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[agentsteel53]

just noticed this photo on Dale Sanderson's site:



here, 21 refers to old US-21, but why the circle shield?  I was under the impression that all WV secondary routes were expressed as a "fraction" - two numbers separated by a horizontal line.  are there other single-number secondaries in WV?

[dave19]

Circle shields are county routes. Some county routes are "fractions", but many are single numbers.

[NE2]

Fractions can be spurs off county or state/US routes. So a 21/1 numbered for US 21 would still be numbered correctly when US 21 became CR 21. Most unfractional county routes are simply the main roads in the county.

Another well-known unfractional route is CR 857, connecting to PA 857.

[Alps]

another fun exercise: see if you can find where a square and circle route intersect with the same number. i'm pretty sure I came across this.

[agentsteel53]

Fractions can be spurs off county or state/US routes. So a 21/1 numbered for US 21 would still be numbered correctly when US 21 became CR 21. Most unfractional county routes are simply the main roads in the county.

Another well-known unfractional route is CR 857, connecting to PA 857.

does WV not use the pentagon?

[Alps]

Fractions can be spurs off county or state/US routes. So a 21/1 numbered for US 21 would still be numbered correctly when US 21 became CR 21. Most unfractional county routes are simply the main roads in the county.

Another well-known unfractional route is CR 857, connecting to PA 857.

does WV not use the pentagon?

There are pentagon routes as well as triangle routes. I have all of the shield types on my page. (see last caption on SR 857 for a brief rundown)

[agentsteel53]

I note the triangle route.

got a photo of a WV pentagon?  are they used similarly to Alabama putting up a pentagon for every driveway and cross street, mainly for emergency operators.

[NE2]

"County routes" (as WVDOT calls them) are the circles, which are state-maintained.

The pentagons in WV are white and house-shaped. (Insert racial joke here.)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew-turnbull/5904974529/

[formulanone]

Here's a couple of non-fractional routes, at/near US 60 in Kenova:





The real oddity I came across was a couple of not-quite-round and not-quite-square shields for WV 527 in Huntington.



While we're at it, a housey-route...



A delta route straggler in Morgantown.



Edit: Fixed broken links.

[hbelkins]

I've only seen a couple of "delta route" markers in all my WV travels. One was off of WV 49 south of Matewan; the other was off of CR 857 between Cheat Lake and the Pennsylvania state line.

[Bitmapped]

I've only seen a couple of "delta route" markers in all my WV travels. One was off of WV 49 south of Matewan; the other was off of CR 857 between Cheat Lake and the Pennsylvania state line.

Delta routes haven't officially existed in a long, long time.  The remaining signs were stragglers.  There were a handful around Morgantown/Cheat Lake left but I think they're all gone now.

[Bitmapped]

another fun exercise: see if you can find where a square and circle route intersect with the same number. i'm pretty sure I came across this.

This situation should not exist.  I've seen where the same route number has been sliced into multiple disconnected pieces by abandonments, but otherwise WVDOH doesn't seem to allow duplication of the same number in a county.  When US 33 was extended into Randolph County in the 1930s, for example, the existing CR 33 was renumbered to CR 37/8.

[hbelkins]

I've only seen a couple of "delta route" markers in all my WV travels. One was off of WV 49 south of Matewan; the other was off of CR 857 between Cheat Lake and the Pennsylvania state line.

Delta routes haven't officially existed in a long, long time.  The remaining signs were stragglers.  There were a handful around Morgantown/Cheat Lake left but I think they're all gone now.

I haven't checked the PDFs of county maps on WVDOT's Web site lately, so I don't know how often they are updated, but the last time I checked, there were several counties with delta routes listed.

I know that I went looking several years ago for a delta route shown on the WVDOT county maps in, I think, Lincoln or Kanawha county (off WV 3 just north of US 119) and it was signed with a standard county route marker (route number and name on one rectangular green sign).

[Henry]

Seems to me that WV always takes everything from VA and pits its own spin on it. (the only difference being that VA does not use fractions in its route numbers, and I don't think any other states do either)

[agentsteel53]

dang, the fractional routes have been around since the 30s?

I've never seen a WV shield for a style other than US and state route earlier than the 60s.  perhaps those minor roads didn't receive embossed shields which stood the test of time?

[hbelkins]

dang, the fractional routes have been around since the 30s?

I've never seen a WV shield for a style other than US and state route earlier than the 60s.  perhaps those minor roads didn't receive embossed shields which stood the test of time?

Very few WV county routes have standalone shields. Most are signed with the road name and the arrow in a rectangular green sign. They have always been signed like this dating back to my memory in the 60s.

[SP Cook]

There are no more Delta routes in WV.  The political history is that there was a big federal government take everybody to jail event in the 1960s at the then called State Road Department.   In WV there are a lot of roads that just developed.  Coal company built it, early settlers built it, railroad built it, whatever.  People live there, somebody has to keep it up and, as noted, WV has no real county highway departments, "County" (the circle signed routes) is just a lesser quality (generally) state highway.  So, the state was in the practice of fixing all of these back roads, but there was no accounting.  A "road" a crew "fixed" might be some pol's driveway, or might just be "we took the gravel and sold it and split the cash".  Since there was no way to account, there was no way to check.  So, as a result of the investigation, they came up with the "Delta" route, which were roads to which the state made no right of way claim but which none-the-less repaired by the state.   All road work has to be "charged off" to a route number  and a mileage.  So, if you say you did X to Delta 78, 3 miles from the JCT of CR 6/89, then an inspector can go look at it and there better be X there.  However, this was just a short term way to get the corruption under control.    By the mid 70s all Delta routes were either established right of way in the state and became County routes, or were abandoned and no longer are under state maintainance.  Any Delta signage you see today is just old signage that never got taken down.

As to the "pentagon", this is not the standard county route pentagon sign used in most states, which has equal sides and rounded corners.  Its supposed to be a picture of a little house (think monopoly houses) with unequal sides and sharp corners.   The program was under a single term governor, Underwood.  The program was called "HARP", for Home Access Roads Program.  It was all politics.  People up a holler, or in a subdivision, filled out a petition and got a sign and "maintain at the current standard" status.  There was no right of way check.  The next gov cancelled it on day one.  But the state is stuck with all of these HARPs, which it has to keep up.  Technically, they are County routes, you would account for work on one as "County HARP 456" for example.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky has a lot of unsigned state routes (think frontage roads along interstates or parkways, or city streets that are state-maintained; most of these show up as purple "supplementary" routes on the county State Primary Road System (SPRS) maps available on KYTC's Web site and generally are four-digit route numbers) but West Virginia sure made it a point to sign just about every one of those HARP routes, which added to the cost of the program.

[Brandon]

SP Cook, so how does the state route system work in West Virginia then?  Is it primary (square) and secondary (circle/fractional) routes, not state and county routes then?

[NE2]

Secondaries are called county routes, despite being state maintained.

[agentsteel53]

Very few WV county routes have standalone shields. Most are signed with the road name and the arrow in a rectangular green sign. They have always been signed like this dating back to my memory in the 60s.

now that I think about it, I have not ever seen a standalone shield for a fractional route.  just green signs.

anyone got a photo of a standalone?

I'd even take a non-fraction, as long as it isn't 857.  I've seen standalone 857 circles, but that's the only one.

[Alex]

Very few WV county routes have standalone shields. Most are signed with the road name and the arrow in a rectangular green sign. They have always been signed like this dating back to my memory in the 60s.

now that I think about it, I have not ever seen a standalone shield for a fractional route.  just green signs.

anyone got a photo of a standalone?

As mentioned up thread, SSR 857 was well signed but now with WV-43 (Mon-Fayette Expressway) completed, its not the main route northward into PA.

[agentsteel53]

ha, yeah, I edited my post to say "not 857; that's the only one I have seen a circle shield for".

any others?

[NE2]

CR 21 (old US 21) and CR 82: http://www.gribblenation.com/wvpics/varied/

[Alps]

Non-fractionals are signed often enough that it's really not worth mentioning. I've never seen a standalone fractional shield, only on green signs, although one of those "Funded by XX Agency" signs had one with a black square background as if a shield.