# Unrouteable area in Southport ME **URL:** \ **Category:** directions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854 "2026-02-03T20:49:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/piratecheese13/32/3683_2.png) [@piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/piratecheese13)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/1 "2026-02-03T20:49:59Z")
Found this weird issue where points in the town Southport Maine wont route. I placed 2 points, one “Before Bridge” that gets no routing issues and one “Past Bridge” that does get routing issues. I thought that OSM might not have data for that area so I used OSM Place Search and the building right next to the “Past Bridge” point is findable. Before making these points, I made a point at every junction between a customer of mine on the southern end of Southport and the bridge. All failed the same as “Past Bridge” ![image](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2b0ae8d5d9d964882f63ee6789e0f623d095c7ff.png) ---
**Author:** ![piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/piratecheese13/32/3683_2.png) [@piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/piratecheese13)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2026, 9:14pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/2 "2026-02-03T21:14:19Z")
Simmilar issue in Boothbay. Only point Griffin Test 5 succeeds but it looks like the route can’t go past where Atlantic Ave turns into Grandview ave. ![image](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/uploads/default/original/2X/4/4daa5cdcd162c9766cb88ac3918619bf2f13a55a.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![andrzej](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/andrzej/32/10_2.png) [@andrzej](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/andrzej)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 8:25am UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/3 "2026-02-04T08:25:51Z")
Thanks for reaching out and for taking the time to investigate and describe the issue in detail! ❤ The reason for the failing routing over Southport Bridge are the lift gates [11761823136](https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/11761823136) and [11761823137](https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/11761823137). As their access status is not explicitly tagged they are assumed to be closed. It’s basically the same issue as described in [Broken routing on motorway? - #6 by andrzej](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/broken-routing-on-motorway/7754/6). More technical details can be found in the GitHub issue referenced therein. As for the Boothbay area, [Grandview Avenue](https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/11453274) is tagged as `access = private` meaning its not open to general public. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/piratecheese13/32/3683_2.png) [@piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/piratecheese13)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 2:46pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/4 "2026-02-04T14:46:24Z")
Thanks for the quick response! I changed both of the barriers’ access All to yes and the private way access for motor vehicles to delivery. Is there a way ORS can check for these values when routing and continue on? Perhaps a param for motorized vehicle that allows for deliveries if you don’t want to be assumptive? ![image](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7bdda39448a7e164a9fa14922784ac125c399c1e.jpeg) ![image](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/uploads/default/original/2X/0/03c77078677bc5d89a3abdb6882a6194332c07fb.jpeg) > **[Key:access - OpenStreetMap Wiki](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:access)** I’m cobbling together a little script to handle multi day / daily hour limit routing and I’ve got a couple customers on Grandview and in Southport. Guess the best way for now is to put a point at the closest routable road tagged “ORS REROUTE [Customer Name] and tell my script to watch out for customer names that start that way and use the time on site field from that point. Unless you think there’s a better option? ---
**Author:** ![jschnell](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/jschnell/32/971_2.png) [@jschnell](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/jschnell)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 2:55pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/5 "2026-02-04T14:55:22Z")
Hey, please make sure that the data in OpenStreetMap reflects the actual (legal) situation on the ground. If the roads in question is a private road, it should not be marked as “delivery” - only if the road signage explicitly states so. The openrouteservice will check for this value, but it will not route any car there - see the [Tag Filtering | openrouteservice backend documentation](https://giscience.github.io/openrouteservice/technical-details/tag-filtering) for that. Are you aware of the `skip_segments`-parameter? Check the [interactive API documentation](https://openrouteservice.org/dev/#/api-docs/v2/directions/%7Bprofile%7D/post) towards the lower end of the parameter list. Best regards ---
**Author:** ![piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/piratecheese13/32/3683_2.png) [@piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/piratecheese13)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/6 "2026-02-04T15:30:05Z")
Gotcha. I’ll check if Grandview has specific signage . I do irrigation work in area so delivery / service the context in which I’ve been there. I’m unsure if there’s a more appropriate tag, I was unable to find one for “service”. Southport is definitely open to the public, the gate is only for when the bridge is swung. I checked the tag filtering. HGV seems to pick up delivery access but still gives a “too far from road” error for that area. What if someone were to put barriers where they exist for railroad crossings? Would this trigger similar issues? ![image](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/uploads/default/original/2X/6/65503a6f932a06e68137e63973bef978af241535.png) Odd, I’m not seeing `skip_segments`or even just “skip” on that page. Googled ORS tools “skip\_segments” and got 3 results, 1 of which seems useful but I would like to see the documentation on that. Overall pretty new to routing and have most of my experience in construction as-built maps. Right now I’m kind of just cannibalizing Directions From 1 Point-Layer. I’m unsure if there is a better way to call directions in qgis. I might make a separate topic for support developing my script. Not sure if that would be appropriate. So far I’ve got it 85% and just need to handle edge cases like this. Sorry if I’m making some obvious mistakes. Edit: Grandview does have a “Visitors to Inn are welcome” for the business there so I think permissive would be correct? ---
**Author:** ![andrzej](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/andrzej/32/10_2.png) [@andrzej](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/andrzej)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 1:08am UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/7 "2026-02-05T01:08:12Z")
Given the circumstances I believe `permissive` might be indeed the most appropriate access value. Regarding `skip_segments` parameter: it’s definitely listed in the docs, see below. It results in a beeline distance for the specified segments. ![image](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/uploads/default/original/2X/9/930345c774b6793f9a29d2c71d9ed0beb55c7c11.png) ---
**Author:** ![piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/piratecheese13/32/3683_2.png) [@piratecheese13](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/piratecheese13)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 6:02pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/8 "2026-02-05T18:02:27Z")
Ahh I see, it’s not on the page until I click into it. Also skip\_segments could be useful, but Maine has a lot of peninsulas and my little script is doing a basic “who’s closest by coordinates” search before selecting the next route candidate. If one of my customers in South Bristol thinks they are closest by coordinates to a customer who can’t be routed in Boothbay and gets skip\_segment , then it will shoot over the Damariscotta river with a short segment where i really ought to have the full route around as well as the time Is there a way to make it route as close as possible, then skip segment? Perhaps a check for if route fails, then use snap to generate a point closest to a routable road, then skip segment, then skip segment back to the point , then route from that point to the next customer before point deletion. ---
**Author:** ![andrzej](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/user_avatar/ask.openrouteservice.org/andrzej/32/10_2.png) [@andrzej](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/andrzej)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 10:07pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/unrouteable-area-in-southport-me/7854/9 "2026-02-05T22:07:01Z")
Thanks for your feedback! To circumvent the issue with failing routes due to snapping problems you could also try the `radiuses` parameter to increase the snapping radius.