ELEMENTS OF ROAD

HIGHWAY GEOMETRIC DESIGN :

CROSS SECTIONAL ELEMENTS
WIDTH, SURFACE , CAMBER
 PAVEMENT
The pavement is the structure which
separates the tyres of vehicles from the
underlying foundation material. The later is
generally the soil but it may be structural
concrete or a steel bridge deck.
 TYPES OF PAVEMENT

Flexible Rigid Pavements

Pavements
 FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS

Flexible Pavements are constructed

from bituminous or unbound
material and the stress is
transmitted to the sub-grade
through the lateral distribution of
the applied load with depth.
Asphalt Concrete Aggregate Base Course

Natural Soil (Subgrade)

Aggregate Subbase Course
Typical Load Distribution in Flexible Pavement

Wheel Load

Bituminous Layer

Sub-grade
Typical Stress Distribution in Flexible Pavement.

Vertical stress

Foundation stress
 RIGID PAVEMENTS
 In rigid pavements the stress is transmitted to
the sub-grade through beam/slab effect. Rigid
pavements contains sufficient beam strength to
be able to bridge over localized sub-grade
failures and areas of inadequate support.

 Thus in contrast with flexible pavements the

depressions which occur beneath the rigid
pavement are not reflected in their running
surfaces.
Rigid Pavement

Concrete Slab

Sub-grade
FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT RIGID PAVEMENT
Types of Pavements
Wheel Load Distribution
Flexible Rigid
Definition of Geometric Design :

 Geometric design of highways deals with the dimensions

and layout of visible features of the highway.

 Geometric design fulfills the requirements of the driver and

the vehicle, such as comfort, efficiency and safety.

 Proper geometric design will help in the reduction of

accidents and their severity.
Goals of Geometric design :

 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 geometric design :

Design speed.
Topography.
Traffic.
Environmental factors.
Economical factors.
Vehicles properties (dimensions, weight, operating
characteristics, etc.).
Humans (the physical, mental and psychological characteristics
of the driver and pedestrians like the reaction time).
Road alignment :

Alignment : is an arrangement in a straight line or in correct relative

positions.

 The position or the layout of the central line of the highway on the
ground is called the alignment.

 Horizontal alignment includes straight and curved paths.

 Vertical alignment includes level and gradients.

Alignment decision is important because a bad
alignment will enhance the construction, maintenance
and vehicle operating cost. Once an alignment is fixed
and constructed, it is not easy to change it due to
increase in cost of adjoining land and construction of
costly structures by the roadside.
Types of alignment :

 Horizontal Alignment : Horizontal alignment in road design

consists of straight sections of road, known as tangents,
connected by circular horizontal curves.

 It is the design of the road in the horizontal plane.

 Consists of a series of tangents (straight lines), circular curves

and transition curves.

 Should provide safe travel at a uniform design speed.

 Vertical Alignment : Vertical alignment is the
longitudinal section (shown on the y-axis of a road, it
consists of straight grades joined by vertical curves.

 Vertical alignment specifies the elevations of points along

the roadway.
Cross-Section of road & its elements :
Carriage way :

 The Width of pavement way on which vehicles travel is

called carriage way .
Road Shoulders :
 Shoulders are provided along the road edge to serve as an emergency lane for
vehicles .

 As per IRC, the min. width of shoulder should be 2.5m.

 Uses :
 Repair of broken down vehicles
 Overtaking operations
 To act as an emergency lane
 For future widening of road
 For temp. diversion of traffic during road repair etc
Formation width :
 Formation width is the top width of the highway
embankment or the bottom width of cutting excluding the
side drain .

 Formation width = Width of Carr. Way + Width of

shoulder
Right of way :
 Right of way is the area of land acquired for the land,
along its alignment.

 It is the distance between boundary stones of road on

either side of road.
Side slope :

 The slope of earthwork in Filling(embankment) or cutting

is called sideslope.
Berm :

 The distance between the road toe and inner edge of

borrow pit is called berm.

 It prevents the erosion of embankment soil.

 Side drain :
 For the drainage of rain water, drains are provided on
either side of the road .
 Normally, Side drain are required for road in cutting. For
road in embankment side drain is not necessary.
Building line :

 The distance from the centre line of road on either side, within which
construction of building is not permitted is called building line.

 Purposes :
 For future widening of road
 To reduce the chance of accidents
 To relieve residents from noise pollution
 To prevent disturbance to the traffic by nearby residents
Central line :

 At the location like bank, hospital, factory, theatre etc. on

the road where more people gather disturbance to the
traffic will be more.

 The distance from the centre line to such building is

called control line.
Borrow pits :
 The pits dug along the road alignment for using excavated
earth in construction of embankment are known as borrow
pits.

 Borrow pit should be dug atleast 5m from toe of embankment.

 The small portion left undug in a borrow pit to measure the

depth of excavation is called deadman.
Kerbs :

 The boundaries between pavement and shoulders or

footpath are known as kerbs.
Mountable kerbs :
These kerbs are indicator between the boundary of a road and shoulder .
The height of the kerb is such that driver find no difficulty in crossing these
kerbs and use the shoulder incase of emergency.
Its height is kept on 10cm above the pavement edge.

Semi-barrier kerbs :
It prevents encroachment of slow speed or parking vehicles to the footpath
But at emergency vehicle can climb over and can be parked on footpath or
shoulder.
Its height is 15 to 20cm

Barrier kerbs :
They are mainly provided to cause obstruction to the vehicles leaving the
carriage way under emergency.
Its height is 23 to 45cm
Generally, such kerbs are provided on hills bridges etc.
Types of kerbs
Pavement design :
 A highway pavement is a structure consisting of
superimposed layers of processed materials above the
natural soil sub-grade.

 The pavement must provide an acceptable riding quality,

adequate skid resistance, favourable light reflecting
characteristics, and low noise pollution.
Cross section of different types of road as per IRC :
Camber :
 Camber or cross slope is the slope provided to the road
surface in the transverse direction to drain off rain water
from the road surface.
 The rate of camber is usually designated by 1 in n (1
vertical to n horizontal)
Purposes of camber :

 To remove the rain water from the pavement surface as quickly as

possible.

 To prevent entry of water into bituminous pavement layers.

 To prevert entry of surface water into subgrade soil through pavement.

 To make pavement surface attractive.

Super elevation :

 It is the slope across pavement surface and is fully developed in the circular curve.
(or)
 Super-elevation (banking) is the transverse slope provided at horizontal curve to
counteract the centrifugal force, by raising the outer edge of the pavement with respect
to the inner edge, throughout the length of the horizontal curve.

 So super elevation helps the vehicle to over come the centrifugal force on the curves on
pavements

 The need for super-elevation on road curves, to ensure safety against skidding and over
turning with the advent of fast moving traffic.
 In the past, roads were constructed without any regard to super-
elevation on curves and had generally a cambered section for
drainage purposes. It was little realised then that a vehicle
moving on a curve had to overcome a centrifugal force to
enable it to follow the curved path instead of a straight line,
but, in justice to the early designers of roads, it must be said
that there was no fast traffic in those days.