I've debated adding on to this thread or this older thread, or discussing the issue from a WME policy standpoint outside of "update the wiki" context, but at the end of the day I decided to create a new thread here narrowly defining my specific confusion/frustration with the wiki guidelines, specifically a lack of recognition of different types of construction: changing old roads vs. adding new ones.

Use case: there is active construction in an area. As part of this new construction, new roads are being built which have never existed before. They go through the following phases: (1) They don't exist. (2) They are graded dirt roads for construction vehicle access but marked off with "Road Closed" signs to the public. (3) They are paved roads still marked with "Road Closed" signs. (4) They are opened to the public.

Other factors to consider: (1) the number of these such cases is non-trivial. Dozens at a time within a 5-10 mile radius. (2) The date the road opens to the public is uncertain: they are typically associated with private entities (e.g., new home builders) without a set/published completion schedule. They open when they open. Or, if a public new construction project (e.g. a new overpass), the completion date is typically "Summer 2015" rather than a specific construction timetable. Or sometimes there is simply a stub of a road for some unspecified future construction, that's barricaded off.

Road Closures identifies "five methods" to control traffic flow. Option 1 (mega event), 3 (client closures), and 4 (time-of-day scheduled restrictions) don't apply here.

Option #5, disconnecting the roads, states, "Road segments should only be physically disconnected if the road is no longer intended to connect or is being permanently removed. While In the past, this method was used for longer term construction projects, the Road Closure feature should now be used." Other places state disconnection as a "last resort".

So ultimately this page is telling me that option #2, Road Closures, is the only acceptable option.

However, the Road Closure Form (USA) has several fields that are required, but are not really relevant to the use case cited above. Start date and time? The road never existed. So the "start" date and time are irrelevant (or just 'right now'). End date and time? In the use case considered, it's unknown with any reasonable accuracy. We can estimate (e.g., put in July 1, 2015 at 00:00:00 for 'summer 2015') but that may end the closure too early, or possibly be too late.

The Road Closure page has a Weeks, Months, Years section that would seem to be applicable, but it links to Partial Restrictions, whicih don't apply here, or to the Road Construction page which you'd think would apply. But that page simply circularly references back to the Road Closure page with the words "After you close the road" and then talks about naming conventions.

In summary, it appears that the only options to handle new construction roads like this are:

(1) Don't build any roads until they're open. Then try to do it all at once, accurately, on the day it opens. This isn't really a good option for a volunteer editing force that isn't always available (or aware) of the instant roads open. The result is open roads without being on the waze map until someone paves the road.

(2) Build a road in advance and immediately submit a closure request for it, guessing at the end date. Other than option (1) above, this appears to be the only permitted option (according to the Wiki). This will effectively permit routing to work as designed, but it will also clutter the map with a lot of bright red candy-cane stripes and balloons with road closed barriers. One closed road might not be a big deal, but if you're in an area with several of these, having these annoying features on user's small phone screens for months and years seems to violate the "Usability" tenet of waze.

In addition to lots of bright red map-spam for months and years, this method suffers from the following bad side effects when the end date is uncertain:

• Road segments associated with closures are typically locked at a higher level
• Road closures automatically disappear when users drive through the closed roads
• This leaves stray segments on the map locked to a higher level, and as they're the newest roads, they are most likely to need editor attention, resulting in increased workload and editing delays associated with requesting the segment be unlocked.

(3) Build the road in advance and leave it unconnected. The wiki specifically says not to disconnect existing roads unless they're being deleted (the opposite case of new construction), but what if roads were never connected in the first place? Is this not a viable plan? Can/should it be done only with AM/SM/Champ approval? In which case, should that be documented on the Wiki?

(4) Build the road and use simple turn restrictions to discourage waze from routing on it.

(NOTE: This is not listed as a permitted option in the Wiki. This thread is an attempt to open a discussion on whether it should be permitted, with certain caveats on limited circumstances. Or, if it is already permitted in limited circumstances, the wiki should document those instead of throwing every single possible construction scenario into the one-size-fits-all Road Closure candy-cane generator.)

There are some disadvantages to this method, but I believe they are reasonable:

• Waze can still route through disabled turns, but only if there are not ample other options nearby, which there typically are in the use case I've described. As long as the editor is certain of alternative roads in the near vicinity, this shouldn't be an issue.
• Editors may not be aware of when a segment opens to the public. But unlike the option (2) result of road closures disappearing and leaving a swath of high-level-locked segments, Waze is smart enough to alert editors that drivers are passing through a turn marked as restricted, prompting them to update their maps.

I apologize if some of this sounds like a rant. And if I'm incorrectly proposing a policy change in a non-policy forum. My intention here is to narrowly focus on the Road Closures wiki shortcomings, specifically:

• Document acceptable cases for disconnected roads beyond "roads to be permanently removed", even if it includes a caveat that "approval from XYZ is required".
• Expand the document/link on "construction" to do more than circularly link back to the same page you just left. The wiki is woefully inadequate about talking about new road construction. It only seems to pretend that construction on existing roads exists. If using the Road Closures Form for new road construction with unknown end dates is actually desired, please say so. If there are better ways to build new roads, point to that documentation instead.