Hazardous materials, or simply ‘Hazmat’, can be defined as a substance that might potentially harm the public or the environment.
A “Hazmat route” is a specific route for Hazardous Materials, designated by various governments or safety institutions (like fire departments) in the United States of America. Specific routes are designated or restricted for the road transport of such goods.

The Federal Motorway Carrier Safety Administration (sub-division of Department of Transportation) in the USA is the organization that collects and publishes the Hazmat routes. Hazmat routes in GeoJunxion data are withdrawn from the publication “National Hazardous Materials Route Registry (Briefly referred to as: NHMRR)” of this organization.

Technical details regarding the data set

▪ Attribution:

    Field                       Description
    1. FID_1                  Unique ID of Hazmat route
    2. HAZTYPE           R (Restricted)
                                    D (Designated)
    3. HAZCLASS         Restricted (HM* routes)
                                    0 ALL Hazardous Materials
                                    1 Class 1—Explosives
                                    2 Class 2—Gas
                                    3 Class 3—Flammable
                                    4 Class 4—Flammable Solid/Combustible.
                                    5 Class 5—Organic.
                                    6 Class 6—Poison.
                                    7 Class 7—Radioactive.
                                    8 Class 8—Corrosives.
                                    9 Class 9—Dangerous (Other).
                                    I Poisonous Inhalation Hazard (PIH).
                                    Designated (HRCQ, RAM, NRHM* routes)
                                  A All NRHM Hazardous materials
                                    B Class 1 – Explosives
                                    I Poisonous Inhalation Hazardous
                                  P Preferred Route' Class 7 - Radioactive
    4. HAZORDER        Displays route order. See explanation in below table.
    5. DELIVERY          Flag 1 if the restriction allows delivering the goods transported.
    6. PICKUP              Flag 1 if the restriction allows picking up the goods to be transported.
    7. VAL_TIME          Validity time (like 0900-2300) Format = time in minutes: tttt-tttt.
                                   Field is empty by default.
    8. VAL_DAY           Value 1-7 are weekdays from Sunday to Saturday (example: attribute

                                   valid from Monday
                                   to Friday will have the value 2-6). Field is empty by default.
    9. VAL_DATE         Validity Date (date format: AUG202014-SEP012014 or

AUG2014-UNKNOWN). Format = MMMddyyyy, where month

is written in characters, or UNKNOWN. Field is empty by default.

▪ Explanation of the attributes:

Haztype
- Restricted Hazmat routes: Routes that are restricted / prohibited for the transport of certain or all Hazardous materials.
- Designated Hazmat routes: Routes that are specifically designated for the transport of certain Hazardous materials.

Hazclass
Hazmat routes that are restricted or designated are divided in several classes, as can be seen in the attribution table.

Hazorder
This attribute shows a code that represents a routing sequence as defined by the Federal Motorway Carrier Safety Administration. The attribute shows certain levels of routes, as can be seen in below table:

order level     Alphanumeric                 Identifier Example
1                     A,B,C…,AA,AB,AC…..     A
2                     1,2,3                                 A1
3                     A,B,C                                A2A
4                     1.0, 2.0, 3.0……               A3A-1.0
5                     A,B,C                                A4A-1.0-A
6                 1,2,3                                 A5A-1.0-A1
7                 A,B,C                                A6A-1.0-A1A
8             1.0, 2.0, 3.0……           A7A-1.0-A1A-1.0
9                 A,B,C                                A8A-1.0-A1A-1.0-A
10                   1,2,3                                 A9A-1.0-A1A-1.0-A1

Individual hazmat routes that do not branch or intersect with other hazmat routes, have order level 1. If hazmat routes connect to each other, then a level 2 is applicable.

▪ Delivery / Pickup attribute
For some restricted Hazmat routes, there are exceptions for local deliveries or pickups. In some cases, hazardous materials need to be delivered to a location in a restricted area, or need to be picked up from a location in a restricted area. If that is the case, the DELIVERY / PICKUP attribute is flagged for that specific restricted hazmat route.

▪ Validity attributes
Restrictions or designations of a hazmat route may be applicable only on certain days of the week, on a certain time of the day, or a certain part of the year. These are captured in the fields VAL_TIME, VAL_DAY, VAL_DATE.