City of Bristol, Virginia: More than 7,600 addresses to change due to upgrading 911 system

BRISTOL, Va. (WJHL) – Thousands of Bristol, Virginia residents will soon have new addresses after the city announced changes would be made due to an upgrade to the 911 system.

According to a release from the city, officials have been getting ready for an upgrade to the “upcoming NextGen 911 system & criteria for addressing standards,” which will be mandated both on the state and federal level.

The release says the upgraded system will improve response time and location accuracy when 911 is dialed.

“Because most 911 systems were originally built using analog rather than digital technologies, public safety answering points (PSAPs) across the country need to be upgraded to a digital or Internet Protocol (IP)-based 911 system, commonly referred to as Next Generation 911 (NG911),” the release reads.

More than 7,600 addresses in Bristol will change, as well as more than 150 new street segment names, according to the release.

The city will send notifications through the mail to property owners affected starting Monday, March 15.

The release supplied the following facts regarding the 911 system change:

• The goal of implementing the NextGen 911 system is to make it easier to locate and identify correct addresses for 911, as well as mail & package delivery, online mapping accuracy, etc.
• In 2019, the City received 33,224 calls to 911 for help. 76% of those calls were initiated from mobile phones (28% of all 911 mobile calls had no location).
• The City’s addressing system is now based on linear distance and block ranging for better location.
• The City added almost 1,700 address points to the 911 system during this process for better location of callers.
• 327 road segment names were changed that were duplicates or presented challenges for location in the field.
• Over 100 new street names have been added to improve location accuracy.
• The City was divided into 25 different geographic zones to improve all emergency response.
• Rapid SOS was implemented, which reduces caller location error when 911 is dialed from mobile phones. This update improves the caller’s location accuracy from 1000 feet to nearly 10 feet and also calculates elevation.
• Text-message to 911 capability has been added.
• We have connected with USPS, BVUA, Point Broadband, and CenturyLink to update the address changes.
• Changes are being submitted to many online mapping services for updates and corrections to their services.

If you have any questions, you are advised to call 276-645-7294.

You can read the full release below: