The Peoria City Council will spend up to $680,000 on 72 new downtown wayfinding signs.
They're aimed at helping people locate landmarks and navigate the downtown area.
The city council approved a contract with Color-Ad to provide the signage. It required amending the budget Tuesday night to allocate additional money toward the signs because of inflation-related cost increases.
"The initial bid amount, meaning that's why we're doing this budget amendment, we were at 500-some thousand. And in those two short years, materials have just skyrocketed," said Public Works director Rick Powers.
Powers also noted installing the signs is tricky due to the number of underground utilities in the downtown area. There are 11 types of signs. Powers said the signs are interactive.
"These are kiosks," he said. "And there's going to be a QR code, where you can scan this code. And this database will be updated regularly. We just have to figure out by whom."
Two prototype signs were installed and unveiled earlier this year. The rest of the signs could be installed by the end of the year.
