Highway Geometric

Design:
Cross-Section and
Superelevation

Cross-Section Elements

Principal elements
Travel

lanes
Shoulders
Medians

Marginal elements
Median

and roadside barriers

Curbs
Gutters
Guard

rails
Sidewalks

Typical two-lane rural highway, AASHTO

Travel lanes

Travel lane widths vary from 9ft to 12ft

12ft is recommended. Why?

Evidence that lane widths shorter than 12 ft increase the potential for
truck related accidents.

Also, capacity (max no. of vehicles that can travel across a section of
roadway) of 10ft lanes is significantly less than that of 12ft lanes.

Hence, short lane widths used only on low-speed facilities and/or lowvolume roads

Extra cost of constructing 12ft lanes over 10ft lanes is offset by the less
maintenance costs of shoulders less wheel concentrations on the
pavement edges

Shoulders

Purpose
Space for vehicles to stop during an emergency
Accommodate bicycles and/or pedestrians
Lateral support fort pavement structure

For safety reasons, AASHTO recommends usable shoulder widths

of at least 10ft, preferably 12ft on highways with trucks

Right of way and terrain may not allow for such provisions in such
cases at least 2ft, preferably 6ft

When peds/bikes allowed to use shoulder minimum width is 4ft

Medians

Section of a divided roadway that separates travel lanes in opposite

directions
Purpose/Functions

Recovery area for run-off roadway vehicles

Separate opposite traffic
Storage areas for left-turn, u-turn vehicles
Pedestrian refuge
Temporary lanes (e.g., open during peak hours)

Median widths vary from 4 ft to 80 ft,

Minimum of 10 ft is recommended for four-lane urban freeways
Minimum of 22 ft for 6 or more lanes of freeway

Barriers

Median barriers longitudinal system that prevents an out-of-control

vehicle from crossing over to the opposite travel lanes

Roadside barriers protect vehicles from obstacles and side slopes

on the road side, or to shield pedestrians or personal property from
the traffic

Guard rails typically placed on the outside of sharp curves and

sections with high fills

Transition Curves

Transition curves are placed between tangents and circular curves

or between two adjacent circular curves with substantially different
radii
Spiral Transition curves: Degree of spiral curve changes gradually.
From 0 to D (degree of the curve) for a tangent-to-curve transition
From D1 to D2 for a curve1-to-curve2 transition.
For a tangent-to-curve transition, the minimum length of a spiral curve
should be larger of the values obtained from the two expressions below

Ls ,min

3.5 V 3

RC

Ls ,min 24 pmin R

Ls ,min minimum length of spiral curve ( ft )

V speed ( mph)
R Radius of curve ( ft )
C rate of increase of radial acceleration (ft/sec 2 /sec)
value ranges from 1 to 3
pmin =minimum lateral offset between tangent and circular curve
(0.66 ft )

Superelevation Transition With no Spiral Curve

Many agencies do not provide spiral transition curves, since drivers usually guide
vehicles into circular curves gradaully.
Thus, a tangent section is directly connected to the circular curve.
However, if the curve is superelevated at a rate of e ft/ft, an appropriate superelevation
transition must be provided on the tangent.

Superelevation transition section (AE in figure) consists of tangent runout

section and superelevation runoff section

Tangent runout length of roadway needed to accomplish a change in outside-lane

cross slope from the normal cross slope rate to zero (flat) or vice versa
Superelevation runoff length of roadway needed to accomplish a change in
outside-lane cross slope from zero (flat) to full superelevation or vice versa

In theory: Entire superelevation run-off must be placed on the tangent section before PC
In practice: Runoff length is shared between the tangent and curve sections. Drivers tend
to follow a natural spiral, reducing a longer run-off on the tangent.
For simple curves, superelevation runoff is 2/3 on tangent and 1/3 on curve

See the figure in next slide to understand it better

Superelevation transition with no Spiral Curve

Horizontal curve

nt
e
ng
Ta

n
tio
c
se

A normal crown
B outside edge rotated to level of centerline
C outside edge, C, inside edge are aligned at a slope equal to the normal crown
D PC
E full superelevation
AB crown runoff or tangent runout
BE superelevation runoff (dependent on the rate at which the cross section is rotated)

Superelevation Transition With no Spiral Curve

The sum of tangent runout and superelevation runoff comprises the total
distance over which the transition from normal crown to full spuerelevation is
achieved

The formula below relates the tangent runout length to the superelevation runoff
length

Lt

eNC
Lr
ed

Lt minimum length of tangent runout ( ft )

Lr minimum length of superelevation runoff ( ft )
eNC normal crown slope (%)
For
runoff(%)
length (
ed superelevation
Superelevation

) see table in next slide

Lr

For 3, 4, and 6 lanes multiply these values by factor of 1.25, 1.5, and 2.0 or
consult AASHTO or local/state design manuals

For simple curves, superelevation runoff is 2/3 on tangent and 1/3 on

curve

In-class example
You are asked to design a curve on a two-lane
rural highway with a normal crown of in/ft and
a lane width W = 12ft. The curve has the
following characteristics: R = 695 ft, =100
degrees, Vdesign = 50 mph, e=0.10
What is the tangent runout length? and how long
is the section of the curve that is fully
superelevated?