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"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence." - Xenocrates

(396-314 B.C.)

Shoulders should be provided continuously along all highways. Well-maintained, smooth, firm shoulders increase the effective width of the traffic lane to as much as 2ft since vehicle officers tend to drive closer to the edge. Shoulders should be wide enough to permit & encourage vehicles to leave the pavement when stopping. A shoulder width is to be at least 10ft & preferably 12ft clear of all obstructions. In mountainous areas where extra cost in providing shoulders is prohibitive, a minimum of 4ft shoulders can be used with 6ft-8ft preferable. In terrain with guard rails/retaining walls are used, additional 2ft of shoulder must be provided. The slope of shoulders is greater than that of the pavement. High-type surfacing must have a slope of 3/8 in/ft. Sodded shoulders slope is as high as 1in/ft to carry water away from the pavement.

The downward slope from the edge of the shoulder toward the ditch is called the side slope. The slope from the edge of the ditch upward is called the back slope.

Side slopes of 6:1 or flatter can be negotiated safely & must be provided whenever practical. This is also called the barn house design.
An alternative is to provide a 4:1 slope downward from the shoulder.

Much steeper slopes, as steep as 1.5:1, are often used along high fill sections for economical reasons. For this, roadside barriers must be placed along the edge of the fill.
Since majority of crashes involve vehicles that run off the roadway, the roadside area(including shoulders) should be designed so as to give errant motorists as much as chance to regain control. Research shows a 30ft width should permit recovery of out-ofcontrol cars by 85%. Where feasible, a 30-ft-wide, obstacle-free zone adjacent to the roadway should be provided.

Generally speaking, guardrail barriers are warranted in fills more than 8ft in height with slopes steeper than 3:1.

Guardrails may also be required along the edges of deep roadside ditches with steep banks & in area of limited right-of-way.
Various types of guardrail systems are used at the present. There are three general classifications of guardrail, namely; Flexible(Box Beam) Semi-Rigid(Blocked-out W-Beam) Rigid(Concrete)

Use of curbs is generally confined to urban to suburban roadways. Curbs adjacent to the road, where there is no sidewalks, should be low and very flat. The face must not be steeper than 45o so that vehicles can mount them easily. Curbs in parking lots and adjacent to sidewalks must be at least 6in-8in in height, with faces nearly vertical. Drainage ditches, in their relation to the highway cross-section, should be located within or beyond the limits of the shoulder and under normal conditions be low enough to drain water from under the pavement. Round ditch section has been found out to be safer than V-type ditch. Ditch maintenance is also less on rounded ditch sections.

Pro Deo, Familia et Patria

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