Colorado Highways Photo Gallery:
Signals from Around the State

This page has photos of signals from various jurisdictions around Colorado. When clicking on a link to a photo, the photo will pop up in a new window so you don't have to keep hitting the "Back" button. The dates listed are when the photo was taken.

In some states the signals are all built to look pretty much alike (Wisconsin comes to mind), but that is not true in Colorado. There are CDOT standards which show the configuration for what a mast arm signal should look like, but a lot of jurisdictions have developed their own standards. Thus there is likely to be consistency for what signals look like within a particular town/county, but as soon as a border line is crossed the standards may change.

Related Sites

• TrafficSignals.net: Many photos of traffic signals from around North America and the world

Colorado Department of Transportation

• Structural Box Signal. Starting in 2000, CDOT-specified signals starting having a large structural box to make the connection between the pole and mast arm. The longer the mast arm, the more beefy the box was. Some of them are quite large. While the structure details are the same, the pole color is left to local preference. This is US 50 at Baltimore Avenue in Pueblo. Photo by Jay Bernard.
• Alternate Signal. Two years after the design of the structural box signal came out, CDOT developed an "Alternate" signal standard. This design was developed to reduce the visual intrusion of the obnoxiously large structural boxes (at least I assume that's why they developed it). This design is used instead of the structural box design sometimes. Again, pole color is left to local preference. This signal is in Pueblo. Photo by Jay Bernard.

Alamosa

• Trussed Mast Arm Signal. Older Alamosa signal, with silver poles featuring a trussed mast arm. Main Street (US 160) at State Sreet. July 2005

Aspen

• Signal. Westbound Main Street (SH 82) at Monarch Street. Gray metal poles and backplates on the signal heads. June 2002

Aurora

• Signal. Northbound Havana Street and Jewell Avenue. Gray metal poles and backplates on the signal heads. Almost all the ones I've seen in town look like this, except for a few that use span wires instead of mast arms. Aurora sets itself apart from other Colorado towns I've been in because they put full heads on the left-side pole across the intersection. If the head at the end of the mast arm is five-section, also will the one on left-side pole. Not all places here do that. June 2000

Boulder

• Signal. Northbound Broadway at Baseline Road. Fairly standard Boulder signal, with brown poles and yellow signal hardware.

Brighton

• Main Street Signal. Brighton signal in downtown, northbound on Main Street at Bridge Street (SH 7). March 2007
  

Brush

• Signal. Brush signal on westbound Edison one block east of SH 71. This signal uses the "bent soda straw" pole and mast arm. April 2004

Buena Vista

• Signal. Buena Vista signal, featuring a "bent soda straw" pole and no back plates. Northbound US 24 at Main Street. October 2004

Burlington

• Newer Signal. Pretty standard signal, but no backplates. Westbound Rose Avenue at 18th Street. May 2006
  
• Old Single 4-Way Signal. A very old form of signal. This is a four-way housing with 8" lenses, the only signal head that's used for the intersection. This type of signal has been disallowed for years by the MUTCD but somehow this one has survived not being upgraded. Eastbound Martin Avenue at 14th Street. May 2006
  

Cañon City

• Newer Signal. A newer Cañon City signal, featuring black poles and hardware, a ton of signal heads, and CDOT's weird structural box where the mast arm intersects the pole. Westbound US 50 at Orchard Avenue.

Colorado Springs

• Span Wire. A Colorado Springs typical span wire setup on NB Academy Boulevard at La Salle Street. Dark poles, no backplates, and a lighted street name sign that doesn't include the suffix. Photo courtesy Drew Willsey. October 2004

Denver

• Modern Signal. Westbound 1st Avenue at Gilpin Street. Typical modern installation, which uses black straight-arm mast arms and poles, plus LEDs for the lights. October 1999
• Old East Colfax Signal. Eastbound Colfax Avenue at York Street. Uses a 12-8-8 head for the overhead signal, plus weird-looking mast arms. In the distance underneath the signal you can John Elway staring at you from a billboard for his car dealerships. October 1999
• Old Span Wire Setup. Eastbound 8th Avenue at Clarkson Street. Traditional Denver span wire setup, with 12-8-8 signal heads overhead, and 8-8-8 heads on the poles on the corners. On the left side of the picture, note there is a head pointing the wrong direction down the one-way street. Two theories: Either it was installed before it became a one-way street, or it is for pedestrians. June 2000
• Progression Signal. Eastbound 8th Avenue at Cheesman Park. Very unusual setup on many one-way streets in the older part of town. A one-way street may not have a signal for many blocks, so one of these things is thrown in to keep the cars in "convoys" or "progressions". No intersection, no crosswalk, just a signal that turns red every cycle as if it were at an intersection. This keeps large gaps in traffic allowing cross traffic and pedestrians to get across the street. If you are coming along the one-way street with the convoy, the signal won't turn red until the convoys passes. June 2000

Denver Tech Center (Denver/Greenwood Village)

• Signal. "Modular" signal setup in the Denver Tech Center office park that straddles Denver and Greenwood Village. Northbound DTC Boulevard at Park Terrace Avenue. June 2001

Durango

• Signal. Typical Durango signal, featuring bare metal poles. Southbound US 550 at 27th Street. July 2005

Eagle

• Signal. Standard Eagle span-wire setup. On the westbound I-70 offramp. June 2002

Englewood

• Signal. Standard dark-poled Englewood signal. SB Broadway in downtown. Photo courtesy Drew Willsey. October 2004

Fort Collins

• Modern Signal. Southbound Shields Street at Drake Road. Includes the five-section head for left turns made entirely out of 12-inch lenses. The Opticom sensor is visible in the middle of the mast arm. The intersection was repaved in August 1999, and there is now a detector camera on the luminaire. July 1998
• Older Signal. Northbound Shields Street at Elizabeth Street. Shows the five-section left turn head with a combination of 8- and 12-inch lenses. July 1998
• Another Older Signal. Westbound Drake Road at Stover Street. Shows the oldest version of Fort Collins signals still around, with combination 8- and 12- inch lenses, and no heads on the side poles. July 1998
• Span Wire Pedestrian Signal. 3300 block South Lemay Avenue near Boltz Junior High. Shows how mid-block pedestrian signals used to be done in town. Nowadays they use mast arms and all 12-inch lenses. July 1998
• Wacky Pedestrian Signal. Southbound 300 block South Shields Street. A really wacky-looking pedestrian signal at an elementary school in an old part of Fort Collins. April 2000

Fort Lupton

• Signal. Diagonal span-wire signal on westbound SH 52 (1st Street) at McKinley Avenue. February 2003

Fort Morgan

• Span Wire. Typical Fort Morgan span wire setup, westbound Platte at Main (US 34/SH 52). April 2004

Fountain

• Newer Signal. Newer Fountain signal, with all-black poles and hardware. Northbound Santa Fe (US 85) at Alabama. September 2003

Frisco

• Signal. Standard Frisco signal with black poles and hardware, and backplates. On SH 9 at Dillon Dam Road. Photo by Drew Willsey. July 2003

Glenwood Springs

• Standard Signal. Usual Glenwood Springs signal, with brown poles and backplates on the signal heads. Over on the right side of the pole you can make out a screen above the walk signal where there is a countdown timer for the walk signal. Glenwood Springs also extensively uses audible pedestrian signals. Northbound Grand Avenue (SH 82) at 9th Street. June 2002
• Three Green Arrows at Once. Southbound Laurel Street at 6th Street (SH 82). June 2002
  

Grand Junction

• Signal. Typical Grand Junction signal, with bare metal poles, backplates and lighted street name signs. July 2005

Louisville

• "Modular" Signal. Westbound Dillon Road at McCaslin Boulevard. The part of Louisville near US 36 uses these kinds of signals. October 1999

Loveland

• Modern Signal. Westbound 29th Street at Taft Avenue. Typical modern installation, with brown poles and five-section head for left turns made out of the "doghouse" style, with the red centered above the other lenses. The side-of-pole head is made up of 8-inch lenses, but now Loveland puts in the 12-inch lenses for the side-of-pole heads. October 1999
• Span Wire Pedestrian Signal. SW 14th Street at Dotsero Drive. April 2000
  

Pueblo

• Mast Arm Signal. Typical older Pueblo mast arm signal, bare poles and dark hardware. Southbound Santa Fe at 4th (BR 50/SH 96). May 2004
• Newer Mast Arm Signal. A more recent Pueblo signal, with dark poles and backplates all around. Photo by Jay Bernard.

Rifle

• Signal. A Rifle signal on Railroad Avenue downtown. Pretty simple setup. July 2005

Silverthorne

• Signal. Standard signal, with black poles and no backplates. Rainbow Drive at Blue River Parkway (SH 9). June 2002

Winter Park

• Signal. A blurry picture of a signal on eastbound US 40 in Winter Park, with brown poles and backplates on the signal heads. September 2002

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Last updated 2 June 2007