The Obama administration recently gave a break to local governments in Sonoma County and elsewhere in the nation by moving to drop a deadline for new street signs.

The action was welcomed by Santa Rosa’s traffic engineer, Robert Sprinkle, who said it will save the city a lot of money.

According to the Washington Post, the Transportation Department gave notice of its proposal to drop its requirement for larger lettering and high-quality night reflection on all street signs by 2018. Now, the department said it wants the bigger, brighter signs installed whenever old ones are replaced.

“A specific deadline for replacing street signs makes no sense and would have cost communities across America millions of dollars in unnecessary expenses,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, the Post reported.

Sprinkle estimated tens of thousands of signs in Santa Rosa would have been affected by the mandate. He said it makes more sense to replace certain signs that are more critical for drivers, such as stop signs rather than no parking signs.

Tom O’Kane, deputy director of the Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works Department, said his agency is responsible for about 18,000 traffic signs, such as speed limit signs, and about 18,000 street signs.

He said the county started “using the higher-grade reflective materials some time ago in anticipation of the change in the standards. When new and replacement signs are fabricated, the high-grade material is generally used.”