Postal addresses for sites on Interstate Highways

[index]

This isn't something people think about a lot, and sometimes it feels weird to think about how Interstates have addresses on them because of the nature of Interstates, but it makes sense to have them. It isn't actually weird. It just feels like it is. Anyways:

It seems like these can be done differently. For example, the address for Florida's I-95 Welcome Center is:

751829 I-95 7 Miles North of Yulee on I-95, South, Yulee, FL 32097

Perhaps it's worded like "7 Miles North of..." because they don't want to have an address that implies it's directly fronting the Interstate. That would feel weird and goes back to what I said at the start of the post.

While North Carolina's I-26 EB Welcome Center is:

6178 I-26, Mars Hill, NC 28754

No care to avoid an address directly mentioning an Interstate here.

While Virginia's on I-81 NB is given an address on a nearby road to avoid being addressed to an Interstate:

66 Island Rd, Bristol, VA 24201

Does anyone have any other examples of how this can be done? Any examples that make use of mile markers? Any rules for how this is done that anyone knows of?

Of course, some welcome centers, like I-26 WB in Tennessee are on a side road and not off of an Interstate ramp, so they wouldn't count for this post.

[mgk920]

I would think that this is somewhat common in Texas.

Mike

[epzik8]

I-95's two median service areas in Maryland (Maryland House and Chesapeake House) use "I-95 MM 82/97" as their addresses.

[PurdueBill]

The rest areas on I-70 in Greenfield, Indiana on I-70 have the street address in large letters (in FHWA typeface to boot) on the glass facing both the car and truck parking areas.  The westbound one is 5248 E I-70 while the eastbound one is 5247 E I-70.  It doubtless causes people to wonder if it is an error that the westbound one has E I-70 in the address, but it doesn't refer to the direction of I-70, rather it is the Hancock County grid, where it is east of the meridian (0E/W) by 5 and a quarter miles.  Street addresses on parallel east-west county roads are also in the 5200s in the same longitude and CR 525 E runs north-south just north of the rest areas.

[Dirt Roads]

All three of the travel plazas on the West Virginia Turnpike use the main address for the West Virginia Parkways Authority on George Street in Beckley.  They probably have someone internal that handles the courier duties from there.

[bulldog1979]

Mackinac Bridge Authority
N415 I-75
St. Ignace, Michigan 49781

Michigan State Police St. Ignace Post
N430 I-75
St. Ignace, MI 49781

Close, but not quite:
International Bridge Administration/Sault Ste. Marie Bridge Authority
934 Sault Ste Marie International Bridge
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
(Sault Ste Marie International Bridge is the street name for I-75 from exit 392 or the toll/customs plaza north to border.)

[Dough4872]

The service plazas along the Pennsylvania Turnpike use the address of nearby surface roads that employees can access the plaza from. For example, the mailing address of the King of Prussia Service Plaza is 381 West DeKalb Pike, King of Prussia, PA 19406

[MikeTheActuary]

For several years, my office in San Antonio had an address of "#### IH-10 West"

[jeffandnicole]

689 New Jersey Turnpike, Carneys Point, NJ 08069 is the address for the NJDOT Deepwater Maintenance Yard seen from 295 North between Exits 1B and 1C.

https://njpropertyrecords.com/property/1702_225_7

[CtrlAltDel]

The rest areas on I-70 in Greenfield, Indiana on I-70 have the street address in large letters (in FHWA typeface to boot) on the glass facing both the car and truck parking areas.

It's a bit off topic, but holy moly is there a lot of truck parking on the eastbound side:

[PurdueBill]

The rest areas on I-70 in Greenfield, Indiana on I-70 have the street address in large letters (in FHWA typeface to boot) on the glass facing both the car and truck parking areas.

The second, larger lot was added about 10 years ago while the "original" rest area opened about 2000, replacing a 60s vintage one nearby.  Westbound there is a double truck lot at the "new" Centerville rest area which reopened about 10 years ago, replacing the 60s original one--apparently about 10 years ago the need for more truck parking was realized (after the Greenfield one was built, just as Centerville was redone). The eastbound Centerville rest area was demolished and not replaced, with the Ohio welcome center not that far to the east.  (Since then, Ohio has done similar with their westbound rest area near the state line--demolished and not replaced).

It's a bit off topic, but holy moly is there a lot of truck parking on the eastbound side:

[kphoger]

Mexico just uses the kilometer-marker.  Toll booths and such even narrow it down to the nearest meter.

For example:  "Carr. Monterrey—Saltillo km 82+000" is a toll booth that's smack-dab on the kilometer-marker.

[KCRoadFan]

Many cities in Texas do this for addresses along freeway frontage roads, for example: #### N. IH 35 in Austin, or #### Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, or #### Katy Freeway in Houston...

And so on. You get the idea - some places actually give the frontage road their own name (like General Bruce Drive in Temple), but for the most part, the street names for most frontage roads in Texas are those of the freeways they parallel, with addresses along them being given as such.

[TEG24601]

In Washington, addresses on State Routes (including interstates) are based on the mile marker of the road, except for those whose primary name is something other than "SR-XX".  It just seems logical to me that a postal address on the Interstates, everywhere, should just be an address, on an Interstate.  Just because at Interstate Highway is limited access doesn't mean "no access", and it should just be addressed as normal, following whatever conventions are common.  To try to avoid addressing on the Interstate just seems silly and pointless to me.