Everything about County Highway totally explained
A
county highway (also
county road or
county route; usually abbreviated
CH or
CR) is a road in the
United States and in the Canadian province of
Ontario that's designated and/or maintained by the
county highway department. Route numbering can be determined by each county alone, by mutual agreement among counties, or by a statewide pattern. County highway shields are usually a yellow-on-blue pentagon (the
MUTCD standard pattern), a black-on-white rectangle, or black text on a white rectangle (largely older signs). The majority of states have county highways, as they've
unincorporated areas that are not part of any
municipality. Some states, like
Virginia and
North Carolina, have no county highways in most of their counties; the state government maintains all roads in unincorporated areas. Others, like
Connecticut, have no county routes because there's no government at the county level.
Alaska doesn't have counties;
Louisiana's county equivalents are
parishes, and, accordingly, have parish routes.
In addition, any county-maintained road, whether or not it's given a signed number, can be called a county road. Depending on the state and county, these roads can be named after local geographic features, communities, or people and/or be assigned a name determined be a standardized
grid reference; for example: “East 2000 Road” would be a north-south road running 20 blocks/miles/km east of the designated zero point. Many other systems are also used; some counties rather arbitrarily assign numbers to all maintained roads, but don't sign them at all or only sign them on standard street sign blades.
County roads and highways vary greatly in design standards, funding and regularity of maintenance. Some county highways in urban areas are
freeways or
expressways. County roads that link communities or serve residential areas are often indistinguishable from state highways or residential streets. In rural areas, many county roads carry very little traffic; these roads are maintained less frequently. They may be in poor condition (if they're paved) or not paved at all. In remote areas, county roads are made of sand, gravel, or graded earth, seeing only occasional foot, equestrian, and
four wheel drive traffic. Some states, such as Wisconsin, use county highways in great numbers, linking major highways and cities or towns to each other.
In
Minnesota, some county roads are known as
County state-aid highways. These roads are constructed and maintained by counties, but they're eligible for funding from the County State Aid Highway Fund. Differences in signage between CSAH routes and other county roads depends on the county. Some counties, such as Stearns County, delineate between the two by using the "standard" blue pentagon shield for CSAH routes and Minnesota's normal white square shield for other county routes. Most county roads in Minnesota are designated with numbers, although a few in Dodge County utilize letters instead. It should be noted that the "County Road B, County Road C, etc etc" system used in
Ramsey County isn't a route system, but instead is Ramsey County's way of naming east-west section roads north of the St. Paul city limits. A few roads that cross county borders are also signed with an "Intercounty" designation and a letter, but this system isn't shown on most maps.
In the United States, county highways are denoted in various ways, differing by state. In states like
Wisconsin, county highways are marked with letters--in Wisconsin with 1 to 3 letter combinations (ie: C, CC, or CCC). Wisconsin's county highways are frequently and clearly marked at most intersections. In states like
Illinois, county highways are marked either with a number (usually 1 or 2 digits) or with a single letter followed by a 1 or 2 digit number (ie: V-34, A-29). These highways are usually marked at the beginning of the highway and marked occasionally throughout the route, but are not majorly relied on as geographic directions the way more major highways (state or federal and interstate) are. In
New Jersey, there are two sets of county routes, the 500-series (500-599) which usually run through multiple counties, but are county-maintained, and the 600-series (600-799) which are usually contained within a single county. In New Jersey, county routes are usually signed just as well as state routes, including mile or half-mileposts, and appearances on BGS's (Big Green Signs) on freeways.
Canada
» See also: List of Ontario County Numbered Roads.
In
Canada, numbered county roads are only found in
Ontario, where they're similar to American county highways. Ontario county or regional roads are marked with trapezoid-shaped signs, usually (but not necessarily) with a white, green, or blue background, and normally identifying the county or region responsible for the road's maintenance, sometimes with the jurisdiction's
coat of arms or
corporate logo. The county road network has been present for many years, but has only been signed with the flowerpot logos since the
1970s and early
1980s (depending on the area). Previously, the roads simply had road names, such as "Essex Road 42" or "Kent County Road 14", and so on, but had no shields to designate them. Many Ontario county roads are built to
provincial highway standards, as thousands of kilometres of highways were downloaded from the province to counties and
regional municipalities in 1997 and 1998, and most of the downloaded highways were rolled into the county road systems. In some situations, these in turn were downloaded from the region/county to the local municipalities. See:
List of Ontario County Numbered Roads.
Not all jurisdictions in Ontario which maintain a county road system use the name "County Road" to designate them, however — depending on the type of
census division which maintains them, they may also be designated as
Regional Road,
Municipal Road,
Regional/County Highway or
City Road. In the unincorporated
districts of
Northern Ontario, as there's no county level of government the province maintains a
secondary highway system to serve the same function.
In addition to county roads, many townships also have
concession roads and township roads, such as
Colchester South Road 3, and Concession 8. These don't have shields (only names on signs and maps), aside from one exception: former
Highway 620. It was downloaded to the
Peterborough and
Hastings County governments, and in one section, the highway was downloaded further to the township of
Wollaston, and is now signed as "Wollaston Township 620", with a municipal sign similar to an
Ontario Tertiary Highway.
(External Link
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Image:York Regional Road 8.svg|County/Regional roads in Ontario are styled by this basic "Flowerpot" design. This shield is of York Regional Road 8.
Image:NiagaraRR.png|Niagara Regional Road 20 shield. While Niagara generally conforms to the standard Ontario "flowerpot" design, the shields are white-on-blue rather than the more traditional black-on-white and have rounded corners.
Image:Essex_County_Road_22.png|Essex County Road 22 Shield, a typical county road shield in Essex County, Ontario.
Further Information
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