Talk:West Virginia State Highway System

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Official name[edit]

What is the official name of a route in the system? The WVDOT site always uses "WV XX"; if that is official, we should use that rather than "West Virginia State Route XX". --SPUI (talk) 01:04, 3 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

  • You're right. If you read the history most were correct and moved by Rschen7754 He means well, but he seems to be trying to make everything like California and California is kind of the oddball when it comes to legislation compared to the rest of the county. Removed for privacy reasons, so I will cut him more slack than I was before. --71Demon 22:45, 4 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • Please improve your attitude. What is used in state laws about the system? --SPUI (talk) 22:58, 4 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
      • Removed for privacy reasons, but you usually learn a little more by listening, and not trying to force his ideas on others. The entire states system is based on laws. Read the history, the state legislature passed laws creating and modifying the WVDOH over the years. The WVDOH is governed by laws, it doesn't operate outside of them. --71Demon 14:06, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
        • Nonetheless, provincialism and condescension have no place in Wikipedia. I'm sure you do not wish to have your participation and work trivialized. B.Wind 20:33, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]
      • Removed for privacy reasons. My concern with WV xx is that WV xx could be a county route, state route, etc. How would someone know that it is a road? But then we've been through some of this at Talk:List of California State Routes/Archive. --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs - count) 00:07, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
        • BTW I do Wikipedia for the fun of it, unlike most kids of my generation. Roads and highways are my hobby, and so are computers... --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs - count) 01:41, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
        • West Virginia is not California. Your concern is unfounded, we have a different signage and numbering system for county routes. --71Demon 14:06, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
          • Each state is different; furthermore, considering the international readership of Wikipedia, I doubt that it should go into that hornet's nest of fractional signage (besides, in the 12 years I lived in Huntington, not once did I hear the phrase "county road" when it came to the fractional routes. Most people would refer to one by its name, like Merrits Creek Road or East Pea Ridge Road). At least Rschen7754 did something positive to get the ball rolling here. It's up to all of us to ensure accuracy. Don't destroy it -- ADD TO IT! B.Wind 20:33, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate Rschen7754's work and his dedication to Wikipedia, but as a West Virginian and an active editor of this site, I disagree with the disassembling of our organization of the West Virginia State Highway System in order for it conform to California's because a handfull of people think so. There are a million and one reasons I could list of why West Virginia should not have to conform to any of California's systems and I won't even begin to get into the whole Arnold Schwarzenegger thing. Also, what is up with this West Virginia State Highway XX Sh*t?! As far as I'm concerned, it's WV XX. So, let me give all non-West Virginians a little history lesson and Rschen7754, I hope you are paying attention. Rschen7754, I can't condemn your youth because I was an editor at Skyscrapers.Com between the ages of fourteen and nineteen years old for the Washington, DC Metro, but I can condemn your comments concerning the West Virginia State Highway system. I hope some of this information helps in our dialogue.

  • West Virginia's County Route System served intra-county travel and provided land access to the more rural areas of West Virginia (which is most of the state). The system, however, was established in 1933 when the public roads under the former county-district road system were placed under the jurisdiction of the West Virginia State Road Commission (SRC). Originally, the main county routes were assigned whole numbers, with those roads branching off of the main county routes were assigned fractions (the main county route is the numerator). Route numbers do not repeat within a county. The county route marker has a black number inside a white circle on a green background, usually with the local name of the route.
  • Because there used to be separate county road systems, West Virginia's system can be confusing at first, but it is the job of us West Virginian editors who are familiar with the system to explain it to the best of our abilities. WV xx is usually assigned to West Virginia State Highways. "County routes" or "secondary state highways" are usually given the initials CR (County Route) or SR (Secondary Route) before their numeral and not WV xx.
County Routes in Hampshire County, WV.
  • This particular sign is located at the northern terminus of Hampshire County's state Secondary Route 5 (Jersey Mountain Road) in Levels, West Virginia. In West Virginia, Secondary Route 5 would also be called "County Route 5." At this intersection in Levels, the road that branches off to the west is called Frenches Station Road, state Secondary Route 5/7 (SR 5/7 or CR 5/7, both are correct). 5/7 was the seventh road to branch off of state Secondary Route 5 when the roads were originally numbered. Since then several roads have branched off in between the original numbered routes, taking the denominators of the secondary route numbers out of any sort of order from any direction. But I digress. Little Cacapon-Levels Road branches off to the east but it was originally a branch of Hampshire County's state Secondary Route 3, so it takes the numerator of 3 and this route happens to have a denominator of 3 because it was the third route to branch off SR 3 when it was originally numbered. List of Hampshire County, WV County Routes provides a list of all of Hampshire County's state Secondary Routes. You'll notice these routes can also take the numerators of US Highways as in US Route 220 (Davy Road's SR number is 220/10), WV State Highways (primary) as in WV 28 or Old WV 45 that no longer runs through Hampshire County but these SRs still contain 45 in their numerators.
  • If anyone has any questions about these, please post them here. The editors who understand this system will be happy to answer any additional questions. It is pretty difficult to explain (on here) but it makes sense, and it especially makes sense to the West Virginians who use them everyday. If a West Virginian were to get on here and see West Virginia State Highway XX instead of WV 259, they'd understand what it was but they'd prefer it be WV xx. And a West Virginian also realizes that it is not odd that Hampshire County has a state Secondary Route 1 (Green Spring Road) and Hardy County has a state Secondary Route 1 (North River Road). Usually this is why they prefer to call them county routes. That's just the way it is. 71Demon has done one hell of a job on organizing the WV State Highway system, and instead of condemning him and trying to undo his work, he should be congratulated. --Caponer 18:56, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • For the sake of the highway effort I'll agree to compromise here... the pages can be moved back to WV xx provided that a) the West Virginia State Highway x redirects remain in place and b) that each article states/ implies that WV xx is a state highway. This ensures that people know it's a road (just in case)... --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs - count) 01:27, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • Another concern- secondary/ county routes would need to be something like "WV SR xx" so that another state doesn't come along and use the same designation. --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs - count) 01:41, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
      • Rschen7754 and 71Demon, I strongly recommend the KISS principle when it comes to West Virginia's -- or any other state's -- State Routes. Avoid the fractional routes except for links to external sites that go in depth on the subject. In addition, I'd urge you to flesh out the articles you've started before adding more -- while I was adding and changing stub templates, I noticed that many of them have only templates and no substantive information (mainly the latest ones I stubbed). I'd also suggest double-checking and double-sourcing your information as in at least two cases I had to make dramatic corrections from the information that was originally posted. B.Wind 20:33, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

For the record, I don't do the actual writing of articles for states I have never been to (West Virginia beong one of them). I've just been stubbing and doing cleanup work and the like and renaming since the naes were originally called "WV xx". --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 21:57, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Highways/County Routes[edit]

This template contains the Highways only, not any of the county routes. There is a big difference between WV XX highways and CR's. WV XX routes are built to a US highway standards anytime an improvement is made. County Routes are not. State Highways are signed with square black and white sheilds like this, and have no names.

We have been discussing how to address WV county routes, first is the name. They are called county routes, but are owned owned and maintained state and there is no such thing as a county roads department. 100% of the public roads in the state are maintained by the state. Also the fractional routes also use US Highways as bases as well as State Highways. For example, The first County route south of the Maryland border on US 220 is Stoney Run Rd 220/1. County Routes all have names. Their signs are Green long rectangles with the name of the road first, then a small round shield in the green field that is white with the CR number. A single digit CR route will be labled CR9 in the shield. A fraction will not have the CR, just a 220/1 with the 220 on top.

We also have a 3rd designation created when the Orphan Road Law was passed about 3 years ago. It created a nightmare for the state, because no real increase in funding or man power was allocated to take care of the thousands of additional miles aquired. The are signed with the green signs and a number in white house symbol.

But the main thing is the template of state Highways works well for West Virginia. --141.157.157.100 20:17, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Stub templates[edit]

Just so you are aware... at WP:WSS/P there is a discussion about the upcoming {{WestVirginia-State-Highway-Stub}}. I will be tagging all of the WV stub articles with this tag sometime over the next month. --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs - count) 04:31, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Done - I hope I got them all... B.Wind 07:52, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Email from WVDOH[edit]

While "West Virginis State Route 55" is the 'official' designation, we
would ( internally) simply call it WV-55. In a letter, we would first
use the 'offical' designation with "(WV-55)" after it; from then on it
would be "WV-55"

-----Original Message-----
From: SPUI
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 7:24 PM
To: Info
Subject: Question about state highways

If I were to refer to a state highway in West Virginia, say 55, by its 
official designation, would I say simply "WV 55" or is there a longer 
designation used like "State Highway 55" or "State Route 55"? Thanks for
your help.

--SPUI (talk) 07:53, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]


That pretty much settles it. Wikipedia should follow West Virginia's lead on this. With an international readership, simply referring to a West Virginia State Route by "WV xx" without context would be confusing to someone outside the US, if not just outside the Mountain State. B.Wind 07:57, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I agree full heartedly. 0--Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 20:48, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I think this is a district-by-district case. I have executive summaries, planning documents, and paperwork that shows "West Virginia State Highway" and "West Virginia State Route" in many instances. Seicer (talk) (contribs) 03:10, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Cleanup[edit]

I cleaned up significant parts of the West Virginia state highways section:

  • Moved the interstate highway page to List_of_Interstate_Highways_in_West_Virginia; ditto for the U.S. highway page to List_of_U.S._Highways_in_West_Virginia. U.S. Highways were already set as a list, so why not the rest?
  • Revised the base coding for the interstate and U.S. highway list by using stable class width instead of table width (removes some browser quirks). I also corrected some reference points (I-77 for instance does not leave at Parkersburg).
  • Removed stubs on the list pages. It's the highway pages themselves that need stubs if they really need them - not the lists themselves. They are now up-to-date. Seicer (talk) (contribs) 03:24, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Old route numbers at state lines[edit]

  • WV 1: (at least OH to Ellenboro) US 50 1926; [1]
  • WV 2: (at least Sistersville to New Martinsville) still WV 2 1926; (south to Sandyville) still WV 2 1927; (north to Wheeling) still WV 2 1928
  • WV 3: (VA) WV 311 east of White Sulphur Springs (old US 60) [2]; (at least KY to Milton) US 60 1926; [3]
  • WV 4: (whole route?) US 19 [4]
  • WV 5: (VA) US 33 [5]; (at least Cottageville - Ripley) US 33 1926; (west to New Haven) US 33 1929
  • WV 6: (at least OH to Burton) US 250 1926
  • WV 8: (south from Huntington) WV 152/ex-US 52 1929
  • WV 12: (VA) WV 16 [6][7]
  • WV 14: (at least Mineral Wells to Elizabeth) still WV 14 1926
  • WV 17: (at least OH to across from Arbuckle) US 35 1926
  • WV 18: (at least OH to Middlebourne) still WV 18 1926
  • WV 19: (at least OH to Arbuckle) WV 62 1926
  • WV 23: (VA) WV 259 (north crossing) [8][9]
  • WV 24: (VA) US 460 east of Bluefield [10][11], (VA) US 219 [12][13]
  • WV 25: (whole route) US 22 1926
  • WV 27: (whole route) still WV 27 1926
  • WV 28: (VA) US 220 [14][15]
  • WV 29: (VA) US 460 east crossing 12-1923-01 14 (huh?)
  • WV 29: (whole route) US 40 1926[16]
  • WV 32: (VA) US 11 [17]
  • WV 33: (at least Sandyville to Liverpool) CR 13 1927
  • WV 49: (VA) WV 9 [18]
  • WV 50: (VA) US 340 [19][20]
  • WV 53: (VA) US 33 [21]
  • WV 55: (at least OH to Burton) WV 7 1926
  • WV 56: (VA) US 250 [22]
  • WV 58: (VA) WV 259 (south crossing) [23]
  • WV 59: (VA) possibly still WV 59 east from Lost City [24]
  • WV 62: (at least Lesage to Glenwood) WV 2 1926; (north to Maggie and south to Green Bottom) WV 2 and WV 62 1927
  • WV 66: (VA) WV 16 [25][26]
  • WV 81: (VA) WV 311 on both sides of Sweet Springs [27][28]

1931 and later ODOT maps have more routes. --NE2 10:45, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:State route naming conventions poll/Part2[edit]

This state's highway naming convention is up for debate above. Feel free to participate. --Rschen7754 (talk - contribs) 05:59, 4 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Creating a new list, based on list of primary state highways in Virginia[edit]

Now that I've completed this, would anyone object if I put it in the article and redirected the separate lists here? --NE2 17:43, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Go ahead. Nice job, BTW. --TMF Let's Go Mets - Stats 17:59, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Other routes listed in the route log[edit]

This route log (pages 59 to 70) includes some primary routes that don't exist and some "LSR" secondary routes.

The "LSR" routes are county routes that actually get signed with full-size standalone shields. WV 338 was the number for the Ravenswood Bridge before US 33 was moved onto it. The other routes were never actually signed or officially existed as far as I can tell. Bitmapped (talk) 16:27, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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