Highway Development and Planning

HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT
AND PLANNING
IMPORTANCE, CLASSIFICATION OF ROADS, ROAD PATTERNS,
PLANNING SURVEYS: HIGHWAY ALLIGNMENT AND SURVEYS
INTRODUCTION
Highway engineering is an engineering
discipline branching from Civil Engineering that
involves the planning, design, construction,
operation, and maintenance of roads, bridges, and
tunnels to ensure safe and effective transportation
of people and goods.
Highway planning involves the estimation of

current and future traffic volumes on a road
network. The Highway planning is also a basic
need for the Highway development.
OBJECTIVES OF HIGHWAY PLANNING
(i) Planning a highway network for safe, efficient and
fast movement of people and goods.
(ii) Keeping the overall cost of construction and

maintenance of the roads in the network to a minimum.
(iii) Planning for future development and anticipated

traffic needs for a specific design period.
(iv) Phasing road development programmes from

considerations of utility and importance as also of
financial resources.
(v) Evolving a financing system compatible with the cost

and benefits.
CLASSIFICATION OF ROADS
CLASSIFICATION BASED ON SPEED AND ACCESSIBILITY
CLASSIFICATION BASED ON MATERIALS
NAGPUR ROAD CLASSIFICATION
ROAD PATTERN
WHAT IS ROAD PATTERN?
•Road pattern is when the road is constructed in patterns
like rectangular, radial, hexagonal, etc for the proper
management of traffic and also to interconnect the branch
roads with main roads.
•The main principle of road patterns is to reduce the time
and distance that the vehicle takes to reach the
destination place.
•It increases the response time of normal vehicles as well
as emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire engines, etc.
to reach the destination place.
TYPES OF ROAD
PATTERN:
1.RECTANGULAR OR BLOCK PATTERN
A. In this pattern; the whole area is divided into rectangular blocks.
B. Streets or branch roads intersect with each other at the right
angle.
C. The main roads always pass through the center and it should be
wide enough.
D. Branch roads may be narrow as compared to main roads.
E. The main roads should be provided with a direct approach to
outside the city.
Advantages
~ The rectangular blocks can be further fractioned into small
rectangles that may be used for the construction of buildings placed
back-to-back, having roads on their front.
Disadvantages
~ It is not convenient because roads are perpendicular to each other.
This increases the rate of accidents due to poor visibility at a
perpendicular junction.
2. RADIAL OR STAR AND BLOCK PATTERN
a. It is a combination of star and block patterns.
b. The entire area is divided into a radial network of roads
radiating from the center outwardly with a block pattern
network of roads in between the radial main streets.
Advantages
~ Less risky as compared to the rectangular pattern.
~ It reduces the level of congestion at the primary
bottleneck location.
Disadvantages
~ Lack of safety appurtenances like rail transitions, crash
attenuators and post support bases.
3. RADIAL OR STAR AND CIRCURAL PATTERN
a. It is the pattern in which the main roads (radial roads)
radiate from the central point and are connected with
concentric roads (ring roads) that are also radiating
outwardly.
Advantages
~ It is safe as compared to the above patterns because
vehicles travel in the same direction, making this pattern
efficient in improving traffic flow.
Disadvantages
~ Providing a good curve during the implementation of
this pattern is quite challenging.
~ It affects the driving ability. Mainly, old drivers face this
problem due to decrease in vision.
4. RADIAL OR STAR AND GRID PATTERN
a. This pattern is formed by the combination of Star and
Grid Pattern.
b. As in other, a radial network of road radiates from the
center outwardly. Then, the main radial streets are
interconnected by providing a grid pattern.
Advantages
~ It increases the efficiency of land usage and unit density.
~ It improves the traffic flow
Disadvantages
~ High construction cost because of the need for extra
traffic signals, road marking and lighting.
5. HEXAGONAL PATTERN
a. In this, the entire area is divided into hexagonal patterns.

Advantages
~Three roads meet the boundary of the area formed by the
sides of the hexagon.
Disadvantages
~Traffic signals, pavement marking, and street lighting should
be sufficient so that drivers understand to reduce their travel
speed.
6. MINIMUM TRAVEL PATTERN
a. In this road pattern, the town is contented by sector

centers, suburban facilities and neighborhood centers by the
highway which required minimum time reach the city center.
Advantages
~This type of potentially serious crash certainly ends.
Disadvantages
~Traffic signals, pavement marking and lighting should be
sufficient, so that drivers know that they should reduce their
travel speed.
~Intersections can be particularly challenging for older drivers.
Economic Studies
Details of the existing facilities, their utility, distribution of the existing population in the
area, population growth trends, existing products in the agricultural and industrial sectors,
future trends of development in these sectors, existing communication and education
facilities, and the per capita income are to be collected.
Financial Studies
source of income; Various financial aspects such as the sources of funding,
Planning estimated revenue from taxes on vehicles, toll tax, and indirect benefits of
raising the living standards of the people due to the proposed road network are
considered
survey
Traffic or Road Use Studies
Details of the existing road facilities, traffic volume in vehicles per day, traffic
flow patterns, classes of traffic such as passenger cars, busses and trucks, loads
carried, average speeds, anticipated future trends of traffic growth, and other
traffic-related studies are to be conducted.
Engineering Studies
These include study of the topography, soil, road life and special problems, if any, relating to
construction, drainage and maintenance.
Slide Presentation by: Leysam Quejada
HIGHWAY ALLIGNMENT
Highway Alignment:
INTRODUCTION:
The position of the center line on the highway in the ground is called highway alignment. Highway
alignment includes horizontal alignment and vertical alignment. The projection of highway
alignment in the horizontal plane is termed as the horizontal alignment and the projection of
highway alignment in the vertical plane is called vertical alignment. Alignment must be selected in
such a way that the overall cost during construction, operation and maintenance is minimum. Road
design outputs are in the form of following drawings:
Plan: Includes centre line, structures, Right of Way (ROW), carriage way, shoulders, side drain.
Longitudinal Profile: Soil Type, Depth of cut, Height of Fill, Side drain (Information on from
which chainage to which chainage), Direction of flow in the drain.
Cross section: Ground Level, Formation Level, Superelevation, Area of Cutting and Area of
Filling thus computation of the volume and then cost estimation can be done.
REQUIREMENTS OF HIGHWAY ALIGNMENT:
The ideal alignment must have the following requirements:

•Safe (S)
•Easy (E)
•Short (S)
•Economical (E)
•Comfort (C)
Safe: The alignment need to be safe during construction, operation and maintenance especially at slopes,
embankments and cutting.
Easy: The construction materials if present at the place of construction makes the construction easier. Similarly, it
should be easy during the operation of vehicles with easy gradients and curves.
Short: The distance between the initial and final point need to be short so as to reduce the construction cost.
Economical: The alignment should be economical during construction, operation, and maintenance. However, if
the construction turned out to be economical, the gradient may not be easy which in turns increases the cost of
operation and maintenance. Similarly, if the vehicle operation is taken under consideration and is made
economical, the construction cost becomes higher as the gradient and curves need to be easy.
Comfort: The alignment should be fixed such that it provides comfort to the drivers and the passengers.
FACTORS CONTROLLING HIGHWAY ALIGNMENT:
•Government Alignment:
As the road project needs a large investment, the government should be clear about the requirement of the road
(when, what, how and why to construct).
•Obligatory Points:
Obligatory points determine the highway alignment. They are further divided into positive obligatory points
and negative obligatory points.
Positive Obligatory Points: These are those points through which the alignment should pass.
•Existing Road: The alignment should be fixed such that the newly constructed road should link to the existing
road. It reduces the cost of construction.
•Intermediate Town: If there is the possibility of a straight road between point A and B and there lies the
intermediate town at C as shown, then the road need to link the intermediate town reducing the change in
highway
•Bridge site/Existing Bridge: The road linking with the bridge must not be curved and to include the bridge in
the road portion, the highway alignment may be changed.
•Mountain: When the road has to cross a row of hills, mountain pass may be the suitable alternative.
Negative Obligatory Points: These are those points through
which the alignment should not pass.
•Valleys, ponds, and marshy land need to be avoided.

•Religious places are linked up with the human sentiment so
cannot be destroyed for fixing the road alignment.
•Costly structures present in the way of alignment should be
considered and the road alignment should be fixed such that it
won’t destroy those costly structures as the value of
compensation for such structures will be more.
•Conservation areas and restricted zones.
•Densely populated area.
•The road should not be within the boundary of the country.
Surveys/Data collection
 Map Study
 Reconnaissance Survey
 Preliminary Surveys
 Final Location and Detailed Surveys
 Reconnaissance:
Simple Survey Instruments are used in the reconnaissance procedure.
Following are the information obtained from the reconnaissance survey:
• Valley, pond, lakes and other features that were not present in the topographical
map.
• A number of cross drainage structures, High Flood Level (HFL), Natural Ground
Level.
• Values of the gradient, the length of gradients and radius of the circular curve.
• Soil type along the routes from field identification tests and observation of the
geological features.
• Sources of construction materials.
 Final Location and Detailed Survey:
The alignment finalized after the preliminary survey is to be first located on the field by
established the centre line.
This is done accurately by using instruments. The final route selected after the preliminary
survey is surveyed and located on the ground.
Objectives
 To establish temporary bench marks
 To collect information required for
 The preparation of working drawings
 The preparation of detailed estimates
 The design of road & bridges
 Preparing specifications
 Land acquisition

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HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT

Highway planning involves the estimation of

(ii) Keeping the overall cost of construction and

(iii) Planning for future development and anticipated

(iv) Phasing road development programmes from

(v) Evolving a financing system compatible with the cost

a. In this, the entire area is divided into hexagonal patterns.

a. In this road pattern, the town is contented by sector

The ideal alignment must have the following requirements:

•Valleys, ponds, and marshy land need to be avoided.

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