Key:construction
 construction
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| Description |
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Used together with the top-level tags like highway=construction or building=construction to describe the type of feature which is currently under construction. 
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| Group: lifecycle |
| Used on these elements |
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| Documented values: 7 |
| Useful combination |
| See also |
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| Status: de facto |
| Tools for this tag |
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This key is mostly used together with the tags building=construction, highway=construction, landuse=construction or railway=construction to describe the type of the feature which is currently under construction.
Major road and rail construction schemes typically take several years to complete. Use this key to denote active construction sites (for projects being planned, where there is little or no evidence of them on the ground, avoid tagging them or use proposed=* instead).
Already existing features may be closed for a short time for temporary construction (e.g., old, damaged roads getting rebuilt or a road closed over a weekend to replace a sewer pipe). Don't use construction=* to tag such short-term closures; consider using conditional restrictions instead. As OSM data is often used offline (and therefore may be several months old), only tag construction sites (particularly roads and railroads) if they are planned to be closed for at least six to nine months.
Usage
Use in well-defined combinations of building=construction, highway=construction, landuse=construction or railway=construction + construction=<value>. The value of the construction=* key should be one of those defined below and indicates the type of feature being built (you can use any value from highway=*, railway=* and building=*). For example: highway=construction+construction=primary describes a highway which is under construction and its type after the construction has finished will be primary.
A deprecated option is to set the tag construction=yes. While this allows you to tag just about any feature as being "under construction", it breaks data for anybody not supporting it, and is therefore not recommended. A lifecycle prefix is usually the preferable alternative for such features.
If you know the date on which a construction site is expected to be completed, you can tag it with opening_date=*. Additionally, you can use check_date=* to denote when you last checked/updated the values. This can be useful as large construction projects are often delayed. For some construction projects the planned opening date may be unknown or difficult to ascertain.
For instance, to tag a residential road under construction, use highway=construction and construction=residential. To tag a tramway under construction, use railway=construction, construction=tram.
Since the use of cascading tags as the standard for highways and railways is dominating, but lifecycle prefixes are used in other contexts, some are also adding the namespace approach to support possible future standardization and deprecation of current standard. For example construction:railway=tram.
Highways
In addition to using highway=construction, you should also tag the type of highway being built by using construction=*. For instance, to mark a primary road under construction, tag it with highway=construction and construction=primary.
For minor road-works (where the road in question remains open), use construction=minor (and don't use highway=construction, but leave it at its default value).
Values
highway=construction with any of the following values for construction=* will render on the default OSM Carto layer at zoom level 12 and above:
| Value | Element | Comment | Rendering carto |
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| motorway motorway_link |
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Motorway under construction Motorway sliproad under construction |
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| trunk trunk_link |
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Important non-motorway road under construction Sliproad to an important non-motorway road under construction |
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| primary primary_link |
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Primary road under construction Sliproad to a primary road under construction |
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| secondary secondary_link |
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Secondary road under construction Secondary road link under construction |
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| tertiary tertiary_link unclassified residential |
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Tertiary road under construction Tertiary road link under construction Unclassified road under construction Residential road under construction |
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| living_street | |
Living street under construction | 
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| road raceway |
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Road with unknown classification under construction Raceway road under construction |
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| pedestrian | |
Pedestrianised road under construction | 
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| service | |
Service road under construction | 
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| track bridleway cycleway footway path steps |
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Track under construction Bridleway under construction Cycleway under construction Foot path under construction (alternative tag <construction=footpath>) Path under construction Steps under construction |
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Railways
Similarly to highways above, tag the railway under construction with railway=construction and the type of railway being built with construction=*. Some add also construction:railway=*. The following values for construction=* will render on Osmarender at zoom levels 14 and above:
| Value | Element | Comment | Rendering carto |
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| rail | |
Standard gauge railway under construction |  |
| narrow_gauge | |
Narrow gauge railway under construction | |
| light_rail | |
Light-railway under construction | |
| tram | |
Tramway under construction | |
| preserved | |
Preserved railway under construction e.g. for steam trains | |
| subway | |
Subway under construction | 
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| monorail | |
Monorail under construction |
Land uses
When combined with landuse=construction, this tag can be used to specify what the landuse will be once construction is completed. Typically, these will be one of the common "developed land" values - for example construction=residential when mapping an under-construction housing development.
Buildings
building=construction with construction=* describing type of building being constructed is in use. For example building=construction construction=apartments
Notes
Since most construction sites are not accessible to the public, it might be tough to get detailed GPS tracks of roads which have not yet been built. In that case, it's sufficient to roughly trace the route, and increase the detail level once the road is open.
See also
- For other tags (e.g., leisure=*) please use a lifecycle prefix instead: construction:leisure=playground.
- proposed=*, for features which are being planned, but for which construction has not yet started.