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What Is Geometric Design of Highway?

Geometric design of highways determines the layout and visible features of highways. It aims to maximize safety and comfort for drivers while ensuring efficient traffic flow. Key elements considered include the cross section, gradients, intersections, and sight distances. Design is influenced by vehicle characteristics, driver behavior, traffic patterns, and more. The primary goals are optimizing traffic efficiency and safety while minimizing costs and environmental impacts. Important factors in design include the design speed, topography, vehicle types, traffic volumes, and human factors. Design speed, in particular, influences elements like curve radii and sight distances.

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JOHN KENNETH JIMENO
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233 views6 pages

What Is Geometric Design of Highway?

Geometric design of highways determines the layout and visible features of highways. It aims to maximize safety and comfort for drivers while ensuring efficient traffic flow. Key elements considered include the cross section, gradients, intersections, and sight distances. Design is influenced by vehicle characteristics, driver behavior, traffic patterns, and more. The primary goals are optimizing traffic efficiency and safety while minimizing costs and environmental impacts. Important factors in design include the design speed, topography, vehicle types, traffic volumes, and human factors. Design speed, in particular, influences elements like curve radii and sight distances.

Uploaded by

JOHN KENNETH JIMENO
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WHAT IS GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF HIGHWAY?

Geometric design of highway is the determination of layout and features visible on highway.
The emphasis is more on satisfying the need of the driver as well as to ensure the safety of the
vehicle, the comfort while driving and efficiency. Other related factors are also considered based on
the project.
The main features considered for geometric design of highway are:

 Cross section elements


 The gradient
 The intersection
 The consideration of sight distance
The geometric design of highway is influenced by:

 The characteristics of the vehicle


 The behavior of the driver
 The psychology of the driver traffic characteristics
 Traffic Volume
 Traffic Speed
Severity of movement and accidents can be reduced largely by implementing a proper design.
The main objective of geometric design is to get optimum efficiency in the traffic operation period and
maximum safety.

All these features must be attained with maximum economy in the cost and construction. Unlike
the construction of pavement, the planning process is carried out in advance.
GOALS OF GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF HIGHWAY
 Maximize the comfort, safety and economy of facilities
 Provide efficiency in traffic operation
 Provide maximum safety at reasonable cost
 Minimize the environmental impacts

FACTORS AFFECTING GEOMETIC DESIGN OF HIGHWAY

The various factors that govern the geometric design of highways are:

 The Design Speed


 The topography factors
 Other Factors

Design Speed of Highways


The most important factor affecting the geometric design of the highway is the design speed. The
design speed parameter affects the:

 Length of the vertical curves


 The horizontal curves
 The sight distances
Speed is a parameter that have huge variation will the person driving, the vehicle type, the
topography etc. This is the reason why the design speed is taken as a primary factor in the geometric
design of highways.

The highest continuous speed, given that the weather conditions are conducive, to facilitate safety
travelling of the vehicles is called as the design speed. Legal speed is different from the design
speed. The legal speed is the speed at which the drivers tend to travel beyond a safe speed. Desired
speed is the maximum speed at which the driver can travel when they are constrained by means of a
local geometry or traffic.
As mentioned before, speed is a factor that bring variations of different types. This requires having
different vehicle design speeds to satisfy the requirement of all vehicle drivers. So, by
standard: 85th percentile design speed is the normally adopted design speed.
85th percentile design speed can be defined as the speed which is higher than speed taken by 85%
of the drivers on that road. For some countries this value will be in the range of 95 to 98 percentile
speed.
Topography Factors
Second important factor that affects the geometric design is the topography. For a plain terrain,
it is very easy to construct the highway as per the standards. As the terrain and the gradient
increases the construction cost will increase for a specific design speed.

So, to keep the construction cost and time under control, the geometric standards vary with
different terrain or topography. This is hence classified as steeper gradients and sharper curves.

Other Factors Affecting Geometric Design


Other miscellaneous factors that will affect the geometric design of highways are:

 Vehicle
 Human
 Environment and Economy
 Traffic
 Other Factors
Large variety of vehicles are now made which range from tiny to massive units. The weight of the
axle, the dimensions of the car and the characteristics of the vehicle influence greatly the design
aspects. The design aspects involve the pavement width, the clearances, the radii of curve and the
parking geometrics.

To facilitate this requirement, a design vehicle is set which own a standard weight, operating
characteristics, and dimension. This helps to establish a design controls so that vehicle of designated
type is accommodated.

The physical, mental and psychological characteristics of the human affect greatly the geometric
design of the highway.

Always a reasonable value of traffic is considered for the geometric design. The design for a
higher traffic value result in a design that is uneconomical. This value is collected from various and
previous traffic data collected and recorded.
While developing a geometrical design, it is very essential to give importance to the environmental
concerns like noise and air pollution. The design developed considering all the above factors have to
be economical in nature. It should come within the capital and the maintenance cost that is allotted.

ROAD ALIGNMENT
The basic elements of geometric design are horizontal alignment, vertical alignment, cross
section, and intersection. The design of these elements involves mainly application of the
fundamentals discussed in the previous section. Horizontal Alignment The horizontal alignment
consists of straight roadway sections (tangents) connected by horizontal curves, which are normally
circular curves with or without transition (spiral) curves. The basic design features of horizontal
alignment include minimum radius, transition curves, super elevation, and sight distance. To
understand how the minimum radius is determined, the radius–speed relationship is described first.
Radius–Speed Relationship When a vehicle travels along a horizontal curve, it is forced radially
outward by a centrifugal force. The centrifugal force is counterbalanced by the vehicle weight
component related to the roadway superelevation and the friction force between the tire and
pavement. From the law of mechanics, (63.7) where R = the radius of curve (ft) V = the vehicle speed
(mph) e = the rate of roadway superelevation (in percent) f = the side friction (demand) factor The
minimum radius is found based on limiting values of e and f. Maximum Superelevation The maximum
superelevation, emax, depends on climatic conditions, terrain, location (urban or rural), and frequency
of slow-moving vehicles. For open highways, the maximum superelevation is 0.10 or 0.12 in areas
without snow and ice; otherwise, the maximum superelevation should be 0.08. A rate of 0.12 may
also be used for low-volume gravel roads to facilitate cross drainage. A maximum rate of 0.04 or 0.06
is common in urban areas.

PARTS OF ROADWAY/HIGHWAY

1. Cross Slope or Camber

Cross Slope or camber is the slope


that is provided in the transverse direction of
the pavement or carriageway, as shown in
figure-1. The cross slope helps to drain off the
rainwater from the road surface. Inadequate
cross slope results in the flooding of water
over the pavement, which results in
deterioration of the highway.

The value of the slope is dependent on


the type of materials used for road
construction and the amount of rainfall in the region. Generally, the value of cross slope varies
from 1 in 60 to 1 in 25.

The boundary between the pavement and the


shoulder is called as curbs. Curbs are
desirable to be constructed for urban roads.

2. Carriageway or Pavement 5. Road Margins

The paved portion of the highway or the road 1. Shoulders


over which the traffic is meant to move is called 2. Bus Bays
the pavement or the carriageway. The
3. Parking lanes
pavement width is dependent on the width of
4. Sidewalks or footpaths
the traffic lanes and the number of lanes
Shoulders: These are provided along the road
planned for construction.
edge as shown in the figure-1 above. This area
Traffic lane is defined as the carriageway or
serves the purpose of accommodating vehicles
the pavement that is designed for the
that are compelled to be taken out of the
movement of one line of traffic. Generally, for
pavement or the roadway. These also act as a
single lanes with a maximum width of 2.44m,
service lane for the vehicles that have broken
the width of the lane is desirable to have
down.
3.75m. For the pavements designed to have
Bus Bays: Bus bays are constructed by
two or more than two lanes, the width is
recessing the curb. Hence, there is no conflict
supposed to be 3.5m.
with the moving traffic.
3. Medians Parking Lanes: Parking lanes are provided for
urban road construction hence allowing for
Medians are traffic separators whose main
curb parking.
function is to prevent the collision of the
Footpaths or Sidewalks: When the vehicular
vehicles that are moving in the opposite
and pedestrian traffic is heavy, the special area
direction on the adjacent lanes.
is allotted for the movement of pedestrians.

4. Curbs The area is called footpaths or sidewalks. This


is provided to protect the pedestrian thus
decreasing accidents.
6. Width of Roadway
The width of roadway or the width of formation The area of the land that acquired for the road
is equal to the sum of the width of pavement along its alignment is termed as the right of
(including the separators if any) and the way. Land width is defined as the width of this
shoulders. acquired land. The right of way is dependent
7. Right of Way on the importance of the road and the
possibility of future development.

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