HIGHWAYS

ENGINEERING

Highway engineering is a branch of engineering falling

under civil engineering including the planning, design,
constructing, operating, and maintaining the roads,
bridges, tunnels, etc. to ensure secure and efficient
transportation of goods and people.

First research related to

highway engineering was
started in 1930, in UK.
One of the first motorways of
Great Britain was constructed
in 1958 - the Preston bypass

Planning and Development

Highway planning involves the evaluation of the current and

future traffic flows on a particular road network.
The requirement of safer, lesser congested and better
performing highways with the growth of the economy.
Improper planning, designing, construction, or maintenance of
highways can cause pollution, loss of bio-diversity and natural
habitat, harm to natural landscape, and the damage of a
community's cultural and social structure.
Safety management is an organized procedure aiming to reduce
the amount and severity of road accidents.

ROAD CLASSIFICATION

Freeways: Access controlled divided highways mostly 2-4 lanes

in each direction.
Expressways: Superior highways designed for high speeds, high
traffic volume & safety.
Highways: Superior type of road networks in a country.
Arterials: Meant for thorough traffic, usually divided highways
with full or partial access control, with restrictions on loading,
unloading and parking activities.
Local Streets: Meant for access to local residential properties
with unrestricted parking and pedestrian movements.
Collector Streets: Meant for providing access to arterials and
collection and distribution of traffic flow to & from local streets.

Speed vs. Accessibility Curve

Nagpur Road Classification

National Highways: main highways running through the length

and breadth of India and constitute about 2% of total road
networks of India.
State Highways: arterial roads of a state, connecting up with the
national highways constituting a total length of about 1, 37,119
Kms.
Major District Roads: roads with in a district serving areas of
production and markets. India has a total of 4, 70,000 kms of
MDR.
Other District Roads: serve rural areas of production and provide
them with outlet to market centers or other important roads.
Village Roads: connecting villages or group of villages with each
other or to the nearest road of a higher category like ODR or
MDR. India has 26, 50,000 kms of ODR+VR.

The selection of the best location, shape and alignment of a

highway is done during the design stage.
Geometric Design - Highway geometric design basically
means the highways visible elements. Transportation and
highway engineers should not forget about the service, safety,
and performance standards.
Design Speed - It is defined as the highest continuous speed
at which individual vehicles can travel with safety on the
highway when weather conditions are favorable. Design
speed is different from the legal speed limit. An 85th
percentile design speed is usually adopted. This speed is
defined as the speed that is greater than the speed of 85% of
drivers.
Topography - It refers to the study of surface shape and
features of the Earth. A highway has to be successfully fit into
the topography of a site and also has to be kept safe.

Flexible Pavement Design

Three to four layers

Natural soil subgrade is used
Surface, base and subbase courses used
over subgrade
Base course not used in three layer
pavement
Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) is used for
construction

Types of
overlays used:
Asphalt
concrete
Portland cement
concrete (PCC)
Ultra thin PCC

Rigid Pavement Layer

For constructing major

highways, heavy-vehicle park
or terminal pavements, heavyduty floor slabs, port and
harbor yards, etc.
Built to handle modern high
speed and dense traffic
Mostly, Portland Cement
Concrete(PCC) is used for
construction with steel
reinforcements
Typically have life double than
the flexible pavements

Highways Drainage System

Adequate drainage system is a must for a road

Due to excess water, premature failure can be caused
Design process is important in directing water away from
the structure
Another important part is erosion control
It is necessary that surface drainage is allowed for
precipitation
Highways should be built with a slope towards the drain to
direct the runoff water

Requisites for proper drainage system design:

o Culvert designing
o Open channel analysis
o Estimation of runoff and infiltration

Pavement Composition
Subbase Course Construction

Located between the subgrade and base

course of the pavement
Thickness: 4-16 inches
Materials used: Gravel, crushed stone,
or subgrade soil stabilized with cement,
fly ash, or lime
Base Course Construction
Between subbase and surface course
Thickness: generally 4-6 inches
Materials used: untreated crushed
aggregate such as crushed stone, slag,
or gravel

Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA)

Flexible pavements
Cheaper & lower life
Prime coat-low viscosity
asphalt used on base
Tack coat-bond existing
pavement surface & new
asphalt overlay

Portland Cement Concrete

(PCC)

Rigid Pavements
Divided as JPCP, JRCP, CRCP
Better life & expensive
For holding adjacent sections,
tie-bars are used.

Highway Maintenance

Main objectives of highway maintenance are:

repairing the functional pavement defects
extending the functional and structural service life of
the pavement
maintaining road safety and signage
keeping road reserve in acceptable condition

THANK
YOU
Vipul Shukla
3CE-1
A2315813041
ASET, Noida