GCU installs new message board on freeway

By Rick Vacek

GCU News Bureau

Things to know about Grand Canyon University’s new electronic message board on Interstate 17 just east of the 27th Avenue office building:

  • It’s 72 feet tall. The message boards are 48 feet wide and 17 feet high.

GCU's new billboard greets commuters along Interstate 17. (Photo by Darryl Webb)
GCU's new billboard greets commuters along Interstate 17. (Photo by Darryl Webb)
  • Based on traffic flow, the north-facing board averages 740,000 impressions per week, the south-facing board 542,000. Each side has 820 square feet of space and 168,960 light-emitting diodes.
  • It took only eight weeks to construct and erect it.
  • The message changes every 10 seconds.
  • The concrete base is 11 feet in diameter and plunges 28 feet below the ground.
  • The GCU crest in the middle is 10 feet in diameter.
  • The boards run at 80 percent of full luminosity from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and at three percent overnight.
  • The vendor for the boards is YESCO (Young Electric Sign Company), which also created the signs at Tempe Marketplace, Talking Stick Resort and Legends Entertainment District, among others.

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GCU Magazine

ViewCurrent February 2026

Bible Verse

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life!" (Matthew 20:17-19)

To Read More: www.verseoftheday.com/