Groundcheck now gives its national road check more useful property context. Instead of only naming nearby primary, secondary, and local roads, the report keeps the returned Census road centerlines, estimates how close they come to the parcel, and shows the lines on the report map.
The goal is to surface access questions early without turning a public road centerline into a legal conclusion. A road can appear close to a parcel while frontage, an entrance permit, maintenance responsibility, or a recorded access right still needs separate verification.
What the Census source provides
Groundcheck uses the U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb Transportation MapServer. The screen queries the public primary, secondary, and local road layers and keeps available road names, MAF/TIGER Feature Class Codes, route-type values, and line geometry.
The road layers used for this screening are based on the January 1, 2025 TIGERweb transportation vintage. The service is national, but public road-centerline data can lag new construction, omit private roads or driveways, and differ from local road or survey records.
How Groundcheck screens road adjacency
When a parcel boundary is available, Groundcheck asks for road centerlines within 75 meters and estimates the shortest distance from each returned line to the parcel. A centerline within 30 meters enters an apparent-adjacency screen. The larger 75-meter distance still provides traffic and nearby-road context.
The 30-meter value is deliberately a screening threshold rather than a frontage measurement. Road centerlines normally sit inside a wider right-of-way, and parcel and Census geometry are not survey boundaries. When Groundcheck has only a property point, it runs the 75-meter check but does not make an adjacency conclusion.
How the finding treats different roads
A primary road within the 75-meter screen receives high concern because highway traffic, noise, entrance controls, and site access deserve closer review. A secondary road receives moderate concern. A parcel with only an apparently adjacent local road receives an informational result rather than a low-risk label.
If no mapped road centerline falls inside the parcel's 30-meter adjacency screen, the report uses moderate concern and frames the result as an access question. That result does not mean the parcel is landlocked because a private road, long driveway, easement, new road, or mapping gap can explain the public-data result.
What a road line cannot prove
A TIGERweb centerline does not establish legal frontage, a right of access, public ownership, public maintenance, a driveway permit, a curb cut, or the exact edge of a road right-of-way. Groundcheck therefore uses terms such as mapped road adjacency and nearby road rather than saying a parcel has road access.
The same caution applies to a clean screen. No returned road is useful information, but it cannot rule out private access or prove an access defect. If the service returns incomplete or unusable geometry, Groundcheck leaves the finding unknown instead of turning missing evidence into a negative conclusion.
What to verify next
For a property where access matters, compare the mapped centerlines with the deed, plat, survey, title commitment, recorded easements, and current aerial imagery. Confirm the road name, right-of-way, maintenance responsibility, and actual connection to the parcel.
Before relying on an entrance for development, ask the state or local road authority which access, driveway, sight-distance, or curb-cut approvals apply. Groundcheck helps identify the question early. Recorded documents, field conditions, surveys, and the responsible agencies provide the answer.
- Confirm legal access and frontage in recorded land documents.
- Check whether the mapped road is public, private, or maintained under another arrangement.
- Compare the likely driveway location with sight distance, grades, drainage, and road-authority requirements.
- Treat Census geometry as screening evidence, not a survey or title determination.
Use the new layer
Check the property you are considering
Groundcheck combines this source with parcel details and other available national, state, and local layers.
Start a property check See every Groundcheck data layerGroundcheck provides early public data screening, not a legal, engineering, surveying, environmental, planning, permitting, or buildability determination. Verify important findings with the responsible agencies and qualified professionals.