The OS MasterMap Highways Network has been designed to be INSPIRE compliant. INSPIRE is the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe. It is designed to ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the Member States of the European Community are compatible and usable between member states to improve decision making and operations. The INSPIRE Transport Networks Data Specification forms the basis of the specifications for the three OS MasterMap Highways Network products.

Technical specifications

OS MasterMap Highways Network specifications have also been extended to include additional properties included in British Standard 7666-1:2006, spatial datasets for geographical referencing.

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads – Technical Specification

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Routing and Asset Management Information – Technical Specification

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths – Technical Specification

The coordinate reference system used by OS MasterMap Highways Network is the British National Grid. The British National Grid (BNG) spatial reference system uses the OSGB36 geodetic datum and a single Transverse Mercator projection for the whole of Great Britain. Positions on this projection are described using easting and northing coordinates in units of metres. The BNG is a horizontal spatial reference system only; it does not include a vertical (height) reference system.

In the Geography Markup Language (GML) data, this is represented by reference to its entry in the EPSG registry, as http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/27700.

The OS MasterMap Highways Network product family provides an authoritative road and path network for Great Britain. The products are the result of collaboration between Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace and Improvement Service to bring together Ordnance Survey’s detailed road and path information, the National Street Gazetteer (NSG), the Trunk Road Street Gazetteer (TRSG) and the Scottish Street Gazetteer (SSG).

The Highways Network integrates the Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) from the gazetteers with the most detailed definitive geometry from Ordnance Survey. The OS MasterMap Highways Network was produced in partnership with GeoPlace and the Local Government Association, and as of March 2021, it contains data created and maintained by Scottish Local Government.

The OS MasterMap Highways Network family of products includes a road network, a path network, connectivity across British islands through a ferry network, plus routing and asset management information.

The product family includes three products:

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Routing and Asset Management Information (RAMI)

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths

Key features of the products

OS MasterMap Highways Network products contain several features, including the following:

• Unique Street Reference Number (USRN)

• Road names from the naming and numbering authority

• Department for Transport (DfT) road classifications

• Road maintenance authority

• Motorway junction to junction information

• Routing information

• Vehicle height, weight, width and length restrictions information

• Special designations

• Road reinstatement information

• Connected network across Great Britain, including islands, through the Ferry Network

One of the key strengths of the products is the collection of street information at the local highway authority level. The benefit of this is that the data capture is at the earliest point of creation within a local highway authority and there is detailed local knowledge driven by statutory requirements.

Product applications

OS MasterMap Highways Network is designed to be used as a single source of highway asset management by private and public sectors alike. It can be used for the following applications:

• As a source for legal road identifications

• To estimate costs or benefits of road policies

• For efficient funding allocations and evidence-based policy making, including:

  • Managing policies

  • Producing statistics

  • Allocating funding

  • Supporting legislation

• Asset management

• Journey planning, routing and navigation

• Emergency service and civil contingency planning

• Transport planning

• Smart cities

Index

This overview includes the following sections:

• Standards

• Coordinate reference system

• Feature types

• Product supply

• Product packaging

• File naming

• Feature validation data set

• Volume feature count

• OS Open Roads Lookup Table

A Rode Node is a topological node connecting to at least one Road Link, providing network connectivity. It is a point used to represent connectivity between Road Links or the end of a road. A Road Node will hold information on its classification, and if it forms a part of a numbered junction, then the Road Node will provide this number.

OS MasterMap Highways Network products' features are classified into feature types. Each feature type has associated attribution, and further detail of this can be found in each product's technical specification.

Core features included in the Roads product

• Road Link

• Road Node

• Road

• Street

• Road Junction

• Ferry Link

• Ferry Node

• Ferry Terminal

Core features included in the RAMI product

• Road Link

• Road Node

• Road

• Street

• Road Junction

• Ferry Link

• Ferry Node

• Ferry Terminal

• Access Restrictions

• Turn Restrictions

• Restrictions For Vehicles

• Hazards

• Structures

• Maintenance

• Reinstatement

• Highways Dedication

• Special Designations

Core features included in the Paths product

• Path Link

• Path Node

• Connecting Link

• Connecting Node

• Path

• Street

• Ferry Link

• Ferry Node

• Ferry Terminal

• Maintenance

• Reinstatement

• Highways Dedication

• Special Designations

Comparison of the feature types included across the three products

The following comparison table details the feature types present within the OS MasterMap Highways Network products. The letter Y indicates that a feature type is present in a product, whereas the letter N indicates that a feature type is not present in a product.

The following pages give a description for each feature type.

A Road Link is a line segment representing the general alignment of the road carriageway. It can represent single carriageways, dual carriageways, slip roads, roundabouts and indicative trajectories across traffic squares. It defines the geometry and connectivity of a road network between two points. Road Links hold information on the road name, classification, form, length and other attributes which are specified in the OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads Technical Specification.

A Connecting Node is a point feature which identifies where a Path connects to the Road Network. The Connecting Node connects to the start or end of one or more Road Links and they are spatially coincident with Road Nodes.

A Path Node is a topological node connecting to at least one Path Link, providing network connectivity. It is a point used to represent connectivity between Path Links or the end of a road.

A Path feature is like a Road feature as it holds information about path names which have been captured by Ordnance Survey. A Path feature is a link set which will reference the Path Links which share the same name, irrespective of which local authority is responsible for it. A Path Link could be referenced by multiple Path features.

A Path Link is a line segment representing the alignment of a path. Path Links hold information about the name of the path, its length and its nature, alongside other attribution which is detailed in the OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths Technical Specification. Path Links define the geometry and connectivity of the Path Network between two points.

Path Links will be captured where:

• They provide a route that cannot be inferred from the Road Network

• They provide connectivity between road networks

• There is a canal path or tow path

• There are paths over footbridges and under subways

Path Links will not be captured where:

• They run parallel to the Road Network, for example, a pavement

• They are within school boundaries and cemeteries where there are closing times

• They are connected to a motorway

• There is a physical obstruction which prevents connectivity

• There are multiple paths that essentially serve the same purpose when some rationalisation is applied

The Road and Path Network are topologically structured together. Connecting Links enable this connection between the Road Network and the Path Network. A Connecting Link is a line segment which represents a logical connection between the Path Network and the Road Network; it does not represent a real-world feature.

A Road feature holds information about road names and road numbers which have been captured by Ordnance Survey. A Road feature will reference the Road Links which share the same name (for example, Wellington Road in the image below) or number (for example, the A41 in the lower image), irrespective of which local authority is responsible for it. The link set may not be contiguous across junctions or where a road consists of separate sections, which may be separated by some considerable distance. A Road Link could be referenced by multiple Road features.

The road and path networks are connected to the ferry network through the Ferry Terminal feature, which acts as a network connection feature. The Ferry Terminal is a logical connection and therefore no geometry is supplied. In addition to connecting the networks together, the Ferry Terminal feature will also provide the terminal name and the three-letter NaPTAN code used by the Government to identify terminals uniquely.

The Street feature is the definition of the Street as defined in the National or Scottish Street Gazetteer. Local authorities have a statutory responsibility which means that they are the source of information for both street naming and managing the highways / roads network.

Each Street feature has a USRN (Unique Street Reference Number), a unique and persistent identifier for a street contained in either the National or Scottish Street Gazetteer. Every street, road, track, path, cycle track or way is assigned a USRN by a Roads Authority, Local Highway Authority or Highways England. Each authority is provided a USRN range that is centrally allocated and managed by GeoPlace in England and Wales and by Improvement Service in Scotland.

A Street feature encompasses both Roads and Paths. Therefore, a Street feature will reference the Road Links or Path Links. Where a Street crosses an administrative boundary, a new Street feature will be created. A Road Link or Path Link could be referenced by multiple Street features.

The Street features which are supplied with the RAMI product will contain all Street features which have either been matched to at least one Road Link or have not been matched. The Street features which are supplied with the Paths product will only contain Street features which have only been matched to a Path Link.

A Ferry Link is a line segment that connects the road network and path networks across bodies of water. The link can represent the route a ferry may take between terminals; otherwise, the link will be a straight line between two terminals. In addition to connectivity information, a Ferry Link also provides data on who operates the service and if the service is limited to pedestrians. A Ferry Link will only be captured where both terminals are within Great Britain and where there is a timetabled service available to the public.

A Ferry Node is a point feature which identifies where the Ferry Network terminates. They will always be referenced by at least one Ferry Link.

An Access Restriction is a feature where access to a road or area by vehicles can be legally prohibited. Prohibited access restrictions are indicated by regulatory signs with a red circle or a no entry sign. In addition, access could be limited for use by particular classes of vehicle; these are indicated by regulatory signs with a blue circle. Access restrictions may also include exemptions to the restriction. The Access Restriction Feature Type comprises these types of restrictions.

Maintenance provides information about whether a Path is maintained at public expense by a national or local highway authority, by a road authority or is maintained by another responsible organisation (i.e. not maintained at public expense). If a Path is prospectively maintainable at public expense, then this is not currently maintained by a road or highway authority, but the responsible organisation has started the process for a highway or road authority to become responsible for the maintenance of the Street at public expense.

A Road Junction holds information about junction names and numbers. The feature will reference all the Road Nodes which correspond to the junction the feature is representing. Multiple Road Junction features could reference a Road Node. In the current release, the Road Junction feature will only identify Numbered Motorway Junctions.

A Turn Restriction is a restriction based upon a vehicle manoeuvre. The types of restriction include a prohibitive driving instruction, a mandatory driving instruction and implicit restrictions. Prohibited instructions are indicated by road signs within a red circle, and examples include No U-turns, No Right Turn and No Left Turn. These can include exceptions to the instruction and are typically elements like Except for Buses. Mandatory driving instructions are indicated by road signs within a blue circle or are painted on the roadway, and examples include Turn Right and Ahead Only. Implicit restrictions occur where a turn is not signed as prohibited but would not be a normal manoeuvre, for example, where a road splits around a traffic island or at complex junctions where additional geometry has been captured to reflect the traffic flow. These are not differentiated from actual signed restrictions.

Restrictions For Vehicles are restrictions that apply to the physical characteristics of vehicles. These are required to protect structures such as bridges and tunnels from damage, or to restrict / prohibit use by vehicles that exceed dimensions, usually for physical reasons. In addition, Restrictions For Vehicles includes exemption to the restriction when specific use conditions apply (for example, loading and unloading). The restrictions include:

• Maximum Height

• Maximum Width

• Maximum Length

• Maximum Weight

Height, width, length and weight restrictions may be defined using either regulatory signs or warning signs. By default, the restriction is always provided in the metric unit, and the imperial measure will be provided where it is signed.

Structures are the location of key built features that relate to the highway network. The types of features provided include bridges; barriers which can control, obstruct or prevent passage or access; tunnels, and equipment which would control the flow of traffic.

Hazards are locations which are hazardous and where caution should be taken to ensure safe travel. Hazards are usually signed using a warning sign. Hazards include Fords and Dangerous Bends.

Reinstatement defines the standard to which the highway must be restored to following opening due to works in the highway, as defined in the New Roads and Street Works Act Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways in England and Walesand the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Roads in Scotland.

Highway Dedications provide an indication of the type of user who has access to that particular section of the Highway. Highway Dedications may reference public rights of way but are not a definitive record of such.

Every section of geometry supplied by a local highway authority will have a type of dedication associated, in line with the Highways Act 1980 and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which determine the highway user access.

Available formats

OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads and OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths are supplied in three formats:

• Geography Markup Language (GML 3.2.1)

• GeoPackage

• Vector tiles (MBTiles)

All three formats are compressed into a regular zip file (.ZIP).

OS MasterMap Highways Network – RAMI is supplied in two formats:

• GML 3.2.1

• GeoPackage

Both formats are compressed into a regular zip file (.ZIP).

Supply mechanism

The three OS MasterMap Highways Network products are available to Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) Members, commercial customers and partners through the OS Data Hub.

The products are available as both Full Supply and change-only update (COU), and customers can order an area of interest (AOI) or a Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS). The products are available as a download for all customers, and on DVD for customers ordering a MGBS.

Typical data volumes for Full Supply

Uncompressed file sizes for the Full Supply of England, Scotland and Wales in the three available data formats are as follows:

Geography Markup Language (GML)

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads: 29GB

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – RAMI: 43GB

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths: 11GB

GeoPackage (GPKG)

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads: 8.5GB

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – RAMI: 3GB

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths: 5GB

Vector tiles (MBTiles)

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads: 1.5GB

• OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths: 0.4GB

Coverage

All three products cover Great Britain.

Information from the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) will only be provided for England and Wales. Information from the Scottish Street Gazetteer (SSG) will only be provided for Scotland.

Non-geographic chunks

OS MasterMap Highways Network products will only be supplied as non-geographic chunks. Non-geographic chunking is a way of dividing up data into chunks that are supplied in separate volumes that have a feature count, as opposed to a given geographic National Grid area. For this reason, it is possible for features from various geographic locations to appear in one volume and for adjacent features to appear in different volumes. Non-geographic chunk volumes are designed to be loaded into spatial databases but can be used in a file format if all chunks are translated or imported into the system at the same time. For information on the volume feature counts for each feature type in OS MasterMap Highways Network, please see the Volume feature count page.

Currency

The product will be refreshed on a monthly basis.

GML file naming

The file naming for the OS MasterMap Highways Network GML will be constructed as Highways_ProductName_FeatureType_SupplyType_NullorDelete_volumenumber.gml.gz, where:

• Highways identifies that the GML is from the OS MasterMap Highways Network product family.

• ProductName is the name of the product that is being supplied, for example, Roads.

• FeatureType is the name of the feature type that is being supplied in the GML file, for example, Road Link.

• SupplyType is the type of supply the GML is, for example, Full Supply or COU.

• NullorDelete will not be present in any GML file names if the GML forms part of a Full Supply. If the GML forms part of a COU supply, then Delete will identify if the file contains all the features which need removing from the customer holding as a part of the COU application.

• volumenumber will be the volume number for the file, which will be three digits, and the first volume will be 001.

Examples of the GML file names:

• Highways_Roads_RoadLink_Full_001.gml.gz

• Highways_RoadsAndRAM_AccessRestriction_Full_001.gml.gz

• Highways_Paths_Maintenance_Full_001.gml.gz

• Highways_Roads_RoadNode_COU_001.gml.gz

• Highways_Roads_RoadNode_COU_Delete_001.gml.gz

• Highways_RoadsAndRAM_RoadLink_COU_001.gml.gz

• Highways_RoadsAndRAM_RoadLink_COU_Delete_001.gml.gz

• Highways_Paths_PathLink_COU_001.gml.gz

• Highways_Paths_PathLink_COU_Delete_001.gml.gz

GeoPackage file naming

The file naming for the OS MasterMap Highways Network GeoPackage will be constructed as OSMasterMapHighwaysNetworkProductName_gb.gpkg.

Examples of GeoPackage file names:

• OSMasterMapHighwaysNetworkRoad_gb.gpkg

• OSMasterMapHighwaysNetworkPath_gb.gpkg

• OSMasterMapHighwaysNetworkRAMI_gb.gpkg

Vector tiles file naming

The file naming for the OS MasterMap Highways Network vector tiles will be constructed as OSMasterMapHighwaysNetworkProductName_gb.mbtiles.

Examples of the vector tiles file names:

• OSMasterMapHighwaysNetworkRoad_gb.mbtiles

• OSMasterMapHighwaysNetworkPath_gb.mbtiles

A feature validation data set (FVDS) reports on all the data it expects to find in the customer’s holding after the application of the supply. It does not identify what is contained in the supply if the order is not a Full Supply. This enables a customer to validate that the data holding contains the correct set of features after loading the data with which it was supplied. All orders of OS MasterMap Highways Network products will be supplied with a FVDS.

A FVDS is divided into files on a non-geographic basis, and each FVDS will contain up to 4 million rows in a single volume. Where a file will exceed 4 million rows, a new FVDS volume will be created.

The FVDS is a comma-separated value (.csv) file that provides the ID, version date and feature type of every feature that should exist in the current data holding; the fields are separated by a comma. Each row will be terminated by Carriage Return / Line Feed, and where a field has no value in a record, two commas will be placed together in the record (one for the end of the previous field and one for the end of the null field).

The FVDS will not contain any header information. There will be three columns within each file: ID, Version Date and Feature Type. Each FVDS file is compressed using gzip.

Columns within each FVDS file

• ID: The ID (gml:id) of the OS MasterMap Highways Network feature.

• Version Date: The beginLifespanVersion attribute of the feature. This is the date when this feature came into existence, and it will be formatted as follows: YYYY-MM-DD. For example, 2016-06-12.

• Feature Type: A textual description of the feature type that the record refers to.

When a customer receives an order from the OS Data Hub, the product will be packaged with the following elements:

Data folder

The data folder will contain the GML, GeoPackage or vector tiles files which make up the ordered product. The data folder will have been compressed to data.zip to enable a single download of the product. Once this has been downloaded, the data.zip file will contain all the data files which make up the ordered product and these files will have been compressed using gzip.

Doc folder

For GML, the doc folder will contain a summary.gml file which will contain specific information about the customer order, including:

• The order number

• Query extent polygon(s) of the order

• The order type: Full Supply or COU

• For COU orders, the change-since date

The doc folder will have been compressed to doc.zip to enable a single download of the associated documents.

The GeoPackage and vector tiles formats will have the same folder structure, but will be available for Great Britain coverage only, so will not contain COU files.

Resources folder

The resources folder will contain the product’s , and a . The folder will have been compressed to resource.zip to enable a single download of the resources; within the zipped folder, the contents will have been compressed.

Special Designations are statutory and advisory designations that can be applied to protect a highway when street works are to be undertaken. Special Designations exist to reduce the bureaucracy involved in managing street works, with an emphasis on minimising delay and inconvenience to road users, whilst protecting the integrity of the street and any apparatus on it.

OS Open Roads is part of Ordnance Survey’s OpenData product portfolio and is a structured road network which has been generalised to 1:15 000 scale. The OS Open Roads Lookup Table provides the ID of the OS MasterMap Highways Network Road Link feature and the ID of the feature which represents the same feature in the OS Open Roads product which could be either a Road Link or a Road Node. The lookup table will enable a customer to share information they have calculated and pinned to the OS MasterMap Highways Network easily through the OS Open Roads product. Not all Road Link IDs from OS MasterMap Highways Network are included in the lookup table, particularly where the Road Links are shorter than 20m.

The lookup table has been provided as a comma-separated value (.csv) file so the attributes are separated by a comma. Each row will be terminated by Carriage Return / Line Feed, and where an attribute has no value in a record, two commas will be placed together in the record (one for the end of the previous attribute and one for the end of the null attribute). The file will be supplied with headers, and the information is detailed in the sub-sections below.

The CSV file containing the lookup table will be supplied with all orders of OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads or OS MasterMap Highways Network – RAMI and will be a national set, including with area of interest (AOI) orders. The lookup table is updated every six months, aligned to when OS Open Roads is released. During this period, some of the OS MasterMap Highways Network Road Link IDs could change, be removed from the product or have new IDs inserted which will not be represented in the lookup table because the OS Open Roads product has not been updated to reflect this change. The version of OS MasterMap Highways Network with which the OS Open Roads lookup table is aligned can be identified in the file name.

The file is named OSOpenRoadLookUpTable_YYYY_MM.csv, where YYYY is the four-digit year and MM is the two-digit month (for example, OSOpenRoadLookUpTable_2017_09.csv).

Headers included in the CSV file

Constraints:

• When OSOpenRoads_RoadLinkIdentifier is null, OSOpenRoads_RoadNodeIdentifier cannot be null.

• When OSOpenRoads_RoadNodeIdentifier is null, OSOpenRoads_RoadLinkIdentifier cannot be null.

RoadLink_ID attribute

The ID of the OS MasterMap Highways Network Road Link feature being represented in OS Open Roads.

• Size: 20

• Multiplicity: [1]

OSOpenRoads_RoadLinkIdentifier attribute

The Road Link identifier in OS Open Roads that the Highways feature has been generalised to.

• Size: 38

• Multiplicity: [0..1]

OSOpenRoads_RoadNodeIdentifier attribute

The Road Node identifier in OS Open Roads which the Highways feature has been generalised to (for example, a collapsed roundabout).

• Size: 38

• Multiplicity: [0..1]

The OS MasterMap Highways Network products are only being supplied as non-geographic chunks, so the data will be supplied in volumes based on a feature count. The following table identifies the volume feature count used for each volume per feature type (maximum number of features per GML file):