Massachusetts/Major roads

Introduction

Although Massachusetts follows the general road naming and road type guidelines of the USA, there are some road naming rules specific to the Commonwealth that all Massachusetts editors MUST follow.

They are included in this section.

State Highway Naming

Massachusetts uses the following naming conventions for routes:

Freeways / Other Expressways

• "I-##" for all interstate freeways. (No City Names, No Alternate Names)
• "US-##" for all US Highways that are FC'd as freeway. (No City Names, No Alternate Names)
• "MA-##" for all State Highways that are FC'd as freeway. (No City Names, No Alternate Names)

Major / Minor Highways

All numbered highways in Massachusetts are to show the actual street name (see GIS) as the Primary name, with appropriate city.

In the Alternate Name field, list the Route Number, with no city. If a segment has more than one State/US route number, add a second Alt Name with the appropriate Route Number.

If a Major/Minor classed segment is not a numbered highway, there should be no alternate names listed.

PS and Lower

List the Primary street name, and city. No Alternate names are to be listed.

Named Roadways

These are named highways in Massachusetts which also carry numbered designations. Some are simply names of streets which carry a numbered route(s). Roads named after people/organizations were generally done so ceremoniously, after the numeric designation(s) already existed. Others carry more general names, such as the Southeast Expressway and Central Artery in Boston (which both refer to the same continuous span of I-93).

Several named highways cover the entire length of a given route in Massachusetts; for example, all of Interstate 90 in Massachusetts is the Massachusetts Turnpike, and the entire length of Route 213 is the Loop Connector.(*) denotes that the named highway spans the entire length of the numbered route in the state.

Functional Classification

Functional Classification Implementation has been partially completed within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In some areas, it is still ongoing.

PLEASE REFER TO THIS FORUM TOPIC ON THE MATTER Road Types (USA) – comprehensive overhaul of drivable roads

Waze USA has agreed to set a national standard in accordance with the FHWA manual for establishing road classification types in Waze. The following information is in relation to how this is to be understood/applied for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Resource Links

• MassDOT Interactive Functional Classification Map
• massDOT Functional Classification Maps

MA to Waze FC conversion

MassDOT GIS class and color description

GIS Legend

The Massachusetts Classification and Color scheme come from the official Massachusetts D.O.T (massDOT) Federal Functional Classification (FC) map that is published by massDOT. The legend shows what classifications massDOT uses and what color is assigned to each class.

Please refer to the GIS FC map found here, on the massDOT FC Maps webpage.

MassDOT to Waze conversion table

The numbers correspond to the Federal FC type indicated. (e.g. Federal Class 4 road is a Minor Arterial)

		Highway Systems
		Interstate	US Hwy (incl. some special routes)	State Hwy (incl. some special routes)	State Hwy BUS, SPUR, LOOP	Locally-maintained
	example>>>>>	I-95 N	US-2	SR-3	SR-400 Loop	Robertson St
F u n c t i o n a l C l a s s	Interstate (1)	Fw	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Principal Arterial OFE (2)	n/a	Fw	Fw	Fw	Fw
	Principal Arterial - Other (3)	n/a	Major	Major	Major	Major
	Minor Arterial (4)	n/a	Major	Minor	Minor	Minor
	Major Collector (5)	n/a	Major	Minor	PS	PS
	Minor Collector (6)	n/a	Major	Minor	PS	PS
	Local/Not Mapped (7)	n/a	Major	Minor	PS	Street

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