Roadway features

Roadway features are the various items and characteristics that can be attached to a roadway.

For each roadway type you can define a different set of feature types within several broad categories. After you've defined your feature types and created roadway records, you can attach features to your roadways. Some features are attached at specific points measured along the length of the roadway, and others are attached along ranges.

Assets

Other assets from your inventory can be attached to roadways, either at points or ranges. You must first define which asset types can be attached to a particular roadway type, such as signs, lights, and appurtenances.

Attributes

The term "attribute" refers to the properties of a roadway. Attributes can be physical properties, such as surface type and width; abstract properties, such as speed limit and functional class; general conditions associated with the area through which a roadway runs, such as county lines or climate; or any other quality or property your agency wants to record and track.

The value of an attribute is the data that is recorded for it on a particular roadway. For example, you might require a value for a speed limit attribute to record the speed limit along a stretch of road, but you might not require a value for an attribute designating a scenic route.

Elements

An element is a physical structure associated with a roadway that is not stored in your records as a separate asset. Examples include guardrails, median walls, and bus shelters. Instead of assigning a unique identification code to each element, as you do with assets, you identify elements by type and location.

Lanes

You can define different lane types to record the lanes within a roadway.

Markings

In addition to lanes, you can record the markings on the surface of a roadway.

Right of way positions

Right of way positions specify the location of an attached feature across the width of the roadway. For example, a road sign may be attached at a point 14 miles along a roadway, but this does not tell you whether the sign is on the left side of the road, on the right side, or in the center divider. You could use a right of way position called RightShoulder to further specify the location of the sign. When viewing the roadway in the Roadway InfoViewer, you can limit the visible features to those at a particular right of way position.

You can also create sub-positions for your right of way positions. For example, you could create a position called RightSide with two sub-positions called Gutter and Sidewalk.

Right of way positions can also be used to set different values for the same attribute across the width of a roadway. For example, a roadway's surface might vary across its width, so you could set up a Surface attribute type to allow different values at different right of way positions.

Distance markers

Distance markers are designations that you can use to measure your roadway, such as with a Milepost distance marker. You can also correct inaccurate distance markers, such as with an AdjustMile distance marker.

For example, suppose your agency re-routes the first 20 miles of a 300-mile highway to make way for a new subdivision. The 20-mile stretch is increased to 35 miles. Instead of changing all distance markers for the remaining 280 miles to account for this extra 15 miles, you can use a different distance marker type for the 15-mile stretch only. You can then keep the original markers for the rest of the roadway. Because you’re using two different marker types, the values can overlap.