Civil Engineering

433. Highway Design. Design standards and geometrics of highways; traffic volume and flow related to geometrics; economic study of highway alternates; basic pavement and drainage design; planning, location, and design of a segment of highway. Two lectures, one two-hour problem period. Spring  (Cr.3) 

Prerequisite: CIVL 401.  Elementary surveying; Soil mechanics.

 

Course Goals:

  1. This course is intended to give Seniors in Civil Engineering an introduction to highway design, including standards, geometrics, pavement and drainage design.

Course Objectives:

 

The student will be able to:

  • Use Present Value Concepts to evaluate economic analysis for highway improvements.

  • Design horizontal and vertical curves for geometric alignment of highways.

  • Design intersections and interchanges of highways.

  • Design drainage structures for highway projects.

  • Calculate the earth work (cut and fill) for a geometric alignment of a highway.

  • Design rigid and flexible pavement of a highway.

  • Conduct a literature review on a transportation topic and write a formal paper on that topic.

Course Syllabus

 

Textbooks:  Wright, P.H., Highway Engineering, 6th Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 1996.

 

Reference:  Innumerable volumes and filed items in Transportation Library and in Engineering Library; manuals of design of several states.

 

Topics:

  1. Statistical analysis of traffic data.  1 lecture

  2. Highway financing.  2 lectures

  3. Driver, vehicle and road characteristics.   1 lecture

  4. Geometric design: standards and variation.  2 lectures

  5. Horizontal and vertical curves and sight distances.  4 lectures

  6. Highway capacity.  1 lecture

  7. Traffic characteristics as affected by geometric, speed, volume, ROW, and pavement.  2 lectures

  8. Soils, earthwork.  1 lecture

  9. Introduction to pavement design.  1 lecture

Computer Usage:  (AutoCivil) Programs on Geometric Design including horizontal and vertical alignment, AutoCAD for drafting and illustration of reports, and Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) software.  Also ArcView for GIS (Geographic Information System) applications.

 

Course Project (including major items of equipment and instrumentation used): 

  1. Laboratory Projects:

  2. Traffic studies  2 lectures

  3. Preliminary highway design  2 lectures

  4. Final highway design  6 lectures

  5. Geometric Design Software & AutoCAD  1 lectures

  6. Highway Capacity Manual (HCM)  2 lectures

Problem work is included in both the class hours and the laboratory hours.  In the projects, as in illustrative problems, emphasis is placed on use of coordinates, of computers and of drafting.

 

ABET category content as estimated by faculty member who prepared this course description:  Engineering Design:3 credits (100%)

 

Prepared by:    Dr Fathey Elsaid, Ph.D., P.E.      Date: November 22, 2000