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Urban highway planning

1. Transportation Engineering
Transportation engineering has a very wide scope in civil
engineering. Being an important pillar of civil engineering, this
discipline is concerned with the construction, design,
development, revamping and maintenance of road system that
includes highways, freeways, urban streets, pedestrian paths etc.

Roads play an important role in economic resilience and

development. It is a fact that developed nations in contemporary
world have a strong network of roads that enables them to carry
out trade in all parts of the country. Roads connect the entire
nation and also provide increased opportunities of business and
travel to the populace.

2. Urban Highway
Urban highway, as the name indicates, is a type of highway that
is constructed in urban areas that are comparatively developed
than other parts of the country.

These interconnect major cities with each other and minor urban
areas. Highways that connect cities in either developed or under
developed countries usually contain a variety of features making
them distinguished from other infrastructure. These features are
intended to increase the road safety, capacity and efficiency.

2.1 Urban Highway Planning

Being the first step of any infrastructure project, highway

planning is of vital importance. Planning process in urban
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highways is a prerequisite for safety, efficiency and to meet the

projected demand.

This stage is hierarchical and is an answer to many important

issues.

Why is planning required?

Initial definition of the need for any highway or bridge
improvement project takes place in this phase.

Under mentioned are some reasons for need of highway planning:

Revamping of road network is required

Future demands exceed the existing capacity
Safety factor regarding accidents gets compromised
Developmental scope

Care must be taken regarding environmental aspects of the

project and not just a concrete step to relieve traffic congestion
problems.

2.1.1 Types of Planning

Since road infrastructure development is dealt by

governmental authorities, the type of planning phase has
broadly three categories:

State Planning

State or provincial planning is concerned with the

provincial government. Provincial road departments are
established that deal with the infrastructure planning.
For example, in Punjab, Communications and Works
Department carries out infrastructure work.

Regional Planning
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At regional level, metropolitan authorities exist. These

authorities develop their own regional plans. Regional
planning is done with a wide scope typically with a
period of more than 20 years. Other authorities that
carry out infrastructure work are development
authorities established at divisional level i.e. LDA, CDA,
RDA, GDA.

Local Planning

Local planning is done at district / town level. CWD

comprises mainly of three departments namely,
Buildings, Roads and Architecture. These departments
are established at district level i.e. Roads Department
Gujrat.

3. Steps involved in Highway Planning

Highway planning focuses on existing and future travel demands.
Some of the steps involved in highway planning are as follows:

3.1 Identification of problem

First step in highway planning is to identify the problem.

There can be a variety of issues that can be faced at this
stage.

As mentioned earlier, revamping may be needed if road

network is dilapidated or deteriorated; existing capacity of
road network cannot meet the future demands; risk factor of
accidents gets increased; developmental scope or a new
development project is going to start. Other issues that need
to be addressed can be increase in population, growth of
vehicles, increase in use of vehicles and density of growth in
different areas.
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Each problem has its own scope and requires a different

approach to solve it. At this stage, it is necessary to identify
the local community and regional concerns and impact of
project on surrounding areas.

3.2 Surveys and data collection

Surveys are conducted in order to select an appropriate

route for the project. Through surveys, topography of the
route is drawn that helps in select most feasible route for the
project execution. Local authorities also provide utility maps
to the concerned authorities regarding route change or
selection.

Necessary data is collected from various departments like

available maps from municipal Authority, soil data available
with the client, any other previous study, data of erstwhile
projects for reference.

3.3 Technical and social requirements

Surveying data is used to select the route after which,

technical requirements of the project are gauged. Technical
requirements depend upon the required traffic demands,
topography of area, developmental scope etc. Social
requirements can also affect the technical requirements e.g.
social concerns sometimes force the authorities to change
route of the roads because it affects their ventures or
business, an example is Lahore Orange Line Metro. Rough
cost estimate of the project is also appraised by the client
(government).

3.4 Availability of funds

An important stage of urban highway planning is availability

of funds. This stage is answer to an important question, Can
project be executed?. If required funds are not available or
authorities are not concerned about the project due to
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various social or political issues, it is impossible that project

can be completed.

3.5 Appropriate solution

Appropriate solution is given at this stage e.g. most feasible

route selection. Before selection of final route, a thorough
study is done to avoid any uneconomical route. Before going
for final route selection, all aspects of all possible routes are
taken into account.

3.6 Estimate of traffic volume

Twenty four hour classified traffic counts for various week

days is very essential. The traffic data is used to calculate
the capacity of the new facility and number of lanes required
with future projections. Axle load survey is done to be sued
for pavement design.

3.7 Soil investigation report

Once the required volume of traffic has been estimated, it is

necessary to carry out soil tests on the route to have an idea
about the sub grade for which the pavement will be
designed. Soil investigation is of vital importance because
sub grade is foundation of pavement and strength of the
road depends only sub grade to a great extent. Soil
investigation is done with the help of soil gradation tests,
bores, bearing capacity tests etc.

3.8 Pavement design report

Pavement is designed on the basis of sub grade and traffic

volume. Pavement should be efficient enough to bear the
wear and tear caused by the traffic volume passing above it.

3.9 Safety factor

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Safety auditing is done to investigate the safety factors and

risk of accidents that can be perceived in the future. Safety
factors are provided by selecting an appropriate design
speed, width of lane, horizontal and vertical alignment (if
required).

3.10 Land acquisition

Land acquisition is also an important stage in planning

process. Acquisition of the required land that is coming in
way of road route is acquired from local community or other
concerned authorities through proper bargaining that does
not appease the sentiments of locals.

3.11 Tender documents

Once the field work is completed the final design drawings,

bill of quantities (BOQ), engineers estimate and
specifications are made and submitted to client for
procurement of contractor.

3.12 Bidding and final award of project

Finally, project is awarded to appropriate contractor (Usually

lowest bidder but not too low) through a profound process of
bidding.

4. Execution / Completion phase

4.1 Project execution

This stage is prior to the completion stage. A time frame is

set by the client that is given to the contractor to complete
the project.

4.2 Project completion

Once the project has been completed, it is handed over to

the client or concerned authorities for public use.
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