Alberta rural addressing system
In 1979, Strathcona County Engineer Paul Steinhubl developed a rural address system to identify the
location of rural properties. This system aids emergency response personnel, such as fire, ambulance, and police, in finding homes. As well the simplicity of locating properties adds to the quality of life for rural residents.
A legal land description location indicates the property's location somewhere on a specific quarter section. A rural address pinpoints the access to the property off a range road or township road. Similar to an urban or city address which is based off the street and avenue road network.
The Developer
Paul Steinhubl was born in Saskatchewan on May 11, 1935. He graduated in Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in 1959. He held positions of project engineer, design engineer, and district manager in the construction of highways, roads and streets for most of his career. He was a District Engineer for Secondary Highways (Grid Roads) for 14 years; 7 years with the Saskatchewan Government and 7 years at a consulting engineer firm: Keith Consulting Engineers. During this period he was the Senior Design Engineer for the location and design of the MacKenzie Highway, from Fort Simpson NWT to Inuvik NWT. From 1978 to 1983 Paul Steinhubl was the County Engineer for Strathcona County in Alberta. He was responsible for the management of the County's Public Works Department. He finished his distinguished career with the Sherwood Park Catholic Separate School District as the Facilities Manager.
Background
As a roads and highways engineer in Saskatchewan Paul Steinhubl recognized that rural residents, the traveling public and the public service sector were in need of a road identification system in the rural areas. As a junior engineer he had presented earlier versions of the concept to local authorities. These presentations were dismissed as being not relevant or too costly. At the time in Saskatchewan the rural population density perhaps may have warranted such a position. But in the late 1970's Alberta was developing a burgeoning rural population and the need for a rural addressing system became paramount.
In 1979 Paul Steinhubl as County Engineer of Strathcona County was directed by the County Council to develop a rural addressing system to satisfy the demands of the Canada Post Postmaster Roy Campbell. The growing number of rural residences had made it too cumbersome for Canada Post to accurately deliver the mail using the existing rural route system. Faced with interrupted mail delivery the Reeve, JD Morrow directed his County Engineer, Steinhubl to solve this pressing problem. With the concept already thought out and in his mind, Steinhubl was able to present a proposal almost immediately: The Township Road and Range Road Concept. The simplicity of the concept and its continuous adaptability to all of Alberta and western Canada convinced the Strathcona County council to endorse the concept. By the end of 1981 the implementation of the Rural Addressing System was complete, all residences had their addresses and the road signs were installed.
At the 1989 Annual Convention of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties a resolution was passed endorsing the The Township Road and Range Road Concept. To date the Alberta Rural Addressing System continues to be implemented across the province.
The Township Road and Range Road Concept
The Paul Steinhubl developed rural addressing system is as simplistic as the coordinate street and avenue system used in urban addressing. This new concept is an ingenious incorporation of the Dominion Land Survey system which was laid out in Western Canada to identify farmland prior to the arrival of settlers in the 1800's. The Steinhubl Township Road and Range Road Concept designates east-west roads as Township Roads, and north-south roads as Range Roads. Township Roads are numbered using the actual Dominion Land Survey Township number. The first road being 0 (zero),. Township 51 would have its first road as Twp Rd 510, then Twp Rd 512, etc. Range Roads are numbered off of the meridian, in a similar fashion. Range 21 would have its first road as Range Road 210, then Range Road 211 etc.
The property address is the access location onto a Township Road or Range Road. Each mile is divided in 40 units (132 feet) wide, These units are numbered from 1 to 79 on the south side of Township Roads and on the east side of Range Roads. The opposite side of the roads are numbered 2 to 80. An example address of a property on Township Road 512, 1320 feet east of the intersection with Range Road 211 would be: 21133 Twp Rd 512. Multi-lot subdivisions are addressed similar to apartments in a city, with a street address and a unit number.
References
Government of Alberta
http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Content/docType233/Production/12Rural_Address_Signs.pdf
County of Grande Prairie
Lacombe County
Woodlands County
http://www.woodlands.ab.ca/association.aspx?p=new_rural_emergency_addresses
County of St. Paul No. 19