even possible to attain on the Southwest Freeway.

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