Presented during the 2022 North Dakota Geospatial Summit in Bismarck, ND, September 14-15.

1. NDDOT
ROADWAY
DATA
FROM
PAST TO
PRESENT-
A TALE OF INNOVATION IN ROADWAY
DATA COLLECTION
Steve Nelson, Jerame Novak and Stephanie Weiand
NDDOT Planning and Asset Management

2. ▪ 106,530 miles of roadway
▪ Update and maintains road centerlines.
▪ Track attribute information.
▪ Comply with Federal and State regulations
▪ Provides maps for the public.
▪ Utilize Roads and Highways extension and ArcMap.
NORTH DAKOTA’S ROAD SYSTEM

3. Why does the NDDOT collect roadway data?
Where are the roads?
How do we collect data?
How is the data displayed?
How is the data used by the NDDOT?
How can you use the data?

4. WHY DOES THE NDDOT COLLECT
ROADWAY DATA?

5. FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS
• Federal Aid Highway Program
• Why fund states?
• Yearly HMPS Submittal - HPMS Data Collection Field Manual (dot.gov)
• HMPS data – extent, use, condition and performance of public road
systems.
• MIRE
• LRS Data
• ARNOLD

6. STATE REQUIREMENTS
• 24-01-02 – Designation of state highway system
• 24-01.03.1 – Highway Performance Classification Plan
• 24-01.07 –Maps of state, county and municipal systems.
• 24-03-21 – Preparation of Road maps – Publication of tourist information.

7. 24-01-02 – Designation of state highway system

8. 24-01.03.1 – Highway Performance Classification Plan

9. 24-01.07 –Maps of state, county and municipal systems.

10. 24-03-21 – Preparation of Road maps – Publication of tourist information.

11. FUNDING
NDDOT-By-the-Numbers.pdf

13. WHERE ARE THE ROADS?

14. PLSS
SYSTEM

17. ▪ 6 X 6 Miles
▪ Subdivided into 36
sections
▪ Sections are 1 x 1 Mile
TOWNSHIPS

18. ▪ Sections are divided even
further
▪ Corrections
▪ Century Code 24-07-03
SECTIONS

19. ROAD CLASSIFICATIONS
▪ Federal Highway Road Classification System
▪ Federal Aid is based on this system.

20. INTERSTATE

22. ARTERIAL

23. COLLECTOR

24. LOCAL AND COUNTY

25. Functional Class Map
for Burleigh County

26. Functional
Class Map
Grand Forks

27. ROAD
CENTERLINES
▪ What is a centerline?
▪ Routes and how they
are used in our LRS
▪ Single versus dual
carriageway?

29. H o w D o W e C o l l e c t O u r D a t a ?
( N o t T h i s Wa y )

30. Maps showing centerlines and other features have been
collected since the 1930’s

31. Up until 1955,
counties were
inventoried on a
15-year cycle.

32. NELSON 1936 & 1946

33. AERIAL
INVENTORY
• 1955 Test of 1 Township
• 2-person crew 3 days
• Plane took 1.5 hours

34. WHY AERIAL
INVENTORY?
• Cost per mile much cheaper
• Cover much more territory
• It was found aerial inventory
methods produced better
inventory data in much less
time than any other inventory
method

35. WHY HAVE A
GROUND CREW?
• Map congested areas – city streets
• Meet with City Officials
• Quality Control check

36. AERIAL INVENORTY
METHOD
• Fly 500 – 800 feet above ground
• Would fly one direction at a time
• Flew this way until 1977

37. AERIAL INVENTORY
METHOD - REVISED
• To save time and plane time,
elevation above ground raised to
1200 – 1500
• Would fly one direction (south
for example) and inventory 1-
mile east
• This saved about 40% in plane
time
• This method was used until 2006

38. DATA SOURCES
• Federal Sources
• FHWA federal road data
• USDA NAIP aerial imagery
• Data from any Federal division that owns or maintains
roadways (Department of Interior, U.S. Forest Service, etc.).
• State Sources
• NDDES E911 data
• NDDOT Pathweb data/imagery
• Other NDDOT departments
• County Sources
• County GIS data
• County parcel data
• Construction plans
• County road superintendentssupervisors
• Other documentation from county engineers and/or planners
• City/Local Sources
• City GIS data
• City parcel data
• City plats
• Subdivision plats
• Construction plans
• Other documentation from city engineers and/or planners
• Other Sources
• Google map imagery
• Google street view imagery
• Feedback from external parties (public input, property owner,
government official, etc.)
• Visual Inspection – driving roads

39. STATE
HIGHWAYS
• Needed to be tracked closely
• Maintenance Districts needed
to know which roads to
maintain
• State Century code dictates
amount of mileage

40. TRACKING
STATE
HIGHWAYS
• Highway Control Sections were
kept in a book
• It would describe the section
• It would record the mileage
• Mileage was maintained this
way until the early 70’s

41. TRACKING STATE
HIGHWAYS
• Starting in the early 70’s State
Highways were tracked by Common
Data Referencing System (CDRS) Map
• It shows begin and end reference
points
• It also shows reference points at
intersections
• This map is still produced today –
Route and Mileage Map

43. H o w D o W e D i s p l a y O u r D a t a ?

44. MEDIA TYPES
• Linen was used in the 1930’s and 1940’s
• Clear foil like K&E Stabline film in 1950’s
and 1960’s
• Negative emulsion film for scribing in the
1970’s – 1990’s

45. REGISTERING
DATA
• This process began in the 1950’s as is the basis for our
data today
• All pins represent section corners or some sort of
horizontal control that came off aerial photos or plotted
points
• Aerial photos were supplied to DOT from Department of
Agriculture

46. TRANSITION TO DIGITAL
• Mid 1990’s began GIS talk
• Company from Colorado was
hired to digitize all County Base
Map data
• Arc Info tile data
• Several years of Base Map Data
were created.
• Base Map Data CD ended when
NDHUB began housing data

47. CENTERLINE EDITING
• Arc Info Workstation first
editing software
• Non-State Highways or as
referenced of the NDHUB,
Roads County were
maintained separately from
State Highways
• Original centerlines
contained 34 fields
• 2010 county tiles were
imported into 1 SDE layer
• 2016 all roads were
incorporated into 1 LRS
• Many years have been
spent aligning centerlines

48. STATE HIGHWAY
CENTERLINE
EDITING
• Mid 1990’s, needed to track State Highway projects and assets
• RIMS was implemented
• RIMS is based a reference point table which tells the distance
between reference points
• LRS was created and is still maintained today
• Edited by Arc Info Workstation and ArcMap editing and GP tools

50. HOW IS THE DATA USED
BY THE NDDOT?

51. ▪ Centerline is the
backbone of our data
▪ One line, many uses
IT STARTS WITH A
SINGLE LINE

52. ▪ Using aerial imagery,
centerlines are drawn
first.
▪ East to West
▪ South to North
LINES, MEASURES,
AND THE LRS

53. ▪ Centerlines entered into
Linear Reference System
(LRS) as Routes
▪ Each route has a
beginning and end
measure
▪ Many measure points in
between.
LINES, MEASURES,
AND THE LRS
Start Measure
0.0000
End Measure
0.5000
Measures
0.0000 to
0.5000

54. ▪ Routes then act as
anchors to other lines and
points.
▪ Multiple datasets can be
attached to one route
LINES, MEASURES,
AND THE LRS
Route 003
Route 002
Route 001

55. ▪ Routes then act as
anchors to other lines and
points.
▪ Multiple segments can be
attached to one route
LINES, MEASURES,
AND THE LRS
Route 003
Municipal Ownership
0.0 to 0.5
Route 002
Municipal Ownership
11.2158 to 12.025
Route 002
County Ownership
12.025 to 12.254
Route 001
State Ownership
0.00 to 50.687

56. ▪ One route can be
associated to multiple
events
▪ LRS segments can be
edited with the actual
route remaining intact.
LINES, MEASURES,
AND THE LRS
Speed Limit 65
Speed Limit 25
Speed Limit 45
Municipal
Municipal
County
State
Intersection
Intersection

57. ▪ Segments are tied to the
route.
▪ If a route is edited, the
segment measurements
are recalculated so the
segment doesn’t move
IT’S ALL
CONNECTED
Measure 0.0
Measure 0.3
Segment 1
0.0 to 0.175
Segment 2
0.175 to 0.3
New Addition
(0.1)

58. ▪ Segments are tied to the
route.
▪ If a route is edited, the
segment measurements
are recalculated so the
segment doesn’t move
▪ New segments are
manually added
IT’S ALL
CONNECTED
Measure 0.1
Measure 0.0
Measure 0.4
Segment 1
0.1 to 0.275
Segment 2
0.375 to 0.4
New Segment
0.0 to 0.1

59. REPORTING
HPMS
▪ Highway Performance
Monitoring System
▪ Data sent to Federal
Highway and dispersed to
other Federal agencies
▪ Over 70 roadway
characteristics
MIRE
▪ Model Inventory of Roadway
Elements
▪ Similar to HPMS – data is
sent to federal highway
▪ Collects attributes related to
safety, centerlines, and
intersections.
▪ Over 200 data items used.

60. REPORTING
Certified Mileage
▪ Annual report for Federal
Highway
▪ Total miles of drivable
public roads (not trails) in
the state
▪ Over 88,000 certified miles
Transportation Handbook
▪ Annual publication about the
NDDOT
▪ Data stored in our LRS
systems is used throuought
the handbook
▪ Found on the NDDOT
website

61. State Highway Miles
▪ Number of highway miles
that are “State Highways”
▪ Required in ND century
code
▪ Cannot exceed 7% of
total milage and cannot
exceed 7,700 miles
REPORTING

62. MAPS
▪ NDDOT uses roadway
data for a number of
maps
▪ Basemaps
▪ Highway Maps
▪ Special request maps
for grants and reports

64. HOW CAN YOU USE THE DATA?

65. ▪ First published in 1924
▪ Digital since 2004
▪ Separate GDB
▪ Compared to official
roadway data
▪ Print and electronic
copies available
ND HIGHWAY MAP

66. ▪ NDDOT maintains over
300 basemaps
▪ All counties
▪ All incorporated cities
▪ Functional classification
overlay
BASEMAPS

67. ▪ NDDOT maintains over
300 basemaps
▪ All counties
▪ All incorporated cities
▪ Functional classification
overlay
BASEMAPS

68. ▪ Visualize data collected in
the field
▪ Used for daily and annual
traffic reporting
TRAFFIC MAPS

69. ▪ State base map
▪ Rail maps
▪ Highway Systems
▪ And more!
OTHER MAPS

70. ▪ Raw data is available for
download from NDDOT
website
▪ dot.nd.gov
DOWNLOADABLE
DATA

71. ▪ A variety of roadway and
other NDDOT data is
available for download on
the ND GIS Hub
▪ Just search “NDDOT”
DOWNLOADABLE
DATA

73. QUESTIONS?