Previous Lectures: Geometric Design Controls

• Primary controls
1. Highway system and classification
2. Topography and environment
3. Traffic
• Dependent controls
1. Design speed
2. Design vehicle
3. Design driver
4. Level of service (capacity)
5. Access control and access management
6. Scope of improvement

9/13/2023 TE 5104: Lecture 1 2

 Concepts in Geometric Design

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Concepts in Geometric Design
• Complete street concepts
• Context sensitive solutions
• Performance-based design
• Practical design
• Design matrix approach
• Safe system approach
• Travel time reliability approach
• Value engineering
• Designing of 3R projects
• Very low-volume local roads
• Performance based practical design approach
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 Complete streets concept

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• Focuses on creating roadways and related
infrastructure by encouraging a safe, comfortable,
integrated transportation network for all users, travelers
regardless of age, ability, income, ethnicity, or mode
of transportation
• Accommodate their needs and expectations
• Each design is customized to the characteristics of bicyclists motorists
the area the street serves Complete
streets
• Typical elements of design in consideration: concept
• Sidewalks
• Bicycle lanes (or wide, paved shoulders)
• Shared-use paths
pedestrians
• Designated bus lanes transit
users
• Safe and accessible transit stops
• Frequent and safe crossings for pedestrians, including
median islands, accessible pedestrian signals, and curb
extensions

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Sidewalks
• Frontage Zone
• Pedestrian Through Zone
• Street Furniture/ Curb Zone
• Enhancement/ Buffer Zone

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Bicycle lanes
• Completely separated right-of-way designated for the exclusive use
of bicycles and may be pedestrians with minimized crossflows by
motorists

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Shared bicycle lanes
• Path is shared with motor vehicles

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Transit stops
• Design elements to
improve transit
operations or the transit
user experience includes
• Bus Pad
• Bench
• Transit Shelter
• Bicycle and Pedestrian
access
• Pedestrian-scale lighting
• Bus bulb
• Bus-only queuing space

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Bus bulb

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 As a highway design engineer, you are
entrusted to develop a section of National
Highway based on the Complete Street
Concept. Discuss your considerations.

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Context sensitive solutions (CSS)
• Evolved from Context Sensitive Design (CSD)
• Can focus on to make the road infrastructure
design: environment
• Attractive
• Responsive to the local authorities and their interests
• Core principles
• Strive toward a shared stakeholder vision to provide a
basis for decisions CSS
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of
contexts
• Foster continuing communication and collaboration to community
achieve consensus values

• Exercise flexibility and creativity to shape effective

transportation solutions, while preserving and
enhancing community and natural environments

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Context sensitive solutions (CSS)
• Identify problems in functional or performance terms and arrive at
solutions that addresses them
• The design process presents a series of choice from which designer
choose an effective solution that often represents competing
interests of operational efficiency, cost, users and environmental
sensitivity

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Example: Maryland Route 108
• Two lane major arterial providing principal access to and through Olney
area
• Land use includes both residential and commercial land uses
• Challenges:
• Traffic already exceeds capacity
• Future increase in traffic would lead to further congestion
• No opportunity to divert traffic to any other parallel arterials
• Primary transportation model will remain automobile
• Stakeholder’s concerns include:
• Preservation of natural and historic features (including large trees along the corridor,
split rail fencing, historic properties)
• Inclusion of provision for bicycles and pedestrians across and along the corridor
• Safety and access to businesses
• Appearance of the corridor (a desire for landscaping and other visual features)

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 As a highway design engineer, you are entrusted
to develop a section of National Highway passing
through an industrial area. What Context
Sensitive Solutions you would like to explore?

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Performance-based design
• Meeting geometric design criteria -> only
nominal safety and operational
performance Operational
performance
• Meeting explicit performance criteria ->
achieve substantial safety and operational
performance targets Performance
-based
design
Operational targets: HCM

Safety targets: HSM Safety

Performance performance
standards Operational targets: Indo-
HCM
Safety targets: IRC SP 044

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 As a highway design engineer, you are entrusted
to develop a section of National Highway. How
would you like to adopt the Performance-Based
Design concept in your project?

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Practical design
• Focuses on doing everything well instead of a few factors
• Establish reduced-cost scope and road geometry primarily based on
needs
• Only the most needed improvements were included in the projects
• A minor variation of practical design concept is Practical Solutions
where existing condition is considered as base design and project
improvements beyond the existing condition is considered as positive
outcome

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As a highway design engineer, you are entrusted
to develop a section of MDR passing through an
area with many warehouses. Both long hauling
heavy vehicles and smaller delivery vehicles
accesses these warehouses. The through traffic
from this region is generally low. How would you
use this information for developing the Practical
Design concept?
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Design matrix approach
• It is an extension of practical design with three levels of design for
highway project:
• Basic design level
• Modified design level
• Full design level

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Safe system approach
• Adopted by Australia, New Zealand, and much of the European Union
• Holistic view of road safety shared between all facets of the
transportation system (i.e., roadway infrastructure, roadway users,
and vehicles)
• Primary elements of the approach are:
• Safe roads and roadsides
• Safe speeds
• Safer vehicles
• Road users

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Travel time reliability
• It is a variation of operational performance measure
• Travel time reliability is strongly influenced by nonrecurrent
congestion such as:
• Traffic incidents
• Special events Design engineer concerns
• Work zones
• Traffic control devices
• Demand fluctuations Not under Design engineer concerns
• Weather

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Value engineering
• Implemented when the project design is nearly complete and ready
for a design review
• Typically performed by engineers not involved in the design of the
project to find opportunities for increasing the project’s value
• Value is generally defined in terms of the performance measures
used for the design and can include project cost
𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆/𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒕 < 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕
• 𝑰𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏 + ∆𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 = ቐ 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒕 = 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕
𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒕 + ∆ 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕

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Designing of 3R projects

• The design standards and concepts in

geometric design change over time
Resurfacing
• Meeting the current design standards and
geometric design concept in 3R projects
3R

Restoration could be expensive

• Not meeting the current design standards
Rehabilitation and geometric design concept in 3R projects
could lead to lower performance level

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Very low-volume local roads

• The very low-volume local roads represent a different design

environment than the high-speed roadways
• Very low-volume translates to much lower risk profile
• Adopting the design standards and geometric design concepts of
high-speed roadways would be expensive for these roadways
• However, locations with high crash rate should be identified and
designed to meet the prevailing standard

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Performance based practical design
• A decision-making approach for better
management of transportation investments Performance-
serving the system-level needs and based design
performance priorities with limited resources (Operational
• Focuses on performance improvements that + safety
benefit both project and system needs performance)

• Decisions are made based upon performance Performance

based
and cost analysis practical
• Each element of a project's scope relative to design
value, need, and urgency is scrutinized for
greater return on infrastructure investments
Practical
• Does not eliminate, modify, or compromise design (cost)
existing design standards or regulatory
requirements

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Reading assignments
• NCHRP Report no. 480, Section H: Case Studies on Context Sensitive
Solutions
• NCHRP Synthesis 443, Appendices D, G and I: Case studies on
Practical Design
• https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/design/pbpd/case_studies.cfm
Case studies on Performance-based Practical Design

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Questions & Exercises
• As a highway design engineer, you are entrusted to develop a section
of National Highway based on the Complete Street Concept. Discuss
your considerations.
• As a highway design engineer, you are entrusted to develop a section
of National Highway passing through an industrial area. What Context
Sensitive Solutions you would like to explore?
• As a highway design engineer, you are entrusted to develop a section
of National Highway. How would you like to adopt the Performance-
Based Design concept in your project?

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