GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF

HIGHWAY FACILITIES
FACTORS INFLUENCING HIGHWAY DESIGN

• Functional classification
• Design hourly traffic volume and vehicle mix
• Design speed
• Design vehicle
• Cross section of the highway, such as lanes, shoulders, and medians
• Presence of heavy vehicles on steep grades
• Topography of the area that the highway traverses
• Level of service
• Available funds
• Safety
• Social and environmental factors
Highway Functional Classification

• Principal arterials
• Minor arterials
• Major collectors
• Minor collectors
• Local roads and streets
Functional System of
Urban Roads
Principal arterials
Serve the major centers of activity of a metropolitan area,
the highest traffic volume corridors

The principal arterial system should carry the major portion of trips
entering and leaving the urban area
 Minor arterials

Interconnects with and augments the urban principal arterial system

and provides service to trips of moderate length at somewhat
lower of travel mobility than principal arterials.
Urban collectors

Provides both land access service and traffic circulation within

residential neighborhoods, commercial and industrial areas.
An urban collector may penetrate residential neighborhoods,
distributing trips from the arterials through the area
to the ultimate destination.
Local roads and streets

They serve primarily to provide direct access to abutting land

and access to the higher order systems.
It offers the lowest level of mobility.
Functional System of
Rural Roads
 Rural Principal Arterial
Serve corridor movement
having trip length and
travel density
characteristics indicative
of substantial statewide or
interstate travel.
 Rural Minor Arterial
Link cities and larger towns
(and other traffic generators,
such as major resort areas, that
are capable of attracting travel
over
similarly long distances) and
form an integrated network
providing interstate and
intercounty service.
 Rural Major Collector
Provide service to any county
seat not on an arterial route,
to the larger towns not
directly served by the higher
systems,
and to other traffic generators
such as consolidated schools,
shipping points, county parks,
etc.
 Rural Minor Collector
Be spaced at intervals to collect
traffic from local roads
and bring all developed areas
within a reasonable distance
of a collector road.

Provide service to the

remaining smaller
communities.
 Rural Local Road
The Rural Local Road should
serve primarily to provide
access to
adjacent land and service to
travel over relatively short
distances as compared to
collectors or other highway
systems.
Highway Design
Standards
 Design Hourly Volume

The design hourly volume

(DHV) is the projected hourly
volume that is used for design.
This volume is usually taken as
a percentage of the expected
ADT on the highway. This curve
also shows that between 0 to
20 of the hours with the
highest traffic volumes.
Design Speed
• Design speed is defined as a selected speed to determine the various
geometric features of the roadway.
• Design speed depends on the functional classification of the
highway, the topography of the area in which the highway is located,
and the land use of the adjacent area.
• For highway design, topography is generally classified into three
groups: level, rolling, and mountainous terrain.
Level
• terrain is relatively flat. Horizontal and vertical sight distances are
generally long or can be achieved without much construction
difficulty or major expense.
Rolling
• terrain has natural slopes that often rise above and fall below the
highway grade with occasional steep slopes that restrict the normal
vertical and horizontal alignments.
Mountainous terrain
• has sudden changes in ground elevation in both the longitudinal and
transverse directions, thereby requiring frequent hillside excavations
to achieve acceptable horizontal and vertical alignments.
Design Vehicle
• A design vehicle is selected to represent all vehicles on the highway.
Its weight, dimensions, and operating characteristics are used to
establish the design standards of the highway.
The following guidelines apply when selecting a design vehicle:

• When a parking lot or a series of parking lots are the main traffic
generators, the passenger car may be used.
• For the design of intersections at local streets and park roads, a
single-unit truck may be used.
• At intersections of state highways and city streets that serve buses
with relatively few large trucks, a city transit bus may be used.
 Cross-Section Elements
• The principal elements of a Typical Cross Section for Two-Lane Highways
highway cross section consist
of the travel lanes, shoulders,
and medians (for some
multilane highways). Marginal
elements include median and
roadside barriers, curbs, Typical Cross Section for Multilane Highways (half section)

gutters, guard rails, sidewalks,

and side slopes.