HIGHWAY GEOMETRIC DESIGN
LECTURER: [Link]
Course Outline
Lecture 1: Introduction to Geometric Design:
Lecture 2: Principles and Practice of road alignment: Design Control and Criteria, Design
Philosophy, driver behavior, vehicle performance, road surface, Environmental Impact Control,
safety
Lecture 3: Elements of Design: road cross section, geometric road elements, speed,
gradients, cambers, horizontal and vertical curves, sight distances, position, Drainage Design;
Lecture 5; Road Furniture; lighting, street marking, signs, crash barriers, guardrails and
fencing
Lecture 6: Intersection and Interchange Design; layout and design, spacing, lanes, bridge
widths, capacity, slopes and gradients, slip roads, at grade and grade separated
channelization, acceleration and deceleration;
1
Lecture 1
1.0 Introduction to Geometric Design
1.1 Principles and Practice of Geometric Design
Geometric design is defined as the design or proportioning of the visible elements of the street
or highway. Geometric design of highways deals with the following elements;
i) Cross section elements
ii) Sight distance considerations
iii) Horizontal alignment details
iv) Vertical alignment details
v) Intersection details
These basic elements are common to all linear facilities, such as roadways, railways, and airport
runways and taxiways. Although the details of design standards vary with the mode and the
class of facility, most of the issues involved in geometric design are similar for all modes.
➢ Under cross section elements, the considerations for the width of the pavement,
formation and land, the surface characteristics and cross-slope of the pavement are
included.
➢ The sight distance or clear distance visible ahead of a driver at horizontal and vertical
curves and at intersections govern safe movements of vehicles.
➢ The change in road directions is made possible by introducing horizontal curves.
➢ Superelevation is provided by raising the outer edge of pavement with respect to the
inner edge to counteract part of the centrifugal force developed on a vehicle traversing
a horizontal curve; extra width of the pavement is also provided on horizontal curves.
➢ In order to introduce the centrifugal force and superelevation gradually, transition curves
are introduced between the straights and circular curves.
➢ The gradients and vertical curves are introduced on vertical alignment of a highway.
The basic elements of geometric design are: the horizontal alignment, the vertical alignment
and the cross-section. The standards to be chosen for these design elements are dependent
on the criteria for the design controls i.e. design speed, sight distance, traffic volume and level
of service. The following elements must be considered when carrying out the geometric design
of a road:
1. Horizontal alignment:
i. minimum curve radius (maximum degree of curvature);
ii. minimum length of tangent between compound or reverse curves;
iii. transition curve parameters;
iv. minimum passing sight distance and stopping sight distance on horizontal curves.
2. Vertical alignment:
i. maximum gradient;
ii. length of maximum gradient;
iii. minimum passing sight distance or stopping sight distance on summit (crest) curves;
iv. length of sag curves.
2
3. Cross-section:
i. width of carriageway;
ii. crossfall of carriageway;
iii. rate of superelevation;
iv. widening of bends;
v. width of shoulder;
vi. crossfall of shoulder;
vii. width of structures;
viii. width of right-of-way;
ix. sight distance;
x. cut and fill slopes and ditch cross-section
Horizontal and vertical alignment should not be designed independently. They complement each
other and proper combination of horizontal and vertical alignment, which increases road utility
and safety, encourages uniform speed, and improves appearance, can almost always be
obtained without additional costs. It is furthermore important that the choice of standard for the
above geometric design elements is balanced so as to avoid the application of minimum values
for one or a few of the elements at a particular location when other elements are considerably
above the minimum requirements.
1.2 Goals of Geometric Design
In all cases, the goals of geometric design are to maximize the comfort, safety, and economy of
facilities, while minimizing their environmental impacts. The achievement of this objective may
be realized by meeting certain specific objectives, which include the following:
✓ Provide the most simple geometry attainable, consistent with the physical
constraints
✓ Provide a design that has a reasonable and consistent accommodation at the
expected operating speed
✓ Provide a design with consideration for night and adverse weather conditions
✓ Provide a facility that is adequate for the expected traffic conditions and
pedestrian, bicyclist and transit needs
✓ Provide a design that reasonably accommodates a variety of driver
characteristics such as: Periodic inattention, Reduced skill and judgment , Slow
reaction and response
✓ Provide an environment that minimizes hazards, is as hazard free as practical,
and is "forgiving" to a vehicle that has deviated from the travel path or is out of
control.
Kenya Road Design Manual Part I outlines the guidelines and standards for design of rural roads
in Kenya. The manual for design of urban roads is yet to be developed. Policies on highway
geometric design in the United States are developed by the American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Some of the AASHTO guidelines are applied
in Kenyan design and will be referenced in this course.
3
1.3 Design Process
The design process of a proposed highway involves preliminary location study, environmental
impact evaluation, and final design. This process normally relies on a team of professionals,
including engineers, planners, economists, sociologists, ecologists, and lawyers. Such a team
may have responsibility for addressing social, environmental, land-use, and community issues
associated with highway development.
1.3.1 Preliminary Location Study
The preliminary location study involves collecting and analyzing data, locating feasible routes,
determining preliminary horizontal and vertical alignments for each, and evaluating alternative
routes to select the best route. The types of data required are related to the engineering, social
and demographic, environmental, and economic characteristics of the area. Examples of such
data are topography, land-use pattern, wildlife types, and unit costs of construction. A
preliminary study report is prepared and typically includes a general description of the proposed
highway, a description of alternative locations and designs, projected traffic volumes and
estimated total costs, an economic and environmental evaluation, and a recommended highway
location. Before the project is approved, it is common to hold public hearings to discuss the
preliminary study and environmental impacts
1.3.2 Economic Analysis
Economic analyses form an essential part of any civil engineering project where the "value
engineering" concept is important.
Roads are essential for mobility of people and goods and these benefits are attained at a cost.
Roads cost money to build and maintain; they consume space and affect the environment; road
travel consumes time, creates noise and pollution, and brings about accidents, etc. All these
are the costs of mobility.
By spending more money on construction, other costs may be reduced (e.g. travel time or
accidents). However, additional expenditure must create increases in benefits or reductions in
other costs that may accrue due to environmental impacts, accidents, etc. Economic analyses
can evaluate the costs and benefits accrued.
Economic analysis of a road should advise decision making at macroeconomic and policy level
for the project. Many formal or informal economic evaluations may have been carried out and
decisions made before the geometric designer gets involved. In extreme cases, the designer
may be so constrained by decisions already made, that there is little or no opportunity to make
value engineering judgement. It is, however, the designer's task to incorporate those judgments
into planning and design wherever that freedom exists. The designer should also identify
situations where policy decisions may unreasonably constrain execution of a satisfactory design.
A satisfactory design is one which incorporates safety, environment, social and cost benefits.
When presented effectively, arguments made by designers may affect the timing and scope of
projects.
In addition to the geometric designer’s determination of the horizontal and vertical alignment
and cross section, special planning is required at every location where roadways intersect, to
4
accommodate diverging, converging and conflicting traffic movements. In selecting design
dimensions and layouts, the designer can directly affect some of the benefits, costs and impacts
of the road, as well as allow for future expansion.
The designer must have the ability to optimize and foresee the effects of design decisions on
the benefits, costs and impacts of the road. He should be able to compare and analyse decisions
made by others, the content of design guides and the result of his own engineering
[Link] that the designer may be able to influence include:
✓ Mobility;
✓ Environmental impacts;
✓ Safety;
✓ Capital costs;
✓ Aesthetics;
✓ Maintenance costs
✓ Vehicle operating costs
✓ Social benefits
In influencing these factors, the designer will be guided by the design manual as well as other
legal requirements and the Road Authority’s policies and decisions.
1.3.3 Environmental Evaluation
Highway construction may impact the environment in a number of areas, including air quality,
water quality, noise, wildlife, and socioeconomics. For example, highways may cause loss or
degradation of a unique wildlife habitat and changes to migratory patterns. Socioeconomic
impacts include displacement of people and businesses, removal of historically significant sites,
and severance of the interpersonal ties of displaced residents to their former community. It is
therefore essential that environmental impacts of alternative highway locations be fully
evaluated. Provisions of the NEMA require that an environmental impact assessment (EIA) be
submitted for any project affecting the quality of the environment. The EIA must describe the
environmental impacts of the proposed action, both positive and negative; probable unavoidable
adverse environmental impacts; secondary environmental impacts such as changes in the
pattern of social and economic activities; analysis of short- and long-term impacts; irreversible
and irretrievable commitments of resources; and public and minority involvement.
1.3.4 Road Safety Audits
As the term implies, road safety auditing is a structured process that brings specialized and
explicit safety knowledge to bear on a highway project so that it can be quantitatively considered.
It is a formal examination of a future or existing project in which an independent, qualified
examination team reports on the accident potential and safety performance of the project.
The benefits of road safety audits include:
✓ A reduction in the severity of accidents on the road network;
✓ An increased awareness of safe design practices among traffic engineers and road
designers;
✓ A reduction in the life-cycle cost of a road.
5
✓ A saving in time and cost by changing project details at the planning and design stage
rather than by changing or removing a road element once installed;
✓ A reduction in the likelihood of accidents and therefore in accident costs; and
✓ A reduction in the cost of litigation.
The objectives of a road safety audit are;
✓ To identify and report on the accident potential and safety of a road project;
✓ To ensure that road elements with an accident potential are removed; or
✓ That the risk of crashes is reduced.
Road safety can be audited at any of the following six stages, however, the more often the better:
Stage 1 Road safety audit: Preliminary design stage
Stage 2 Road safety audit: Draft design stage
Stage 3 Road safety audit: Detailed design stage
Stage 4 Road safety audit: Road works
Stage 5 Road safety audit: Pre-opening stage
Stage 6 Road safety audit: Existing facility
Figure 1-1 Process for conducting road safety audit
Reference should be made to Part 1 b) of the Road and Bridge Design Manual – Road Safety
Audits for a detailed guideline.
1.3.5 Final Design
The final design involves establishing the design details of the selected route, including final
horizontal and vertical alignments, drainage facilities, and all items of construction.
6
The design process has been revolutionized by advanced photogrammetric and computer
techniques such as CIVIL 3D. Designers now can have a driver’s eye view of a proposed
highway alignment displayed on a monitor and readily examine the effects of alignment
refinements.
Civil 3D Road Design
7
Typical Road showing horizontal curves
1.3 Importance of Geometric Design
The geometrics of highway should be designed to provide efficiency in traffic operations with
maximum safety at reasonable cost. The designer may be exposed to either planning of new
highway network or improvement of existing highways to meet the requirements of the existing
and 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.
1.4 Common Types of Poor Highway Designs
Some of the common types of poor highway designs are:
i. Blind curves
ii. Poor guardrail placement or broken guardrails
iii. Steep shoulders
iv. No shoulders,
v. Poorly designed intersections
vi. Landscaping which obstructs vision
vii. Damaged or missing signs,
viii. Poor lighting
8
ix. Poorly maintained streets,
x. Bad exit ramps
xi. Median barrier flaws
Government agencies have a responsibility to design, build, and maintain the roads in these
communities. If you believe that your accident was caused by poor highway design or
maintenance, you may be able to file a claim against the appropriate government entity or the
construction company that failed to meet the expected standard of care. Typically, in order to
find fault, you must clearly establish that the road was designed or built with flaws or defects. If
your accident was caused by improper road maintenance, you must show that the government
entity knew or should have known that the road needed repair or maintenance and then failed
to take appropriate action.
1.5 Design Techniques
To arrive at an acceptable design there is no substitute for experience and study of
different alternatives. There is, however, a range of useful tools and techniques at the
designer's disposal. These are formalised expressions of particular objectives and
include:
✓ Adherence to or implementation of particular procedures
✓ Departure from Standard to allow flexibility in highway design
1.5.1 Flexibility in Highway Design and Departures from Standard
A review of the standards and guidelines will quickly reveal that it allows some degree
of design flexibility. The degree to which this flexibility isemployed in the design process
is in fact, nothing more than the application of the art and science of engineering.
However, it is also the responsibility of the designer to put forward for approval any
proposals for modifications to the standards which he considers will result in a better
and more economic design.
The design engineer should also realize that the adoption of the guidelines and standards
given in the manuals does not automatically ensure a safe, economic and aesthetic road
design. This can only be achieved through a careful consideration and balancing of the
various controls, criteria and elements involved. Uncritical use of the manual will, more often
than not, produce an inadequate design. The designer must not work on aspects of
geometric design in isolation and must familiarize himself with the basic ideas; principles
and derivations contained in this and other reference manuals including those detailed
below. The Geometric Design Manual forms a part of a set of Kenyan Design manuals,
which relate to road design. These are:
Part 1 a) Geometric Design
b) Road Safety Audits
c) Traffic Surveys
Part 2 Drainage Design
Part 3 Design for New Roads – Materials Pavement
a) Design for New Gravel, Bituminous and Concrete Roads
9
Part 4 Overlay and Asphalt Pavement Rehabilitation
Part 5 Traffic Control Devices
a) Traffic Signs
b) Road Marking, Street Lighting
c) Traffic Signal Engineering
d) Street Lighting
Part 6 Structural Design Manual
a) Bridge and Culvert Design
b) Catalogue of Drawings for Bridges and Culverts
i) Standard Culverts Drifts
ii) Bending Schedules of Materials
iii) Standard small span Concrete Bridges
Part 7 Environmental Guidelines
The most important concept to keep in mind throughout the highway design process is
that every project is unique. The setting and character of an area, the values of the
surrounding community, the needs of the highway users and the associated physical
challenges and opportunities are all factors that highway designers must consider. For
each potential project, designers are faced with the task of balancing the need for
improvement of the highway with the need for safety and integration of the design into
the area’s natural and human environments. To accomplish this, highway designers
must exercise flexibility. There are a number of options available to resolve design
issues that balance safety, aesthetics, environmental and social impact, and
[Link] these are the following:
✓ Use the flexibility available within the design standards;
✓ Recognize that design exceptions may be required where
environmental impacts are of significance;
✓ Be prepared to re-evaluate decisions made earlier in the project
planning and environmental impact assessment phase;
✓ Lower the design speed where appropriate;
✓ In road upgrading projects, maintain the road's existing horizontal
and vertical geometry and cross section where possible to avoid
excessive cost and environmental impact;
✓ Consider developing alternative design standards, especially for
scenic or historic roads; and
✓ Recognise the safety and operational impacts of various design
features and modifications.
In addition to exercising flexibility, a successful highway design process should
include public consultation. To be effective, the public view should be established
at the beginning, even before the need for the project has been defined i.e at
feasibility stage if the primary purpose and need for the improvement has not
been agreed on, it would be extremely difficult to reach consensus on alternative
design solutions later in the process. Public input can also help to assess the
characteristics of the area and to determine what physical features are most
valued by the community and thus need the greatest consideration when
designing the road and its appurtenant features to mitigate adverse impact.
10
Awareness of these valued characteristics at an early stage will help designers
to avoid critical comments during the project and reduce the need for mitigation
and the likelihood of controversy.
Planning ahead for consultation meetings with the public that will be affected by
the project is an essential step in ensuring that the community takes “ownership”
of the road and achieves its desired objectives. After working with the community
to define the basic project need and to assess the physical character of the area,
public involvement is necessary to obtain input on design alternatives. Working
with the affected community to solve design challenges as they arise is far more
effective than bringing the public into the process only after major design
decisions have been made. The public needs to be involved at all points in the
project to allow their views to be taken into consideration in relation to any need
for changes to be made in the design.
One of the major and continuing sources of argument between highway agencies
and the communities they serve relates to the topic of functional classification. The
public should be aware of the existing functional class of the road as well as what
level of upgrade is important to the surrounding area. In particular, assuring the
community of the need for "correct" functional classification for a particular section
of highway, and a regular re-examination of functional classification as changes in
adjacent land use take place, would resolve many potential design and
implementation conflicts before they take place. There are various fundamental
design controls that must be balanced against one another. These include:
✓ The design speed of the road;
✓ The design-year peak-hour level of service on the road;
✓ The physical characteristics of the design vehicle;
✓ The performance characteristics of the design vehicle;
✓ The capabilities of the typical driver on the road (i.e., local
residents using low- speed local streets versus long distance
travellers on arterial roads); and
✓ The existing and future traffic demands likely to be served by the facility.
1.5.2 Departure from Standards
Under all the above explained circumstances, which relate to the need for flexibility in
highway design, it is implicit that a road geometry designed to “standards” is not
necessarily safe or economical. Furthermore, human factors play as great a role in
the determination of geometric design standards as do other limitations such as
safety, various design vehicles, aesthetic, economic, environmental and social
aspects. Hence, in situations where the designer is obliged to make changes based
on his engineering judgment in relation to design parameters, a Departure from
Standards may be necessary. With such flexibility, the designer shall submit any
required departures from standards with detailed reasons for the departure as well as
recommendations for safety mitigation for evaluation.
An example of a Departure from Standard could be the use of a gradient greater than
the absolute maximum value and also the use of radius less than the allowable
minimum for any specified class of road. Where the designer departs from a
standard, he must obtain written approval and authorization from the Chief Engineer
11
of MoR. The Designer shall submit the following information to the Chief Engineer:
✓ The number, name, and description of the road
✓ The facet of design for which a Departure from Standards is desired;
✓ A description of the standard, including guide value, and the
value which is proposed as a departure from standards
✓ The reason for the Departure from Standards, and
✓ Any mitigation to be applied in the interests of safety, environment, and cost
12
