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Design Highway Geometric

4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.1.1 Importance of Geometric Design

The geometric design of a highway deals with the dimensions and layout of visible
features of the highway such as alignment, sight distance and intersection.

The geometrics of highway should be designed to provide optimum efficiency in

traffic operation with maximum safety at reasonable cost. The designer may be exposed
to either planning of new highway net work or improvement of existing highways to meet
the requirements of the existing and the anticipated traffic.

It is possible to design and construct the pavement of a road in stages; but it is very
expensive and rather difficult to improve the geometric elements of a road in stages at a
later date. Therefore it is important to plan and design the geometric features of the road
during the initial alignment itself taking into consideration the future growth of traffic
flow and possibility of the road being upgraded to a higher category or to a higher design
speed standard at a later stage.

Geometric design of highways deals with following elements :

(1) Cross section elements

(2) Sight distance considerations
(3) Horizontal alignment details
(4) Vertical alignment details
(5) Intersection elements

Under cross section elements, the considerations for the width of pavement, formation
and land, the surface characteristics and cross slope of pavement are included. The sight
distance or clear distance visible ahead of a driver at horizontal and vertical curves and at
intersections govern the safe movements of vehicles.

The change in the road directions are made possible by introducing horizontal curves.
Super-elevation is provided by raising the outer edge of pavement to counteract the
centrifugal force developed on a vehicle traversing a horizontal curve; extra pavement
width is also provided on horizontal curves. In order to introduce the centrifugal force
and the super-elevation gradually, transition curve are introduced between the straight
and circular curves. The gradients and vertical curves are introduced in the vertical
alignment of a highway. Design of road intersections with facilities for safe and efficient
traffic movement needs adequate knowledge of traffic engineering.

Highway geometrics are greatly influenced by the topography, locality and traffic
characteristic and the requirements of design speed. The factors which control the
geometric design requirements are speed, road user and vehicular characteristics, design
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traffic, traffic capacity and benefit-cost considerations. However, speed is the factor
which is important governing most of the geometric design elements of roads, as may be
seen from the subsequent articles of this chapter.

4.1.2 Design Controls and criteria

The geometric design of highways depends on several design factors. The important
of these factors which control the geometric elements are:
(1) Design speed
(2) Topography
(3) Traffic factors
(4) Design hourly volume and capacity
(5) Environmental and other factors.

Design speed

The design speed is the most important factor controlling the geometric design
elements of highways.

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 Highway Geometric Design Page 4 of 48

The cross slope for shoulders should be 0.5% steeper than the cross slope of adjoining
pavement, subject to a minimum of 3.0% ( and a maximum value of 5.0% for earth
shoulders).

Providing camber in the field

For providing the desired amount and shape of camber, templates of camber boards
are prepared with the specified camber. These are used to check the lateral profile of
finished pavement during construction. Depending on the shape of the camber chosen,
the camber of parabolic camber, the general equation y = x2/a may be adopted.

Hence,

Example 4.1
In a district where the rainfall is heavy, major district road of WBM pavement, 3.8 m
wide, and a state highway of bituminous concrete pavement, 7.0 m wide are to be
constructed. What should be the height of the crown with respect to the edges in these
two cases ?

Solution
For WBM road

Provide a camber rate of 1 in 33 as the rainfall is heavy. Rise of crown with respect to
edges

For bituminous concrete road

Provide a cross fall of 1 in 50

Rise of crown with respect to the edges

4.2.3 Width of Pavement or Carriageway

The pavement or carriageway width depends on the width of traffic lane and number
of lanes. The carriageway intended for one line of traffic movement may be called a
traffic lane. The lane width is determined on the basis of the width of vehicle and the
minimum side clearance which may be provided for the safety. When the side clearance
is increased ( up to a certain limit ) there is an increase in operating speed of vehicles and
hence an increase in capacity of the traffic lane. Keeping all these in view a width of 3.75
m is considered desirable for a road having two or more lanes, width of 3.5 m per lane is
considered sufficient.

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Highway Geometric Design

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