The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

West Virginia Highway Classifications and Route Markers

As in other states and provinces, highways and numbered roads in West Virginia range the gamut from limited-access concrete arterials to ruts in the dirt and everything in between. Multiple classifications of roads exist...and the differences between them are sometimes bewildering. Interested? Read on...

Interstate highways

Interstate highways should require no introduction: They're the upper crust of high-speed roads where access is controlled by interchanges and grade separations, four lanes or more abound, pedestrians and cyclists are verboden, and every place you pass looks exactly the same. Route numbers are typically referred to with an I prefix (i.e., I-77) to indicate their status.

West Virginia's first Interstate highway was a segment of I-64 in Cabell County that opened in 1960. The route marker itself has changed little over the years and basically looks the same now as it did then, right down to the state name lettering near the top: West Virginia has studiously retained this detail on its Interstate highway shields to this day, much to the delight of road geeks everywhere.

The West Virginia Turnpike predates the Interstate highway system, opening as a controlled-access two-lane road in 1954. Originally, it was signed with several variations of this unfortunate buttplug-like monogram that would resurface on white-supremacist political paraphernalia decades later. These signs disappeared from sight by the late 1980s, when the road was brought up to Interstate standards and turnpike branding was deemphasized in favour of a discreet "Toll" plaque above the I-77 shield.

U.S. highways

Before there were Interstates, there were U.S. highways. As with Interstates, numbering is continuous from one state to another, east-west highways generally have even numbers, and north-south highways have odd numbers. There are exceptions: US 52 is signed north-south in West Virginia to reflect the prevailing direction of its diagonal course within the state. Several U.S. highways in West Virginia (including US 460 in Mercer County) have been upgraded to four-lane "corridor" status thanks to the investments of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

When the U.S. highway system was devised in 1926, the occasion also served as the introduction of the first U.S. highway route marker: A cutout six-point shield with square letterforms, usually embossed. The upper tier of the design contained a provision for an (abbreviated) state name.

After rounded fonts made their appearance in the 1948 MUTCD, West Virginia very briefly produced some flat-painted signs with rounded letterforms, but essentially the same cutout design as before.

A simplified marker on a white square background was introduced in the 1948 version of the MUTCD for junction sign assemblies. West Virginia took to this design in a big way in the 1950s, even using it as a reassurance marker before the decade was through. This design is also similar to the standard of signage still used in Ontario to this day.

National road sign standards were amended yet again in 1961, and U.S. route marker signs changed to a black background for improved legibility at a distance. The State Road Commission also morphed into the West Virginia Department of Highways (WVDH), which posted new signs drawn to this standard well into the 1970s.

Starting in 1971 (with the year of implementation varying from state to state), the design of the U.S. shield was modified slightly to open up more room for the numbers. A horizontally-elongated version was introduced for three-digit highways, also for legibility.

Starting in the late 1970s, the WVDH began using wider Series D numerals on one- and two-digit route markers, resulting in a subtly different look to the signs. Thanks to chronic sign replacement over the last 40 years, this version has become practically universal.

State highways

State highways represent the oldest class of numbered road in West Virginia, with a numbering system that dates to 1922. For the most part, these roads take on a directional pattern opposite from U.S. highways: East-west, odd; north-south, even. Irregular geography and decades' worth of renumberings, however, ensure that there are plenty of exceptions to the rule. Most state highways are built to the standard of two lanes with a central stripe, though in past decades many of these roads were unseparated or even dirt.

The 1922-23 Annual Report of the State Road Commission of West Virginia says: "On roads being maintained by the State, route numbers are being marked on telephone and telegraph poles along the road. The marker consists of two red bands six inches wide separated by a space of twelve inches painted white, upon which the number of the route is stencilled in figures six inches high." This was the same standard of signage that named auto trails had employed in the teens.

By the time the U.S. highway system came into existence in 1926, the State Road Commission had shifted to embossed metal signs as its preferred method of marking roads. Early state route marker signs were taller than they were wide (much like the telephone pole markings they replaced), with squared letterforms and the lettering "W VA State Route" at top. Some of these signs still exist in collector hands, although they're long-gone from the roads.

After rounded fonts made their appearance in the 1948 MUTCD, West Virginia very briefly produced some flat-painted signs with rounded letterforms, but essentially the same design and proportions as before.

A simplified marker on a white square background was introduced in the 1948 version of the MUTCD for junction sign assemblies. Perhaps because its previous route marker looked too much like a speed-limit sign, West Virginia took to this new design in a big way in the 1950s...even using it as a reassurance marker, where the previous route markers were still permitted. Most signs made and posted during this period featured a narrow inner rectangle outline as a nod to previous designs, but a square version also started to appear by 1955.

National road sign standards were amended yet again in 1961, and West Virginia state route marker signs changed to a black background for improved legibility at a distance. Once again these signs existed in "narrow" and "square" versions, with the "square" version taking over entirely by 1971.

Some of the "narrow" signs survived in the field until the 1990s (I distinctly remember seeing one in Princeton back in the day), but they're long-gone now.

In the 1970s, a large number of new highways were commissioned bearing three-digit numbers. Most of these were either connecting roads that had previously been "Alt" routings of other state highways, or upgraded county highways (see below). Simultaneously, the state also began using horizontally-elongated signs for three-digit numbers.

A fair number of newer three-digit West Virginia route marker signs have off-kilter proportions. Please don't ask me why.

County (secondary) routes

Now, this is where things start to get strange...and start to get really interesting.

West Virginia's initial state road system in the 1920s did well connecting the state's through traffic routes and urban centres...but numerous sparsely-populated pockets of the state were left to the devices of unsigned roads. These were little more than rutted two-tracks for wagons and Model Ts to ramble over; left to the custodianship of counties with nonexistent maintenance.

$[WV fractional county highways]$

Obviously, this was a situation that demanded improvement. In 1933, a legislative act was passed placing all roads in West Virginia under state control. Next, the State Road Commission went to work inventorizing and mapping these "lesser" roads. Through roads that connected one place to another were assigned whole numbers (1, 2, 3, et cetera) and treated as secondary "trunks."

Minor connecting and spur roads were treated as "tributaries" of the state highways and secondary trunks they branched off from, and were assigned fractional numbers. The roads abutting Highway 44 would bear the numbers 44/1, 44/2, 44/3, and so on, then reset at the county line. The "denominators" were numbered in the sequential order in which the state inventorized and commissioned them, not always in the order of geography. Nevertheless, a pattern can be seen that lends a sense of direction to the map.

In spite of the fact that these roads are numbered by the state, signed by the state, maintained by the state, and should quite properly be called "secondary state highways" (like the analogous systems in Virginia and North Carolina), they're known almost universally as "county routes" and are indicated in print with a CR prefix. One thing that is county-specific about the roads is their numbering: Each county is allocated its own set of whole and fractional numbers, numbers are duplicated between counties, and county routes can (and often do) change number as they go over county lines.

$[West Virginia fractional county route sign]$

County route numbers have little significance for addressing and wayfinding. There is very little local awareness of the system. Ask someone on the street at right where they live: Most of them would answer "Lilly Addition Road," and some of them might answer with their own pet name for the street. Next to none would say that they live on "20/7," and even fewer would know that "20 over 7" is WVDOT's preferred way for saying it. Nor does the Post Office use the numbers: Whatever mail comes to a county road will probably be addressed something like "Rural Route 2 Box 152," with no connection to road numbers.

Because the fractional road system ended up being exclusively for the domain of traffic engineers, accountants, and map geeks instead of being for addressing or wayfinding, many of the roads became fossilized in time. There's no better example of this than West Virginia Route 44, the example just above. In the 1940s, this highway was renumbered "20." Yet, spur roads with "44"-numerator fractional numbers persist along the road to this day! Similar "numerator artifacts" of rerouted, renumbered, and decommissioned highways can be found all over the state.

Since the traffic patterns in many places have changed since this numbering system was established, numerous anomalies abound. Sometimes an "insignificant" fractionally-numbered road will have evolved to be a major connecting thoroughfare built to "proper" state highway standards with pavement and a central stripe, while a nearby "significant" whole-numbered road is an unpaved relic in the same condition it was in in 1933! The names of roads often change as you follow one number from its beginning to its end...and conversely, the numbers of roads often change when you follow one name along the map. Route designations can also stay in place when the roads and connections between them literally disappear...whether because they've been intersected and obliterated by an Interstate highway, flooded by a dam, or simply abandoned due to lack of traffic and left to return to the earth. After all, a lot can happen to a road in 90 years!

Prior to the 1970s, county routes were posted with small black-and-white signs bearing an arrow and a route circle, separate from any road name signage. Occasionally they were combined with distance signs. Some were also made of wood.

These early signs have captured my imagination since the 1990s, when I (very, very rarely) saw them on road trips. Many were in poor physical condition, and none were posted on a major road. Years afterward, I started to wonder if these signs had even been real, or if they had just been a dream. Thankfully, I've since been able to corroborate them with pictures.

By 1972, county route signage had been redesigned to be green in colour, and to incorporate the road name. The initial versions of the signs also had route numbers in outlined green circles.

Over the last 25 years, the ranks of these green-circle signs have declined so precipitously that they're now borderline-extinct, and I'm only aware of a single assembly in Mercer County that's still posted. (No, I won't tell you where it is.)

County route signs from the 1980s and 1990s changed the route number to appear in black on a white circle. This variation is rapidly becoming uncommon in the field.

In the late 1990s, WVDOT began using mixed-case Series E lettering on county route signs and other small guide signs, with the route number remaining black-on-white as before. New contractor-produced signage continues to adhere to this standard, and this is still the most common sign variant on the roads.

To simplify manufacture, WVDOT began printing the route number in the same green colour used for the rest of the sign in the mid-2010s. These signs exist in many sizes and configurations, including a small arrowless version typically used in areas with dense grids of low-speed roads.

A few county roads are signed with circular black-and-white route markers similar to those for state and U.S. highways. This usually happens only in cases where a state or U.S. highway was "demoted" to secondary status, and traffic patterns dictated signage being kept to the same standards as before.

Though Interstate, U.S., state, and county highways make up the gamut of roads in the Mountain State, there are still other classifications that exist:

Delta roads

Delta roads are a defunct West Virginia classification used for roads that are privately-owned, yet publicly-maintained. Yes, that probably makes your head hurt reading it...

This type of road is explained in more detail on the Delta Roads in Mercer County page.

Home Access Road Program (HARP)

These signs have the same format as a county route sign, but with a number contained within a pentagon instead of a circle. They started appearing en masse over the most minor of minor dead-end roads around the year 2000, and completely threw me for a long time. What is this? As it turns out, this is a "home access road program" sign, used to mark shared driveways or "pipestems" off of through roads.

The program was spearheaded in 1998 by Governor Cecil Underwood, who it seems just didn't want the concept of the ol' Delta Road to die...though this time around, WVDOT at least attempted to gain title to rights-of-way to give the program more legal sheen. HARP route numbers tend to be absurdly-high fractions in the 900s.

Park and forest roads

West Virginia's system of state parks and forests command their own road classification. These roads are unsigned, but carry "invisible" numbers in the 800s that appear within a hexagonal surround on official WVDOT maps.

Park and forest roads are intended strictly for park and forest access, and rarely connect to more than one outside road.

Federal Aid Non-State streets

In the 2010s, official WVDOT maps started including yet another class of numbered road: Federal Aid Non-State (FANS). These are applied to selected streets maintained by municipalities, not by WVDOT, and as with park roads these numbers are "invisible" and never signed in the field.

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