University of Cebu (UC)

College of Engineering (COE)

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BSCE)

“CE 211 – FUNDAMENTALS OF SURVEYING”

SIGHT DISTANCE
Stopping Sight Distance (SSD) is the minimum sight distance available on a highway at any
spot having sufficient length to enable the driver to stop a vehicle traveling at design speed,
safely without collision with any other obstruction.

There is a term called Safe Stopping Distance and is one of the important measures in traffic
engineering. It is the distance a vehicle travels from the point at which a situation is first
perceived to the time the deceleration is complete. Drivers must have adequate time if they
are to suddenly respond to a situation. Thus in highway design, sight distance at least equal to
the safe stopping distance should be provided. The stopping sight distance is the sum of lag
distance and the braking distance. Lag Distance is the distance the vehicle traveled during the
reaction time t and is given by vt, where v is the velocity in m/sec2 . Braking Distance is the
distance traveled by the vehicle during braking operation.

SSD = Lag distance + Braking Distance

S=

Where:
S – Stopping distance in meters
t – perception-reaction time in meters
V – velocity of the vehicle in meters per second
f – coefficient of friction between tires and pavement
g – acceleration due to gravity in meters per square second
G – grade of the plane

STOPPING SIGHT DISTANCE

(Parabolic Summit Curve )
h1 = 1.14m = 3.75 ft (height of driver’s eye above the pavement)

h2 = 0.15m = 6 inches (height of object above the pavement)

A. WHEN S<L: (FOR SI UNITS ONLY)

L=
√ √
B. WHEN S>L: (FOR SI UNITS ONLY)

√ √
L=

STOPPING SIGHT DISTANCE

( Parabolic Sag Curve)
h1 = 1.14m = 3.75 ft (height of driver’s eye above the pavement)

h2 = 0.15m = 6 inches (height of object above the pavement)

A. WHEN S<L: (FOR SI UNITS ONLY)

L=
B. WHEN S>L: (FOR SI UNITS ONLY)

L=

Maximum Velocity of car moving in a vertical sag curve.

L=
Where: K – velocity in KPh

SIGHT DISTANCE
( Horizontal Curves )
A. WHEN S<L: (FOR SI UNITS ONLY)

M=
B. WHEN S>L: (FOR SI UNITS ONLY)

M=
Where:

M – Clear distance from center of roadway to the obstruction.

S – Sight distance along the center of roadway

R – Radius of centerline curve

L – Length of curve

SIT 1: A 5% grade intersects a -3.4% grade at station 1+990 of elevation 42.30m. Design a
vertical summit parabolic curve connecting the two tangent grades to conform with the
following safe stopping sight distance specifications.

Design velocity = 60kph

Height of driver’s eye from the road pavement = 1.37m

Height of object over the road pavement = 100mm

Perception-Reaction Time = ¾ sec

Coefficient of friction between the road pavement and the tires = 0.15

a. determine the stopping sight distance

b. determine the length of curve

c. determine the elevation of highest point on the curve

SIT 2: The length of sag parabolic curve is 130m with a design speed of 100kph. The back
tangent has a slope of -2.5%

a. Compute the slope of the forward tangent.

b. Compute the distance of the lowest point of the curve from the PC

c. Compute the length of the sight distance.

SIT 3: A vertical summit curve has a back tangent of +2% and a forward tangent of -3%
intersections at station 10+220.60m and elevation of 200m. The design speed of the curve is
80Kkph. Assuming coefficient of friction is 0.30 and a perception reaction time of 2.5sec

a. compute the safe stopping sight distance.

b. compute the length of the curve

c. compute the elevation of highest point of curve.

SIT 4: The clearance to an obstruction is 9m and the desirable sight distance when rounding a
horizontal curve is 180m. Determine the minimum radius of the horizontal curve.

PREPARED BY: ENGR. DIOSFER L. LEDESMA