West Virginia/Major roads

WV Road Types and Naming

Introduction

The West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) provides County Highway Maps for each of the 55 Counties in West Virginia (WV). Those County Maps provide information on Route Designation for each road the State of WV maintains. The following are the types of roads typically seen on each of the County Maps and how they should be named and typed in the Waze Map. At this time, WV does not have a GIS Functional Classification (FC) Map.

West Virginia follows the General Road Naming and Road Type Guidelines of the USA. WV Specific deviations are shown below. Please see WV Road Naming for a workflow on determining the correct street and city names for WV roads.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in the WV Google Hangout (WV GHO) or Private Message (PM) one of the State or Area Managers.

WVDOT Road Types

On the WVDOT County Maps, each road type (Street, Unpaved, Off-Road) is shown on the map; use the following Road Types for each Roads and Roadway Features Surface Type shown on the map. Lock any segments with the Unpaved checkbox enabled or Off-road / Not maintained to L2.

Interstate

• Waze Road Type – Freeway (FW)
• Name – I-64 N (direction is always one-way and always includes the cardinal direction)
• Lock Level - L5 or higher

US Route

• Waze Road Type – Typically Major Highway (MH) unless FC upgrades
• Name – US-60 (if divided/One-Way, include cardinal direction, e.g. US-60 N)
• US BUS/SPUR/LOOP are Minor Highway (mH) unless FC upgrades
• Lock Level - L4 or higher

WV State Route

• Waze Road Type – Typically Minor Highway (mH)
• Name – WV-10 (if divided/One-Way, include cardinal direction, e.g. WV-10 S)
• WV BUS/SPUR/LOOP are Primary Street unless FC upgrades
• Lock Level - L3 or higher

WV County Route

• Waze Road Type – Street (unless FC upgrades higher)
• Name – CR-2 or CR-2/12
• Lock Level - Depends on FC; L1 or higher

WV HARP Route

• Waze Road Type – Street
• Name – not typically used. Only if no name for that street can be found (please ask in the GHO first). HARP-901 or HARP-901/20.
• Lock Level - L1

WV FANS Route

Federal Aid Non-State

• Waze Road Type – Based on Functional Classification Only
• Name – Alt Name Only if FC upgrades road type to Primary Street or higher. Drop the leading digit. FANS-863
• Alt name is needed so we know that a FC upgrade has been applied to what normally should be "Street" in the Waze Map.
• Lock Level - Depends on FC; L2 or higher

WV State Park and Forest Route

• Waze Road Type - Can be of any type. Consult the WVDOT County Maps for Road Type. See WV Road Types above.
• Name - Use Local Name if it has one. Add WV DOT Route Designation as alternate. Or if no local name, Route Designation as Primary. FS-800
• Lock Level - Depends on FC/Road Type; L1 or higher

US Forest Service Roads

West Virginia has one (1) National Forest within its boundaries, the Monongahela National Forest. The specific guidelines for National Forest Roads can be found here. Please ensure you understand the Wiki prior to mapping/changing any US Forest Service Roads. Use the Interactive Map to find the Road Names/Road Designation/Road Type. Roads can be both WVDOT and USFS in some cases. Use Local and/or WVDOT Road Names/Designation as Primary, if applicable, instead of US Forest Service road names/designation. Add the US Forest Service Roads as alternate names/designation in most cases. Do not map any roads that are not maintained for passenger cars or that motorized traffic is prohibited at this time. Also, do not map any trails.

• Waze Road Type - Can be of any type. Consult the Interactive Map for for designation.
• Name - Local Name if known. Add any WVDOT designation and USFS Designations as alternate names. FS-XXX
• Lock Level - Based on Road Type. L1 or higher

WV Road Naming

In general, use the data you find first on this list as the primary name and all other names/numbers as alternates.

1. Use SV to find BGS/LGS - if available, this is the primary name.
2. Use WVDOT data to find local name and route numbering (for the map raid, you’ll generally need the County Route information, CR-x or CR-x/y, but confirm higher named roads)
   • WVDOT GIS: consider installing the WME WV GIS Map script (script by MapOMatic). This script adds a "WVGIS" link to the bottom toolbar in WME. Click it to open a GIS map that contains data pulled from most of the relevant state and county (where available) GIS sources. The link will turn green to indicate the GIS map location is sync'ed to the WME map -- moving the WME map will move the GIS map (but not vice versa). If the link turns black, e.g. after refreshing WME, the location sync is broken. Simply click the WVGIS link again to restore the sync.
   • WVDOT County Maps (PDF): even if using the WVDOT GIS script, the PDF maps are a good overview of the different routes.
3. County GIS maps
   • We highly recommend that you install the WME GIS script. This script will make it a lot easier to access the multiple County GIS websites.
   • If you do not wish to install these scripts please visit the West Virginia Cities and Towns page for all GIS links. NOTE: Not all WV counties have GIS links. Only hyperlinked county names are linked to the County GIS. City/Town names are hyperlinked to the WME Permalink. If you get confused digging through all of the different GIS sites, which will probably happen (it has to all of us), please contact your Group Leader for guidance.
4. Parcel/lot information from County GIS sources or MapOMatic's WVGIS script. Note that the County GIS sources from step #3 are a more complete set of the sources. MapOMatic's WVGIS script contains some of the County information, but not all of it.
5. USPS Address Search - check addresses and add as an alternate, as appropriate per the City Name guidance (which is clarified for West Virginia below).

Notes:

• If data is only available from a single source, use it.
• If multiple sources conflict with a single source, use the road name confirmed by multiple sources and add the other names as alternates.
• If it isn't possible to be sure about the primary name and there is already a primary name on the segment that matches any of the possibilities, then leave that name as primary and add the others as alternates.
• Always include the name from the BGS/LGS and the name from parcel data.
• If an address is outside the bounds of a CDP, include the USPS City as an alternate.
• Steps 3 and 4 above may be included in the wme-wv-gis-map script (step 2), depending on the County.

Functional Classification

The Functional Classification of West Virginia roads can be viewed as an overlay in WME by installing the WME FC Layer (beta) script developed by MapOMatic. The source of this data is the WVDOT's GIS service. To view this data, click on the ArcGIS Online map viewer link at the top, turn on the F System layer, and zoom in.

History: The Functional Classification of West Virginia roads was initially set using list of Federal Aid Roads which includes the roads with a functional classification of minor collector or higher. The complete list can be viewed along with a Google Sheet that translates the list into which roads the classification applies to. Some experience and common sense was used for any uncertainties. It is important to have the correct road designation in either the primary or alternate name in order to find a particular road and apply the correct functional classification to it. Note that some roads are listed as more than once; this means that they can be for example mH for part and MH for part and PS for part.

NOTES

• Lock Levels on verified one-way Private Roads(PR), Streets, and Primary Streets (PS) are one level higher. See WV Minimum Lock Levels
• Within City Limits, most roads should have a name; use that instead of the Route Designation and put the Route Designation as the Alt Name. Consult County GIS sources or Street View.
• All WV County Roads do have a name; you can find it using Street View or County GIS sources. If you cannot find it, then use the Road Designation as the Primary.
• All FANS Roads are within City Limits. Only put a FANS Designation (and always as Alt Name) if FC upgrades that segment to PS or higher. That lets everyone know the reason for the FC upgrade.
• If the Primary Name includes a "city", then any alternate names must also include the same city.
• Do not deviate from the road type unless the correct Functional Classification has been applied. Doing so can and will create issues with routing.