Little Green Signs Just What the Heck Are

Little Green Signs Just What the Heck Are These?

Highway Reference Markers May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 2

Highway Reference Markers Actually, this is a quite complicated program initiated by NYS DOT. These signs are placed approximately 1/10 of a mile apart on all State, US and Interstate highways in New York State. County and Regional maps of these markers hopefully are available from the DOT. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 3

Highway Reference Markers At 2 a. m. in the middle of February in a snow bank, its very hard for a shaken up driver that has never been anywhere near here before to tell your dispatcher where he is. This reference marker will identify, within some degree of accuracy, where the caller is located. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 4

Highway Reference Markers Each row of numbers obviously mean something. Without getting really, really technical and confusing, I’ll attempt to explain… May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 5

Highway Reference Markers The top row is the highway or route designation. In some cases, this number will be followed by a letter. Interstate highways are identified with an “I”. It may often be misread as a one. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 6

Highway Reference Markers The middle row has four numeric spaces. The first digit is the NYSDOT Region, one of eleven. Region ten is signified by the numeral 0 and region eleven is signified by the letter X. The second digit is the county code. The counties are alphabetized within its region and assigned numbers according to the list. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 7

Highway Reference Markers Row 2 digit 3 and 4 give the county order number. This may be construed to be the number of counties that the route has passed through since entering the state. 8

Highway Reference Markers The bottom row… Digit 1 is the control segment number. This is the division of a route within a county and increases by one when crossing a city line. The last 3 digits of the bottom row are sequencing numbers, or distances from the beginning of a control segment. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 9

Highway Reference Markers The bottom row is generally where the confusion comes in. For the sake of argument, lets just consider these to be 1/10 mile apart. A complete explanation can be found at: http: //www. empirestateroads. com/rm/2. html May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 10

OK, so now what? Now that you have this knowledge, what are you going to do with it? It really isn’t necessary to remember much of this previous information. It was just to make you aware of how the numbers came together. Understand though, each number, each sign is unique within the entire state. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 11

OK, so now what? We have found that using this system is quite helpful and generally easy to use… After it is set up! You will need a complete listing of State, US and Interstate routes within your jurisdiction. And the reference markers on them. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 12

OK, so now what? Space out your tasks. Look at each roadway individually. Even then it may be beneficial to break those routes even more, into smaller segments. Regardless of how you attack the solution, everything is somewhat redundant for each route and each segment. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 13

OK, so now what? Initially, I laid out an Excel spreadsheet for the entire project. This is about as simple as I could make it… But I know what I mean and may have some trouble making it clear to you… If you have questions…Ask! May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 14

May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 15

OK, so now what? Column A is the route number, Row 1. Column B is Row 2 & 3 jammed together, creating one, eight-digit number. This will make better sense later on. Column C is the township, and Column E is the “corrected” mile marker. On I-81, we use mile markers in tenths, like 6250 for the 62 ½. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 16

OK, so now what? The Interstate is easy… Given tenths of a mile… Reference markers every tenth of a mile… Not too tough to figure out! Each marker is the last marker plus 10 (as in 6260 from 6250). May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 17

Ciphering Not being an exact representation, this is a mathematical solution. You need to know where you are before you figure how to get to where you’re going… To begin the calculation, you have to have a known point… Actually two – beginning and end. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 18

May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 19

Ciphering Start your calculation by subtracting the low number from the high number. Divide that result by the number of reference markers in that range. If you get 260 and have 10 markers, each marker is worth 26 house numbers. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 20

Ciphering Using the low-end house number, add the result, 26, to it for the next reference number. The formula for D 13 would be something like D 12+26 and give you the resulting number. Copy that formula to each cell up to and including the high house number for the range. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 21

Ciphering This is not an exact representation but it should be close enough that a unit going to that area should be able to see the caller or the scene. Your GIS department should be able to create a map layer of all of these reference points for you. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 22

Finding a Location Ok, now that I’ve done all of this work, how do I find a location? In the slides, you noted the route number tabs across the bottom… Select the route that you are wishing to search… Use the ‘find’ feature in Excel. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 23

Finding a Location This is initiated by clicking the ‘find’ icon or using (Ctrl+F). In the search window, enter the 8 -digit number from Rows 2 & 3 from before. Such as 32041013 and enter… In our second slide, this finds the place to be 460 Rt 13. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 24

May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 25

Finding a Location Considering the number used, 32041013, how far might this be from the county line? In this case, it should be approximately 1. 3 miles into your county. The last two or three digits of the bottom line, 1013, indicate 13 markers or 1. 3 miles. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 26

Finding a Location On the Interstate and other divided highways, the markers are placed every 1/10 th of a mile and on each side of the roadway simultaneously. In other words, you will see every sign going in one direction. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 27

Finding a Location On non-divided highways, the markers are still every 1/10 th of a mile, But staggered on opposite sides of the roadway, alternating direction from sign to sign. You will still see the sign, it just may be facing the opposite direction. One on the north bound, one on the south bound…east bound – west bound. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 28

More Information… New York State GIS Clearinghouse is http: //www. nysgis. state. ny. us/ NYS Reference Marker System – Not a State Site http: //www. empirestateroads. com/rm/2. html And try https: //www. nysdot. gov/portal/page/portal/abo ut-nysdot/faq/small-green-signs-mean May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 29

More Information… Here is the site for NYS-DOT Regional information… https: //www. nysdot. gov/portal/page/port al/regional-offices Across the top of the page are dropdown menus…one is Regional Offices May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 30

More Information… Don’t worry about copying down these addresses… This entire presentation will be emailed to the group. May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 31

Questions? May 13, 2008 NY Statewide 9 -1 -1 Coordinators Nick Wagner, Cortland County 32