Labels

Monday, November 5, 2012

Understanding the county road numbering system...


Bates County rural roads have numbers instead of names. The reason, names on signs do not reveal the road's location or direction. The county numbering system does, with the last number indicating which part of the county the road is located and the road's basic overall direction. Think of the county as being in four sections, with Highway 71 and Highway 52 East being the junction point of these two dividers. As the below map shows, the numbers progress clockwise around the county. The number the road sign ends with, in addition with the two smaller letters [NW, NE, SE & SW], immediately identifies which sections of the county the road is located. Using these two major highways as a tool to help remember, odd numbered roads, such as Highway 71, will run north and south, while even numbered roads, such as Highway 52, will run east and west.

How about distances? Unlike names, the numbers will also indicate the approximate distance from the intersections of the roads named "Divide" and "Split" (Highway 71 and Highway 52 East). This junction is the beginning point of the county numbering system. The county signs will have a maximum of 5 numbers. The numbers indicating thousands will also be the equivalent of the whole miles. Though the county signs will not show the comma, if a decimal point were to be used in place of the comma, the approximate distance would be known. For example, the road number 7503 would be approximately 7.5 miles from the Divide.

Take, for example, the road in Bates County numbered 7003. From the above information the approximate location in the county can be quickly determined. The last number '3' means that the road is in the 3 - 4 quadrant - which is the north/east portion of the county, and the number is an odd number indicating the road runs north and south. The complete number will give us the approximate distance east of the road named 'Divide' [which also runs north and south]. The road number 7003 [with a decimal point in place of a comma] equals 7.003, or approximately 7.0 miles from the Divide.

No comments:

Post a Comment

.