County Maintained Road System

This webpage is devoted to historical documents of the County Maintained Road System. The County Maintained Road System includes all of the roads in the County that are maintained by the Department of Public Works. Roads not listed in most current version of the road log are maintained by either State of California (Caltrans), Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Forest Service, an incorporated City (Arcata, Blue Lake, Eureka, Ferndale, Fortuna, Rio Dell, Trinidad), a Tribe, or are privately maintained pursuant to Civil Code 845.

Documents on this webpage fall into four (4) categories:

1. Road Numbering System: In 1968 the current road numbering system was established. Documents establishing and explaining the current road numbering system can be found here.  Information concerning the prior road numbering system is not available. 
2. Road Logs: Scans were made of the various road logs that have been found in the Department of Public Works files.  It does not appear that road logs were published for every year.  The scans have been made from the best available copy. Some scans may be difficult to read because the original document is difficult to read. The road logs are listed in chronological order from oldest to newest. This is assumed to be the entire collection of road logs that the Department currently maintains.
   
   While a road may be listed in the road log, it is important to look at the mileage in the maintained mileage column to see how much of the road is maintained by the County.  Many roads that are listed in old road logs have a zero entered in the maintained mileage column.  These roads are not part of the county maintained road system and are not maintained by the County. Many of these roads have a 4 digit road number that does not follow the 1968 road numbering system. 
3. Road Maps:  Scans have been made of the various California Road System Maps that have been found in the Department of Public Works files. Maps are known to have errors. The Department does not maintain a list of known errors. The maps have not been added to this webpage as of this date. Contact 707.445.7205 for the road maps.
4. Board of Supervisors Agenda Items:  The County maintained road mileage is affected by actions of the Board of Supervisors to add or remove roads from the road system.  Scans were made of the various documents found in the Department of Public Works files. The scans have been made from the best available copy. Some scans may be difficult to read because the original document is difficult to read. The agenda items have not been added to this webpage as of this date. Contact 707.445.7205 for agenda items. 

COUNTY GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) ROADS LAYER

The County GIS contains a road layer. For those wanting to download the roads layer, the shape file can be downloaded here: https://humboldtgov.org/276/GIS-Data-Download.  The road layer was not prepared by Public Works and has not been audited by Public Works for accuracy. The following is a discussion of the types of known issues with the roads layer in the County GIS:

1. There are instances were a county maintained road continues on as a non-county maintained road. The GIS is not accurate in creating a break in the road and designating which portions of the road are county maintained -vs- not county maintained. Example:  Shadowbrook Street (3H241) is county maintained for 0.07 mile; the GIS has the entire length of Shadowbrook Street coded with 3H241 for the State Road Number field.
2. There are instances where there are roads located in different geographic areas of the county that have the same road name but are assigned the same road number in the State Road Number field.  Example:  Central Avenue in Fields Landing has the State Road Number field coded with the road number for Central Avenue in McKinleyville (A4L800) instead of 3J730.
3. Non-County maintained roads having the State Road Number field coded with a County road number.
4. County maintained roads not having the State Road Number field coded with a County road number. 

Clicking on a road segment in the GIS will display the attributes for that road segment, which includes the State Road Number.  When a State Road Number that matches the format of a County Maintained Road number, then the road is potentially County Maintained. In the screen shot below, the State Road Number is 4L937. That is the County Road Number for Nursery Way. See the 2020/06/09 Road Numbering System Memo (below) for explanation on the format of the County Road Numbering System. 

above: screenshot from the County GIS showing the attribute table for a road segment; with emphasis on the State Road Number field.

A simple way to determine if a road is county maintained is to look for the yellow HUMCO sticker on a street name sign. This is 99% accurate. 

above: image of a street name sign showing the yellow HUMCO tab indicating that the road is County maintained.

New street name signs have the county logo on the left side of the sign in lieu of the yellow sticker.

above: image of a street name sign showing the County seal indicating that the road is County Maintained.

Caltrans is responsible for producing and publishing the California Road System Maps. Prior versions of these maps were better in identifying which roads are County maintained. The County's 1993 road maps are one of the best sources of maps available.

If you are not sure if a particular portion of a road is county maintained, you can email the Encroachment Permit Office with a google pin. Staff can research and report back to you.