Arizona/Major roads

This page is still being added to. However, the information on it is current, and should be followed when editing in Arizona.

Introduction

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

They are included in this section.

Elevation Editing or "Seagulling"

Seagulling is the editing practice of changing the elevation of one segment as it crosses immediately over/under another segment. This is not necessary and does not serve any navigation purpose. Elevations are used to delineate the crossing segments so they do not create a routing problem. Instead of cutting a segment into small pieces to accommodate the elevation change, it is better to leave the entire segment at the desired elevation.

In Arizona, all primary freeway segments are set to Ground elevation, unless they cross another freeway segment, then one will either be +1 or -1 elevation. An example would be where I-10 crosses I-17.

State Highway Naming

Arizona uses SR-## for all state routes and highways.

• Do not add additional road names to the Alternate Names field.

Valley Freeway Nicknames

In every city, transportation landmarks are given nicknames. It can be very confusing to anyone not familiar with the area. This is a list of nicknames for all the valley freeways.

Stack – A four-level interchange connecting I-10 and I-17; located west of downtown Phoenix near 19th Avenue and McDowell Road.

Mini-Stack – A four-level interchange linking I-10 to State Route 51 and Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway; located south of McDowell Road and east of 16th Street.

North Stack– Another four-level interchange, this one is located at the I-17 and Loop 101, north of Bell Road.

Split– The interchange where I-10 splits or merges – depending on your direction of travel – with I-17 near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Westbound I-10 splits into lanes that allow drivers to head north on I-17 or continue west on I-10.

SuperRedTan– A multi-tiered interchange in east Mesa where US 60 Superstition Freeway, Loop 202 Red Mountain and Loop 202 Santan meet. SuperRedTan is formed by taking part of each freeway’s name – Superstition, Red Mountain and Santan.

Broadway Curve– Southeast of the Split, this rush-hour-challenged section I-10 is near Broadway Road, and SR 143, by the Phoenix-Tempe border.

Durango Curve– The curved section of I-17 near Durango Street is located southwest of downtown Phoenix.

City Names

The city name field is not to be filled in. Only road segments that pass along the boundary of a city/town will receive a city name and locked to a higher level to prevent tampering. The sole purpose for this practice is to easily identify city boundaries. The city area itself is already identified by Waze. Adding a city name to a road could potentially cause routing issues, especially if one road changes from one city to another.

Alternate Names

Alternate names are not to be used on any Arizona roadways. They do not show up in on the map and have been known to have adverse routing effects. For other reasons, please see the explanation on City Names.

Functional Classification implementation

FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION IMPLEMENTATION INTO WAZE FOR THE STATE OF ARIZONA HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

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 state of Arizona.

Arizona to Waze Functional Classification conversion

ADOT GIS class and color description

Gis Legend

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

Please refer to the GIS FC map link in the Helpful Links section below for access to the map.

This screenshot shows how the FC and color scheme appear in the GIS map.

ADOT to Waze conversion table

		Highway Systems
		Interstate	US Hwy (incl. some special routes)	State Hwy (incl. some special routes)	State Hwy BUS, SPUR, LOOP	Locally-maintained
	example>>>>>	I-10 E	US-190	SR-23	SR-400 Loop	Robertson St
F u n c t i o n a l C l a s s	Principal Interstate	Fw	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Principal Freeway	n/a	Fw	Fw	Fw	Fw
	Principal Other (Arterial)	n/a	Major	Major	Major	Major
	Minor Arterial	n/a	Major	Minor	Minor	Minor
	Major Collector	n/a	Major	Minor	PS	PS
	Minor Collector	n/a	Major	Minor	PS	PS
	Local/Not Mapped	n/a	Major	Minor	PS	Street

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Deviations from FC

Road	Description	Permalink	Reason	Link to Discussion
SR-89	upgraded to mH	Permalink	recommended route for "Large" vehicles. (over 40 feet)	Held on GHO with RC on 03/30/2015 15:50
Scottsdale Rd	MH>PS	Permalink	City of Scottsdale looking to change FC due to traffic congestion	Held on GHO with RC on 04/21/15 13:52
Drinkwater Blvd	PS>MH	Permalink	City of Scottsdale looking to change FC due to traffic congestion	Held on GHO with RC on 04/21/15 13:52
Goldwater Blvd	PS>MH	Permalink	City of Scottsdale looking to change FC due to traffic congestion	Held on GHO with RC on 04/21/15 13:52

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Helpful Links

ArcGIS Functional Classification This version of the map will give you an error when zoomed to the entire state because it has too much data to load. If you zoom to a location, it will show all of the road segments.

This is the Arizona Department of Transportation APLAN ArcGIS Functional Classification map. This is the interactive map that all Arizona editors are to use when establishing FC implementation into the Waze Map Editor.

Arizona's State Highway System

An interactive map showing Arizona's highways.

RailRoads of Arizona

An interactive map showing all of Arizona's RailRoad network.

Arizona Mileposts

An interactive map showing the location of all the Arizona Highway mileposts.

Arizona Highway Rest Area

An interactive map showing all of the Arizona Rest Stops location.

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