Minnesota county route discussion

[TheHighwayMan3561]

It's been expressed by a few of us to itemize which counties use square shields and which use the blue pentagons (or both), so I thought I'd get it going for us finally. Note that MnDOT installs can often differ from the county practice.

St. Louis County has adopted the pentagon for many uses in the last couple years.

Aitkin: square
Anoka: pentagon
Becker: square
Beltrami: both
Benton: pentagon
Big Stone:
Blue Earth: pentagon
Brown:
Carlton: square
Carver: square
Cass: square
Chippewa:
Chisago: pentagon
Clay: square
Clearwater: both
Cook: transitioned to pentagon, some squares remain
Cottonwood:
Crow Wing: square
Dakota: both
Dodge:
Douglas: pentagon/both
Faribault: both
Fillmore:
Freeborn:
Goodhue:
Grant:
Hennepin: pentagon
Houston: square
Hubbard:
Isanti: both
Itasca: square
Jackson: pentagon
Kanabec: square
Kandiyohi:
Kittson:
Koochiching: square
Lac qui Parle:
Lake: square
Lake of the Woods: square
Le Sueur: square
Lincoln:
Lyon:
McLeod:
Mahnomen:
Marshall:
Martin: square
Meeker:
Mille Lacs: square
Morrison: both
Mower: pentagon
Murray:
Nicollet:
Nobles:
Norman:
Olmsted: square
Otter Tail: square
Pennington:
Pine: square
Pipestone:
Polk:
Pope:
Ramsey: pentagon
Red Lake:
Redwood:
Renville:
Rice:
Rock:
Roseau: I know I got a photo of one damned ugly pentagon, at least
St. Louis: both
Scott: pentagon
Sherburne: square
Sibley:
Stearns: both
Steele:
Stevens:
Swift:
Todd:
Traverse:
Wabasha: square
Wadena:
Waseca:
Washington: pentagon
Watonwan:
Wilkin: pentagon
Winona: square
Wright: pentagon, but possibly both - the recently commissioned CR 137 is squares
Yellow Medicine:

[MNHighwayMan]

St. Louis County appears to be in a swift transition from squares to pentagons.

You sure about that? I mean, you'd almost certainly know better than me, but with the hundreds of numbered county routes in the county, that seems really unlikely.

Further info I can add, from reviewing my archive of county route pictures:

Beltrami, Clearwater, Faribault use both.
Becker, Le Sueur, Martin use squares.
Jackson uses pentagons.
Morrison definitely uses both, not just pentagons.

And from the county route signs in my collection, I can also confirm that Renville and Norman also use (or at least, used to use) both.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

St. Louis County appears to be in a swift transition from squares to pentagons.

You sure about that? I mean, you'd almost certainly know better than me, but with the hundreds of numbered county routes in the county, that seems really unlikely.

I was surprised as well by my day trip yesterday how many pentagons I saw. The minor routes are still squares, much like in Cook County, but the major routes have been largely changed.

[MNHighwayMan]

From the last time I spent a couple days driving around in St. Louis County (July 2017), I would agree that major routes used pentagons, and minor routes were squares. I just have a hard time believing that the county is going to transition all the minor routes to pentagons, given the increased cost that has to have (and maybe also the difficulty of fitting three digits into the pentagon!)

[TheHighwayMan3561]

From the last time I spent a couple days driving around in St. Louis County (July 2017), I would agree that major routes used pentagons, and minor routes were squares. I just have a hard time believing that the county is going to transition all the minor routes to pentagons, given the increased cost that has to have (and maybe also the difficulty of fitting three digits into the pentagon!)

I did see a CR 100 pentagon yesterday, and it was a smushed fit.

Anyway I changed it to "both"  since I made it more unclear then I intended.

[kphoger]

Holy cow, this is an undertaking!  At least you're not attempting to explain what pentagons mean and what white squares mean in each of the counties that use both, because that would be monumental.

[MNHighwayMan]

Holy cow, this is an undertaking!  At least you're not attempting to explain what pentagons mean and what white squares mean in each of the counties that use both, because that would be monumental.

At least in Isanti and Stearns counties, the difference is that pentagons signal county state aid routes (county routes that receive additional funds from the state) versus squares on normal county highways (only funded from county money.) I say "at least," because there might be other reasons in other places.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Holy cow, this is an undertaking!  At least you're not attempting to explain what pentagons mean and what white squares mean in each of the counties that use both, because that would be monumental.

I'll let froggie handle that one.

[Milepost61]

Fillmore: Pentagon
Houston: Square
Olmstead: Square
Wabasha: Square
Winona: Square

[DandyDan]

The rural southern portion of Dakota County has several square shields. I also know I've seen County 4 in WSP and SSP with squares.

Rice County uses squares with a font for the numbers I haven't seen any other county use.
Steele County has squares.
Nobles County has both, but pentagons are for CSAH routes.
Rock County has squares which seem like half the size of any other county with squares.

[kphoger]

Holy cow, this is an undertaking!  At least you're not attempting to explain what pentagons mean and what white squares mean in each of the counties that use both, because that would be monumental.

At least in Isanti and Stearns counties, the difference is that pentagons signal county state aid routes (county routes that receive additional funds from the state) versus squares on normal county highways (only funded from county money.) I say "at least," because there might be other reasons in other places.

Certainly.  I've seen counties that use squares for JCT assemblies but pentagons for reassurance markers, for example.

[FightingIrish]

Having gone to Mankato State, I'm pretty sure Blue Earth uses pentagons.

[DJ Particle]

Hennepin's used pentagons for at least as long as I've lived there (21 years).  What used to floor me back when I was first doing geekage of my new home, is the concept of county FREEWAYS.  Sadly, the final one (CSAH-122, as small as it is) was converted to an expressway when the light rail Green Line was built.  The others (CSAH-18, CSAH-62... now US-169 and MN-62 respectively) had been turned to state maintenance already by the time I moved here.

Curious...was CSAH-122 ever re-routed off the now "bus-only" section of Washington Ave, or is that still 122?

[formulanone]

Holy cow, this is an undertaking!  At least you're not attempting to explain what pentagons mean and what white squares mean in each of the counties that use both, because that would be monumental.

At least in Isanti and Stearns counties, the difference is that pentagons signal county state aid routes (county routes that receive additional funds from the state) versus squares on normal county highways (only funded from county money.) I say "at least," because there might be other reasons in other places.

Ah, I wondered why I'd seen both in a few places; this example is on MN 47:

[froggie]

Curious...was CSAH-122 ever re-routed off the now "bus-only" section of Washington Ave, or is that still 122?

Eliminated entirely in 2011 as part of the LRT project.  CSAH 122 now ends at the ramps in front of the Weisman monstrosity.

[DJ Particle]

...the Weisman monstrosity.

That's putting it lightly...   

[hockeyjohn]

Holy cow, this is an undertaking!  At least you're not attempting to explain what pentagons mean and what white squares mean in each of the counties that use both, because that would be monumental.

At least in Isanti and Stearns counties, the difference is that pentagons signal county state aid routes (county routes that receive additional funds from the state) versus squares on normal county highways (only funded from county money.) I say "at least," because there might be other reasons in other places.

Polk County uses this approach, too.

[invincor]

I know Goodhue and Washington use white squares, but I don't know if they do so exclusively.