Basics of Highway 1.

Introduction
Engineering

WHY ARE HIGHWAYS SO IMPORTANT?

Highways are vitally important to a country’s economic development. The
construction of a high quality road network directly increases a nation’s economic
output by reducing journey times and costs, making a region more attractive
economically.

PRINCIPLES OF HIGHWAY LOCATION

The basic principle for locating highways is that roadway elements such as
curvature and grade must blend with each other to produce a system that
provides for the easy flow of traffic at the design capacity, while meeting design
criteria and safety standards. The highway should also cause a minimal disruption
to historic and archeological sites and to other land-use activities. Environmental
impact studies are therefore required in most cases before a highway location is
finally agreed upon.

ROUTE SELECTION
The following data should be obtained for route selection:

 Engineering, including traffic volumes data.

 Social and demographic, including land use and zoning patterns.
 Environmental, location of recreational, historic, archeological sites; and
the possible effects of air, noise, and water pollution.
 Economic, including unit costs for construction.
 Aerial photographs and Satellite images.

Factors that must be considered in route design:-

 Terrain and avoiding steep slopes.

 Soil conditions.
 Climate Conditions.
 Unstable ground conditions, such as wetlands, rocky areas, land slide.
 Crossing of other transportation facilities, such as rivers, railroads, and
highways.

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Basics of Highway 1.Introduction
Engineering

Avoiding river cross route Steep slope route

DETOUR INDEX
It is a measure to identify the efficiency of a transport network by reducing
distance hurdles. The detour index can be calculated as the percentage of the
direct distance to the desired transported distance, so it is obvious that the higher
detour index, the more direct given route.

Detour index = Direct distance / Actual route (Transport) distance