Madison, WI Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

045(3)(j), Signs on Bridges and Overpasses, prohibits displaying, placing, erecting, posting, maintaining, installing, affixing, or carrying any sign -- explicitly including hand-carried signs -- on any portion of a vehicular or pedestrian bridge or overpass that passes over a freeway or expressway as defined in Wis. 57, or a controlled access highway as defined in Wis. 01, whenever that highway carries a speed limit of more than 40 miles per hour. The ban applies regardless of whether the highway is under federal, state, or local jurisdiction, and reaches any sign visible from the highway below.

The only carve-out is for official traffic control devices as defined in Wis. 01(38) that are lawfully authorized and erected by the agency with jurisdiction over the highway or right-of-way. 045(3)(b)-(c) and Wis. ch. 86, making clear the overpass ban doesn't narrow those broader restrictions. The rule sits within the Unsafe and Unlawful Signs and Structures section of Chapter 31, the City's stand-alone Sign Control Ordinance, and is enforced by the Zoning Administrator, whose office administers sign permitting and removal citywide.