Engineering Technical College – Baghdad

Building & Construction Technology Engineering

Highway Engineering - Third Year

Lesson title: Classification of highway according to their functions, locations,

and pavement types.

GOALS:
By the end of the lesson, the student will be able to:
1. Define the urban and rural areas, and
2. Classify the highways.
INTRODUCTION:
Urban and rural areas have fundamentally different characteristics with regard to
density and types of land use, density of street and highway networks, nature of
travel patterns, and the way in which these elements are related. Consequently, urban
and rural systems are classified separately. Urban areas are those places within
boundaries set by the responsible state and local officials having a population of
5,000 or more. Urban areas are further subdivided into urbanized areas (population
of 50,000 and over) and small urban areas (population between 5,000 and 50,000).
For design purposes, the population forecast for the design year should be used.
Rural areas are those areas outside the boundaries of urban areas.

CLASSIFICATION OF HIGHWAY:
The classification of highways into different operational systems, functional classes,
or geometric types is needed for communication among engineers, administrators,
and the general public. Various classification schemes have been applied for distinct
purposes in different rural and urban regions.
The following sections are discussing the grouping of highway according to their
functions, locations, and pavement types.

1
Instructor: Zainab M. Mohsin
Engineering Technical College – Baghdad
Building & Construction Technology Engineering
Highway Engineering - Third Year
I. Functional Classification: Functional classification is applied to group
streets and highways according to the character of service they are intended
to provide. In urban areas, highways are classified as following:
1- Urban Arterial System: the main function is providing travel service for
major traffic movements entering and leaving cities like expressway, freeway,
and interstates.
2- Urban Collector Street System: it is channeling the stream of traffic to the
arterials by collecting them from the local streets and providing both land
service and traffic circulation within residential neighborhoods, commercial
and industrial areas.
3- Urban Local Street System: it is proving the direct access to neighboring
land and access to the higher order system. This system is offering the lowest
level of mobility and no bus routes.

The mentioned types are demonstrated in the following figure:

2
Instructor: Zainab M. Mohsin
Engineering Technical College – Baghdad
Building & Construction Technology Engineering
Highway Engineering - Third Year

While in rural area, they are classified as following:

1- Arterial highways: they provide direct service between cities and larger
urban areas (e.g. Freeways).
2- Collector roads: they serve small towns directly and connect them to the
arterials.
3- Local roads: they serve individual farms and other rural land uses and
distribute traffic from/to the collector roads.

The above types can be illustrated in the following figure:

II. Locational Classification of highway:

1. National highways: they are main roads of a particular country. They connect
all major cities to the capital of the country. They run throughout the length
and breadth of the country like the interstate highway system, as shown in the
following figure. Minimum two-lane road is provided for national highways.

3
Instructor: Zainab M. Mohsin
Engineering Technical College – Baghdad
Building & Construction Technology Engineering
Highway Engineering - Third Year

2. State highways: they are second main roads which connect major parts of
state within it. State highway ultimately connects to the national highways.
They are either numbered by a state or province.

3. District roads: they are provided within the cities and connects markets and
production places to state and national highways.
4. Rural Roads or Village Roads: Village roads connect the nearby villages
with each other. They lead to nearby town or district roads. Usually, low
quality roads are provided as village roads because of low traffic.
III. PAVEMENT TYPE CLASSIFICATION
Depending on the surface of the roads, highways can be classified broadly into the
following:
I. Paved surface,
a. Flexible pavement, and
b. Rigid pavement.
II. Unpaved surface.
a. Gravel roads, and
4
Instructor: Zainab M. Mohsin
Engineering Technical College – Baghdad
Building & Construction Technology Engineering
Highway Engineering - Third Year

b. Earth roads (natural roads).

I. Paved Surface:
It means that the road is covered with a durable surface material like the asphalt or
Portland cement laid down on a compacted base coarse which is intended to sustain
vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. The following pictures are
illustrating the paved surface.

II. Unpaved Surface:

Usually, these roads are widespreadly in rural area and covered with a gravel or
crashed stone, as shown in the following figure:

5
Instructor: Zainab M. Mohsin
Engineering Technical College – Baghdad
Building & Construction Technology Engineering
Highway Engineering - Third Year

SUMMARY OF THE LECTURE:

Communities

Urban Area Rural Area

Urbanized Small Urban

Area Area

Highway Classifications
Functional Locational Pavement type

• A. Urban Area • National highway • A. Paved

• Urban Arterial System • State highway highway
• Urban Collector Street • District highway • Flexible
System • Rural or village pavement
• Urban local Street System • Rigid Pavement

• B. Rural Area • B. Unpaved

• Arterial highways roads
• Collector roads • Gravel Roads
• Local roads • natural Roads

6
Instructor: Zainab M. Mohsin
Engineering Technical College – Baghdad
Building & Construction Technology Engineering
Highway Engineering - Third Year

HOMEWORK:
From your living city, select different types of roads and classify them according to
their function, location, and pavement type.

NEXT LECTURE:
Cross Section Elements

REFERENCES:
1. Pavement engineering principles and practice by Rajib B. Mallick and Tahar
El-Korchi, 2nd edition, 2013.
2. A policy on geometric design of highway and streets, the green book, 6th
edition, 2011.

7
Instructor: Zainab M. Mohsin