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Lieutenant Governor’s Street Addressing Initiative nears territorywide finish; St. John first in Caribbean with end‑to‑end system
Summary
Office of the Lieutenant Governor reported progress on a territorywide street addressing project (SAI) funded largely with federal CDBG money; officials said the master address repository and field work are well advanced, with Saint John complete and St. Thomas and St. Croix in active field phases, and that signage purchases and installations are
The Office of the Lieutenant Governor told a legislative committee that the territory’s Street Addressing Initiative (SAI) is in its final, territorywide phase and that Saint John is the first Caribbean island with a fully functioning, end‑to‑end addressing system.
“St. John is now the first island in The Caribbean to have a fully functioning address system from end to end,” Christopher (Chris) George, administrator of the Geospatial Information Systems Division and SAI project manager, said during a committee briefing. The office said an active federal Community Development Block Grant administered through the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority funds the final phase.
Why it matters: a standardized street addressing system links street names and numeric addresses to parcels and GPS coordinates in a master address repository (MARS). Officials said the MARS will be ingested into the U.S. Department of Transportation’s national address database; once included, federal agencies and major mapping services use the territory’s authoritative data. The Office of the Lieutenant Governor told the committee that having addresses will improve emergency dispatch, postal and delivery services, utility planning, demographic data for the census and targeted grant making.
Project status and costs: the office reported three prior project phases (implementation plan, pilot and bridge). The final phase is funded by a $5.3 million CDBG award; the project has purchased a Trimble MX50 mobile mapping unit ($347,705) and reported a MARS infrastructure cost of $145,529.19 and a signage allocation of $2.3 million. The UVI partnership has already been paid more than $400,000 for fieldwork to date, the office said. The administrator said the addressing portion aims to be complete by January 2026, with signage fabrication and installation continuing into the spring following manufacturing timelines.
Public outreach and naming: project staff described a community road‑naming protocol that asks neighborhood associations or a majority of property owners on a road segment to agree to a name. The program will preserve local estate names (an important cultural convention in the territory) and will accept non‑English or locally used road types; officials said St. Thomas and St. Croix were at roughly 60–70% named road completion and St. John at 93% under the program. The office has run town halls, school visits, radio and social media outreach and plans a mass mailing of addresses to owners of record when the project is complete.
Integration and operations: the MARS will be maintained by the GIS division and integrated with emergency dispatch, utilities and postal operations via MOUs. Officials said the Mars is already structured to meet the Federal Geographic Data Committee and U.S. Department of Transportation addressing standards; the office has been working with major mapping engines and federal partners to get the territory’s data published. The administrator told senators the office will transfer responsibility for signage maintenance and replacement to the Department of Public Works once installation is complete.
Questions from lawmakers focused on long‑term maintenance, how to handle private roads, whether owners must consent to sign placement on private property (vendors will obtain sign placement approvals), and how to resolve streets with duplicate names across different estates by using estate identifiers in the address string. Several senators praised the project’s territorial scope and the use of local contractors and UVI student workers for field teams.
Next steps: SAI staff asked the committee for a proclamation recognizing the territory’s formal addressing system once the repository is accepted by the national database; they invited lawmakers to a Saint John signage groundbreaking and pledged to deliver a project closeout report to the committee. The office also requested interagency follow‑through so e 9‑1‑1, USPS, utilities and other users adopt the authoritative data into operational systems.
