LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Caltrans Using Razor Wire to Curb Graffiti
Menacing razor wire being strung around Southern California freeway signs is aimed at keeping graffiti vandals at bay.
“It wasn’t our first choice,” Pat Reid of the California Department of Transportation said Tuesday. “But we get a lot of calls from people about the graffiti. They don’t want us to look like New York City.”
Coiling wire around overhead freeway signs, at about $1,000 per sign, is “a last-ditch effort to protect the public’s investment” against tagger damage, Reid said.
Eighty-five percent of all California freeway graffiti is in Los Angeles County. Caltrans workers have wrapped the poles and borders of about 200 signs in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Crews have been concentrating on trouble spots during the installation program. “We haven’t heard of any being re-hit and we’ve been doing it for about a year,” Reid said.
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