Happy to add to the knowledge pool. All roads labelled as Public Roads are surveyed public roads, as identified in the cadastral layer, regardless of whether they have been cleared for development. Roads traversing customary land that have been paved or sealed, but are not surveyed, have been provisionally classified as Minor Unclassified Roads until a formal road name is acquired. These are generally referred to as Customary Land Access Roads and lack defined legal boundaries. Relevant naming and boundary details remain under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Lands and Survey and the Lands / Land and Titles Court. The secondary cross island road at malololelei has been defaulted to under construction because sections dont exist.

I’ve been actively working on corrections and additions for the past two months (over 33,000 contributions so far) , and I estimate it will take another two to three months to complete the current phase of work for Upolu.

This project has extended well beyond just highways — I’ve been systematically reviewing and updating nearly every major feature type, including:

Buildings: schools, hospitals, churches, commercial premises, and resorts

Natural features: mangroves, rivers, and beaches

Infrastructure: power stations, water catchments, bridges, and road networks

Other public assets: essential for planning, utility mapping, and emergency response

I’ve not yet progressed to Savai’i, which will form the next stage once the Upolu dataset is brought to a more consistent and reliable standard.

Your support with quality assurance — particularly in validating overlapping highways, duplicate nodes, and routing logic — would be greatly appreciated. If you're open to assisting with Savai’i or running QA using tools like JOSM Validator, Overpass, or MapRoulette, I’d be happy to collaborate and share notes.

Ultimately, my aim is to provide a vastly improved base map that can support the work of relevant authorities, the general public, and visitors alike.

Hi ChromeLotus,

Thanks again for your thoughtful follow-up — I truly appreciate your observations and the constructive spirit of your feedback.

I’ve since made the initial corrections you flagged and will continue reviewing the highway classifications across Samoa, particularly focusing on:

Differentiating paved vs unpaved surfaces,

Clarifying access roads vs residential roads, and

Verifying publicly surveyed vs informal (or undeveloped "paper") roads.

Your point is well taken — while distinguishing minor access routes is helpful for field users, my priority has been ensuring that officially gazetted or surveyed roads are represented first, even where physical development hasn’t yet occurred. This is especially important for government planning, land use coordination, and utilities (e.g., LTA, EPC, SWA, MAFF).

Regarding the additional issues you kindly pointed out (crossings, overlaps, and node duplication) — these are definitely on my radar. I’m currently working through a staged review, beginning with the Apia Urban Area and expanding outward by district.

To your generous offer: yes, I’d be very grateful for additional support in addressing these and other structural issues, particularly where OSM data integrity impacts routing and analysis.

Let’s stay in touch — happy to coordinate if you’re working on a specific area or have tools/scripts to assist with bulk validation.

Best regards,
Leicester (OSM-SAMOA)

Hi ChromeLotus,

Thank you for your message and for taking the time to review my contributions.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused. I’ve been working to tidy up the data across Samoa using cadastral and land survey information available through the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure, where I am currently employed.

There are numerous informal roads, driveways, and off-road tracks across the islands that do not correspond to official surveyed alignments. To address this discrepancy and reduce visual clutter in OSM layers used by key agencies — such as the Land Transport Authority, Samoa Water Authority, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Electric Power Corporation — I’ve defaulted most non-surveyed, single-lane, and grass/muddy access routes to highway=path. This helps our planners distinguish surveyed public roads from informal or private-use access ways.

That said, these paths have not been removed entirely, as they still hold utility value — for example, for water meter locations and power meter access — and are used by GIS teams and field crews across multiple ministries. In Samoan, these are often referred to as "auala galulue" (working roads), and while they’re not legally surveyed or gazetted under the Taking of Lands Act 1964, they remain vital for service and operational access.

Going forward, I agree that a more accurate classification — perhaps highway=track with appropriate access=* or service=* tags — would provide better clarity for both routing and planning. I’ll begin reviewing and updating relevant areas, and I truly appreciate your input on how best to align local conventions with OSM tagging standards.

Please feel free to suggest any tag conventions or regional presets that may improve accuracy while still reflecting our local context. Thanks again for supporting quality mapping in Samoa!

Best regards,
Leicester (OSM-SAMOA)