Highway engineering 

is an engineering discipline branching from civil engineering that

involves the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance
of roads, bridges, and tunnels to ensure safe and effective transportation of people and
goods.[1][2][3] Highway engineering became prominent towards the latter half of the 20th
century after World War II. Standards of highway engineering are continuously being
improved. Highway engineers must take into account future traffic flows, design of
highway intersections/interchanges, geometric alignment and design, highway
pavement materials and design, structural design of pavement thickness, and pavement
maintenance.

he beginning of road construction could be dated to the time of the Romans.[2] With the

advancement of technology from carriages pulled by two horses to vehicles with power
equivalent to 100 horses, road development had to follow suit. The construction of
modern highways did not begin until the late 19th to early 20th century.[2]

The first research dedicated to highway engineering was initiated in the United Kingdom
with the introduction of the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), in 1930.[2] In the US,
highway engineering became an important discipline with the passing of the Federal-Aid
Highway Act of 1944, which aimed to connect 90% of cities with a population of 50,000
or more.[2] With constant stress from vehicles which grew larger as time passed,
improvements to pavements were needed. With technology out of date, in 1958 the
construction of the first motorway in Great Britain (the Preston bypass) played a major
role in the development of new pavement technology.

Highway planning involves the estimation of current and future traffic volumes on a road
network. The Highway planning is also a basic need for the Highway development.
Highway engineers strive to predict and analyze all possible civil impacts of highway
systems. Some considerations are the adverse effects on the environment, such as
noise pollution, air pollution, water pollution, and other ecological impacts.[3]

Financing[edit]
Developed countries are constantly faced with high maintenance cost of aging
transportation highways. The growth of the motor vehicle industry and accompanying
economic growth has generated a demand for safer, better performing, less congested
highways. The growth of commerce, educational institutions, housing, and defense
have largely drawn from government budgets in the past, making the financing of public
highways a challenge.[4]

The multipurpose characteristics of highways, economic environment, and the

advances in highway pricing technology are constantly changing. Therefore, the
approaches to highway financing, management, and maintenance are constantly
changing as well.

Environmental impact assessment[edit]

The economic growth of a community is dependent upon highway development to
enhance mobility. However, improperly planned, designed, constructed, and maintained
highways can disrupt the social and economic characteristics of any size community.
Common adverse impacts to highway development include damage of habitat and bio-
diversity, creation of air and water pollution, noise and vibration generation, damage of
natural landscape, and the destruction of a community's social and cultural structure.
Highway infrastructure must be constructed and maintained to high qualities and
standards.[6]

There are three key steps for integrating environmental considerations into the planning,
scheduling, construction, and maintenance of highways. This process is known as
an Environmental Impact Assessment, or EIA, as it systematically deals with the
following elements:[6]

 Identification of the full range of possible impacts on the natural and socio-
economic environment[6]
 Evaluation and quantification of these impacts[6]
 Formulation of measures to avoid, mitigate, and compensate for the
anticipated impacts.
Highway safety[edit]
Highway systems generate the highest price in human injury and death, as nearly 50
million persons are injured in traffic accidents every year, not including the 1.2 million
deaths.[7] Road traffic injury is the single leading cause of unintentional death in the first
five decades of human life.[8]

Management of safety is a systematic process that strives to reduce the occurrence and
severity of traffic accidents. The man/machine interaction with road traffic systems is
unstable and poses a challenge to highway safety management. The key for increasing
the safety of highway systems is to design, build, and maintain them to be far more
tolerant of the average range of this man/machine interaction with highways.
Technological advancements in highway engineering have improved the design,
construction, and maintenance methods used over the years. These advancements
have allowed for newer highway safety innovations.[8]

By ensuring that all situations and opportunities are identified, considered, and
implemented as appropriate, they can be evaluated in every phase of highway planning,
design, construction, maintenance, and operation to increase the safety of our highway
systems