Canberra road authorities are quietly experimenting with road signs that are impervious to the city's wayward drivers.
The capital's motorists are still destroying the road network's traffic signs faster than authorities can replace them, with the territory now paying about $1million a year for new or repaired signs.
But Roads ACT is planning a fightback and has quietly been working on a secret weapon, an ''unknockdownable'' road sign that will be resistant to even the capital's worst drivers.
The city's leadfoots, and the occasional vandal, accounted for more than 5000 roadside traffic signs last year, sending Roads ACT scrambling to keep up with the replacement jobs.
Two years after The Canberra Times first revealed the extent of the destruction, Territory and Municipal Services said that 5037 signs had been knocked over in the past financial year, a slight increase on 4959 in 2008-2009.
But Roads ACT director Tony Gill said his organisation was determined to find a better way.
For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
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