Road Identification and Addressing System

The Rural Reference and Addressing System was established in 1974 through a Federal Highway Safety Program grant. Addresses are referenced from the county base line which is the very south boundary of the county and the county meridian line which is the west boundary of the county. The origin of the reference system has the co-ordinates (N-0000, E-0000) and is located southwest of the county at then intersection of the westerly extension of the base line and the southerly extension of the meridian line.

The method of establishing the identification for straight line roads on section lines is made through the use of one or two digits in each road number depending on the distance from the county base line or the county meridian line. Thus a road on the first section line north of the county base line or east of the county meridian would contain the digit “1”, a road two miles distant the digit “2”, a road ten miles distant the digits “10” and so on. The letter preceding the digits identifies the direction from the county base line (“N” for roads running east and west) or from the county meridian line (“E” for roads running north and south). For example: N 21st Road is on the 21st section line north of the base line; and E 16th Road is on the 16th section line east of the county meridian line.

However, there are many roads that do not follow section lines. These roads are identified by their physical location relative to adjacent section lines. Identifying straight roads on ½ section lines or ¼ section lines is relatively simple. Roads on ½ section lines which connect ½ section corners are assigned “50” as the last two digits. Thus N 1850th Road is located eighteen and one-half miles north of the county base line. Roads on ¼ section lines are assigned “25 or 75” for the last two digits and other roads to the nearest tenth mile.

Roads that deviate from the ¼ section, ½ section and section lines must be given special consideration so that their designation is relative to the general location assigned to the regular road. Roads that fall in this category are roads with jogs, diagonal roads, dead-end roads and roads terminating with a cul-de-sac.

Jogs that are relatively short will not alter the designation assigned to the road. If however two legs of the jog are fairly close to being equivalent in length, then each will have its number based on its distance from the base line or the meridian line.

Diagonal roads are identified by either a “1” or “3” as the final digit. Roads running in a predominantly northeast-southwest direction are assigned the digit “1” and those running northwest-southeast are assigned the digit “3”. Roads aligned in a more northerly-southerly direction than easterly-westerly will have the letter designation “E”. Conversely roads aligned in a more easterly-westerly direction than northerly-southerly will have the letter designation “N”. When a road runs essentially on a perfect diagonal then it will be assigned “N” as its letter designation. The number assigned to the road would be its average distance in miles from the meridian or the base line followed by the digit one or three.

Dead-end and cul-de-sac roads are identified by the co-ordinate location of the connection with a public road and are assigned the number “9” as the final digit. A dead-end road extending from an incorporated area will bear the identity of the point where it becomes a rural road.

This system of road identification provides a method of assigning a house number to every house in the rural area without any duplication of numbers. A house number is a combination of the distance the entrance is from the reference axis (either the county base or county meridian line) and the road number. For example, a house located on an east-west road identified as N 22nd Road a distance of twenty-seven and one-quarter miles east of the county meridian would be addressed as follows: 2725 N 22nd Road. To further identify the location of the house and to provide enough latitude in the numbering system to number every 100 foot lot we have assigned odd numbers to dwellings on the north and west side of the roads, and even numbers to those on the south and east side of the roads.