How to merge split lines without affecting vertices.

Question

Greetings,

I have a layer consisting of lines (a road network) that are unnecessarily split at random along straight segments. I want to merge all of these split lines, however I want to keep the vertices where there is a bend in a road, or an intersection. This is a very large shapefile, so if you know of any tools or other processes other than manually merging each segment, the help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

DanPatterson_Retired · Accepted Answer

Dissolve Network—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop would seem to be the tool if you have the network analyst extension.

Or Dissolve—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop  with an unsplit lines option selected

Or Unsplit Line—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop  simpler still

amongst other things