CVE 363
Highway Design
Spring 2024
Introduction to the Roadway Design Process
Reading: Green Book-Chp1
The profession of Transportation
Engineering
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Course Outline
Road Design Process
Design Factors & Criteria
Functional Classification
Traffic Characteristics
Vehicle Characteristics
Driver Characteristics
Road Location
Road Design
Horizontal Alignment
Vertical Alignment
Roadside Design
Pavement Design
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Roadway Design Process
Roadway design: process of developing written &
graphic plans to enable building a road based on
given specifications.
Main purpose: provide safe, efficient, and
economical movement of traffic, while considering
social and environmental impacts due to
construction of new road (i.e., sustainable).
Complex process: many interrelated factors:
Players: engineers, planners, economists,
environmentalists, and politicians.
Civil engineers w skills : highway, traffic, geotechnical,
hydraulic, and structural.
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Factors Influence the Roadway Design
Social:
Land use and City/urban plan
Political and strategic reasons
Environmental:
Air & noise pollution
Wetland & water quality
Storm water drainage
Topography
Optimize earthwork (minimize cost of cuts and fills)
Right-of-way (ROW) needs
Economic factors
Overall cost of road; social costs and benefits
Funding construction
Legal issues
Right-of-way and land and acquisition
Legal responsibility for crashes
Engineering factors/considerations
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Engineering Factors (this course???)
Functional classification
Characteristics of vehicles and users
Traffic volumes and composition
Level of service (LOS)
Design speed
Design vehicle
Cross-section of road
Passenger safety and comfort
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Functional Classification
Practical Considerations
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Green Book
Need standards/policy
Most used:
AASHTO, (2018). A Policy
on Geometric Design of
Highways and Streets,
Fourth Edition. Washington,
D.C . 7th Edition.
Dubai Road Design Manual
Abu Dhabi Road Design
Manual
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What are we going to design?
1. Locational
2. Alignment
• Horizontal Alignments
• Vertical Alignments
3. Roadway typical cross-sectional
4. Access, Intersection/Interchange
5. Pavement
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What Design Criteria?
What decides the criteria to use in design:
Functional Classification
Traffic (flow & target design speed, traffic mix); cve 263
Physical Characteristics of vehicles (size and weight)
Dynamic characteristics of vehicles (accel/decel.,… )
Characteristics of user (drivers, peds, cyclists, skate B)
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Design Criteria (cont.)
What are the criteria for successful road design?
Comfort
Gentle turns, stops, starts, storage/assembly
Safety (driver; pedestrian)
No unexpected elements
Sufficient visibility
Efficient geometric design
Size / dimensions
Shape
Geometry of facility
Sustainability
A combination of the above (efficiency, safety, economy, environment, equity)
Need criteria to optimize/improve the design facility
So here is what we need to understand &
consider in roadway design:
Vehicle dynamic characteristics
Acceleration capability affects
Passing maneuvers
Gap acceptance when crossing a street of making left turns
Freeway entrance maneuvers
Deceleration capability affects
Stopping distance
Vehicle static characteristics (size, weight) important? Why?
Human factors: drivers/peds have limitations….critical consideration?
Road classification: Important, not all roads are the same class! So?
Traffic Characteristics
Traffic
Volume
Daily and Hourly Traffic
Composition of vehicles
Heavy Vehicle (Truck) Percentage
Speed
Design Speed: Maximum safe speed when design
features govern
Operational Speed: Spot speeds on a continuous
flowing section
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