County Highway - United States

United States

County highway shields are usually a yellow-on-blue pentagon (the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices 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 have 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 is no government at the county level. Alaska does not have counties; Louisiana's county equivalents are parishes, and, accordingly, have parish routes.

In Minnesota, some county roads are known as County state aid highways. These roads are constructed and maintained by counties, but they are 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 non-CSAH's in Dodge County utilize letters instead. A few roads that cross county borders are also signed with an "inter-county" designation and a letter, but this system is not 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 (i.e.: C, CC, or CCC). Wisconsin's county highways are frequently and clearly marked at most intersections. Because the county names are non-exclusive, the state has many county roads with similar or identical names. In states like Illinois, county highways are marked either with a number (usually 1 or 2 digits), a single letter followed by a 1 or 2 digit number (i.e.: V-34, A-29), or in Rock Island County, with letters like Wisconsin but on a blue pentagon shield. 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 Iowa, county roads are marked with a single letter and a two digit number, such as B-26. In New Jersey, there are two sets of county routes, the 500-series (500–599) part of a statewide system which usually run through multiple counties, but are county-maintained, and the non-500 routes which are usually contained within a single county and are repeated between different counties. The latter generally use numbers in the 600-series (600-699) with some counties having routes in the 700s (700-799) along with one route in the 800s. Two counties, Bergen and Monmouth, along with some routes in Ocean County, have routes outside this range with 1- or 2-digit numbers along with some numbers in the 100s. In New Jersey, county routes are usually signed just as well as state routes, including mile or half-mileposts, and appearances on freeway exit signage.