COH (County of Hawaii) Centerlines

This data layer is intended to be used as a guide for planning purposes only and should not be used for boundary interpretations or other spatial analysis beyond the limitations of the data. 
Information shown on this map is derived from public records that are constantly undergoing change and is not warranted for content or accuracy. The County does not guarantee the positional or thematic accuracy of the GIS data. The GIS data or cartographic digital files are not a legal representation of any of the features in which it depicts, and disclaims any assumption of the legal status of which it represents. This digital version is not an official map, therefore users are advised to contact the County of Hawaii, Planning Dept., Street Addressing Section  for street name or address verification.

Discrepancies in the data should be brought to the attention of the Street Addressing Section.

The centerlines file is still under construction in the sense that the County plans to correct many systematic errors and omissions.  The County is also in the process of modifying procedures in order to prevent further error.  Until these corrections are made, the file should not be used to represent the true street network for the County, nor can it be used as an inventory of street names, or a basis for locating or addressing all addressable buildings.  The following apply in the present version:


1. Centerlines are rectified to the County parcel layer.  This means that they are not positionally accurate. The file serves planning and addressing purposes, but should not be used for boundary interpretation or the precise calculation of land area.  

2. Standard practice is to digitize the centerlines along road rights-of-way on the tax maps.  They are not verified in the field or with aerial photos.  This practice systematically introduces error where the tax maps do not reflect the actual street extents in the field.  The problem is especially acute in old rural areas, where the actual road network has evolved independent of the paper record.   (In 1999 most streets were field checked.  The file captures some, but not all of the results.)  

3. A street is digitized only if is created from a new subdivision, or if it is preexisting and the County receives a request for an address on the street.  Residents are less likely to request an address in rural areas with old streets and without mail delivery.  Therefore these streets are more likely to be omitted from the centerlines layer.

4. Many streets still do not have street names and/or address ranges.  Until recently the County did not assign addresses on many private streets.  Even if a centerline exists in the file, and even if residents live on the street, the street might not have a name or an address range.

5. Street names in the centerlines may not match the names on street name signs in the field.  Street name spelling does not necessarily match the spelling on street signs in the field.  

6. The transfer of ranges from paper maps to the digital centerlines (with rigidly uniform tic intervals) has caused some misalignments of the addressing grid.  As a result some ranges, especially at remote intersections on long stretches of road, still have to be adjusted (e.g., Hwy 11 between Volcano and Pahala).

7. The USPS is in the process of modifying the ZIP code boundaries on the island.  The current ZIP code boundaries are approximate and generalized.  The ZIP code attributes were populated in all centerlines, but the values are likely to change in centerlines lying within a mile of the current USPS boundaries.

Hawaiian diacritical marks are currently not included in this layer.  The County of Hawaii, Planning Department plans to seek professional services in proper punctuation of the Hawaiian names.