README for “HazMat Routes 2006-2016” dataset. U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) [distributor] 2025-05-29 ---------------------------------------------------------------- LINKS TO DATASET ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. Dataset archive link: https://doi.org/10.21949/1520830 ---------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY OF DATASET ---------------------------------------------------------------- The HazMat Routes 2006-2016 dataset is from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics's (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) periodically publishes the most current National Hazardous Material Route Registry (NHMRR) via a Federal Register Notice (FRN). The NHMRR is the listing of all designated, preferred, and restricted routes provided by states, and tribal governments. The NHMRR does not include routes under Federal entities, except the National Park Service. The NHMRR has three types of routes published in the Registry. 1) Restricted Routes are the routes over which Hazardous Material (HM) shipments cannot be transported. 2) Designated Highway Route Controlled Quantities (HRCQ) / Radioactive Materials (RAM) Routes are mandatory assigned routes for the transportation of highway route-controlled quantities of Class 7 (radioactive) materials and 3) Designated Non-Radioactive Hazardous Materials (NRHM) Routes are mandatory assigned routes for the transportation of nonradioactive hazardous materials. Although items (a)(2) and (b) of section 5112 of title 49, United States Code (U.S.C.) permit States and Tribal governments to designate and limit highway routes, it is up to the states to choose whether to designate Hazardous Material (HM) routes in the State. Some states may not identify routes to be listed under the NHMRR even though they have restrictions for HAZMAT on certain routes. Therefore, the geospatial representation of the NHMRR is not a comprehensive directory of all the HAZMAT routes across all states across the nation as it may have some missing HM routes. ---------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. General Information B. Sharing/Access & Policies Information C. Data and Related File Overview D. Methodological Information E. Data-Specific Information for: HazMat Routes 2006-2016 [datasets] F. Update Log ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. GENERAL INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Title of Dataset: HazMat Routes 2006-2016 [dataset] 1. Description of Dataset: The HazMat Routes 2006-2016 dataset is from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) periodically publishes the most current National Hazardous Material Route Registry (NHMRR) via a Federal Register Notice (FRN). The NHMRR is the listing of all designated, preferred, and restricted routes provided by states, and tribal governments. The NHMRR does not include routes under Federal entities, except the National Park Service. The NHMRR has three types of routes published in the Registry. 1) Restricted Routes are the routes over which Hazardous Material (HM) shipments cannot be transported. 2) Designated Highway Route Controlled Quantities (HRCQ) / Radioactive Materials (RAM) Routes are mandatory assigned routes for the transportation of highway route-controlled quantities of Class 7 (radioactive) materials and 3) Designated Non-Radioactive Hazardous Materials (NRHM) Routes are mandatory assigned routes for the transportation of nonradioactive hazardous materials. Although items (a)(2) and (b) of section 5112 of title 49, United States Code (U.S.C.) permit States and Tribal governments to designate and limit highway routes, it is up to the states to choose whether to designate Hazardous Material (HM) routes in the State. Some states may not identify routes to be listed under the NHMRR even though they have restrictions for HAZMAT on certain routes. Therefore, the geospatial representation of the NHMRR is not a comprehensive directory of all the HAZMAT routes across all states across the nation as it may have some missing HM routes. 2. Dataset archive link: https://doi.org/10.21949/1520830 3. Authorship Information: Principal Data Creator or Data Manager Contact Information Institution: U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington D.C. 20590 Contact: bts@dot.gov Data Distributor Contact Information Name: National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) Institution: U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Office of Spatial Analysis and Visualization (OSAV) Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington D.C. 20590 Email: ntad@dot.gov 4. Date of data collection and update interval: This dataset is not receiving updates. 5. Geographic location of data collection: United States of America 6. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Department of Transportation (DOT) ---------------------------------------------------------------- B. SHARING/ACCESS & POLICIES INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Recommended citation for the data: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). HazMat Routes 2006-2016 [datasets]. https://doi.org/10.21949/1520830 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: These data are in the Public Domain. 2. Was data derived from another source?: No 3.This document was created to meet the requirements enumerated in the U.S. Department of Transportation's 'Plan to Increase Public Access to the Results of Federally-Funded Scientific Research' Version 1.1 << https://doi.org/10.21949/1520559 >> and guidelines suggested by the DOT Public Access website << https://doi.org/10.21949/1503647 >>, in effect and current as of December 03, 2020. ---------------------------------------------------------------- C. DATA & RELATED FILE OVERVIEW ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. File List for the HazMat Routes 2006-2016 dataset. A. Filename: Hazmat_NTAD2006_NTAD2016.zip Short description: Compressed file folders containing the geospatial data for HazMat Routes 2006-2016 dataset. File folders are classified first by initial NTAD publication year and secondly by the final year of publication. B. Filename: bts_NTAD_Hazmat_DMP_20250529.pdf Short description: A PDF file containing the Data Management Plan that was created for current and future management of the data and associated files. C. Filename: bts_NTAD_Hazmat_README_20250529.txt Short description: The README.txt file that includes human-readable information about the data, variable definitions, contact information, and other contextual information. The file you are reading now. 2. File List for the Hazmat_NTAD2006_NTAD2016.zip. A. Filename: NTADXXXX_SHP_Final_Hazmat_Routes_2006 Short description: Compressed file folders containing the geospatial data for HazMat Routes 2006-2016 dataset. File folders are classified by NTAD publication year. Geodatabase (GDB) folders contain all the necessary components to view and otherwise interact with their data. 3a. File List for the NTADXXXX_SHP_Final_Hazmat_Routes_2006.zip collection. A. Filename: hazmat.shp Short description: A shapefile containing the geospatial data for HazMat Routes 2006-2016 dataset. This includes associated files with extensions .prj, .dbf, .sbn, .sbx, .shx. B. Filename: hmroutes.dbf, hmstcnty.dbf, and hnstcnty.db Short description: Database files for ancillary datasets to HaZMat Routes 2006-2016 dataset. C. Filename: hazmat.htm, hazmat.shp.xml, hmroutes.dbf.xml, hmstcnty.dbf.xml, and hnstcnty.dbf.xml Short description: Text files containing key metadata and documentation information such as methodology, procedures, data dictionary, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------- D. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: First, a complete review of the PDF, Excel, and Google map versions of the State HM Route registry was performed to completely understand the structure and content of the HM routes and the attributes. For the geospatial representation of the NHMRR, it was decided that the ARNOLD would be used as the base Linear Referenced System (LRS). The National Network (NN) was used as the base linework for the HAZMAT network. The HAZMAT routes were coded on the individual state NN shapefile. Where the NN network did not have coverage over the HM routes, linework from the 2018 Highway Performance Management System (HPMS) network was used. In case the HPMS network did not have coverage over the HM Routes, the 2019 ARNOLD network was used for the linework. The extents of the HM routes were selected based on the description field of the state route registry and the attributes information was sourced from the other columns of the route tables of the NHMRR. After the HAZMAT routes were updated with the attribute information in the individual state networks, they were combined together to form the Internal maintenance National Hazmat network. After the National HM network was developed, the next step was to develop a public-facing network by removing the attributes that are not very useful for the general public but retained in the internal network because they aid in maintaining and updating the network. The public-facing version of the HAZMAT network is what is published in this dataset on the NTAD. 2. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: The data and documentation files can be opened with Esri ArcMap and any GIS software package. ---------------------------------------------------------------- E. DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HazMat Routes data table This dataset is not receiving updates. A. Number of variables (columns): The data dictionary found in (PDF documentation) provides definitions for the variables B. Data Dictionary/Variable List: Because of the large number of variables, please refer to the Data Dictionary found within the file Hazmat.txt for names, definitions, and formats of variables. C. Missing data codes: None ---------------------------------------------------------------- F. UPDATE LOG ---------------------------------------------------------------- This bts_Hazmat_20250529_README.txt file was originally created on 2021-09-07 by Dominic Menegus, Geographer, dominic.menegus@dot.gov [Note changes or update to the readme.txt file, e.g.:] 2021-09-07: Original file created 2025-05-29: File revision, including dataset descriptions and file organization