Objective of today’s class

• Understand the concept of structural design

• Pavement types
• Functionality of various layers
• Philosophies of structural design
• Design of pavement using IRC -37
 Requirements of pavements for which
design is done

• Structural requirement
– Sustain repeated load application of vehicles

• Functional requirement
– Smooth riding surface, necessary friction

• Drainage requirement
 Structural design

• Design the thickness of pavement layers

• Structural capability to carry repetitive loads

• When design is done??

– New construction
– Pavement rehabilitation - overlay

• Need of proper design

– Slowly progress towards failure
– Prevent sudden failure – under designed pavement
 Pavement types - structure

• Flexible pavement
• Rigid pavement
• Flexible pavement
– Layered structure
– Top layer strongest
– Negligible flexural strength (flexible)
– Decrease wheel load effect on lower layers –truncated
cone
– Will get deformed to shape of below layer
– Usual Design life -15 years
– Can do functional and structural evaluation –easy
restoration
– Curing period less – 24 hours
• Rigid pavement
– Concrete pavements are used
– Slab action- flexural force
– Spread wheel load stresses over a larger area
– Not influenced by layers below
– Design life 30 years
– Difficult to restore – damaged
– Curing period more -28 days
 Functionality of various layers –flexible pavement

• Subgrade
– Lowest layer support
– It should have the least stress - of wheel load
– It should be compacted well
• 500 mm for NH and SH
• 300 mm rural roads
– Should be drained well
• Sub-base – (Granular Sub Base –GSB)
– Drain water entering pavement layer in to side drains
• Prevents subgrade
– Need to take comparatively small stress
– Coarse grade aggregates of low strength
– High permeability

• Base course - (Granular Base Course)

– Disperse wheel load
– Protects GSB
– Good quality coarse aggregates
• Thin bituminous surface course
– Surface dressing (IRC 110-2005), bituminous carpet
(IRC 97-1987)
– Prevent entry of water
– Serves as a wearing course

• Thick bituminous binder and surface course

– Surface course of good quality roads (NH and SH)
– High volume roads
– Can sustain heavy loads of commercial vehicles
– Mix design has to be done
 Philosophies of flexible pavement design

• Empirical design methods

– empirical charts – developed based on past
experience
– subgrade and layer properties

• Mechanistic or theoretical design method

– Stress, strain, deflection

• Semi-empirical design methods

– Combination of both
 IRC 37, 2018 – flexible pavement design

• Scope
– How to design a new pavement for Express ways,
NH, SH, Major district roads, other category of roads

• Bituminous pavement over GSB and Granular Base

• Follows a mechanistic empirical approach

– Use CBR value of soil to determine pavement thickness
– Check whether the strain induced for determined pavement
thickness is less than the value resulting in fatigue failure and
rutting failure

• 2 msa load repetitions or more IRC-SP-72

 Objective of today’s class

• Knowledge of factors affecting design

• Principle of pavement design

– Critical strains and failure criteria

• Various variables required for pavement design

– Vehicle damage factor

• IRC 37 -2018
Factors affecting design and performance of
pavements
• Design wheel load
– Thickness depend on design wheel load
– Higher the wheel load – thicker the pavement
– Need to consider total static load, multiple wheel load
assembly, contact pressure, and load repetition.

• Subgrade soil properties

– Subgrade with low stability - thick pavements.
– Variation in soil stability with moisture content.
 – Stress strain behavior of soil also has significance
– pavement performance depend on soil properties
• CBR
• Climactic factors
– Rain fall
– Daily and seasonal variation in temperature
– Frost action
• Pavement component materials
• Environmental factors
– Height of embankment
– Depth of water table
 Principles of pavement design
• Critical stains to design flexible pavement
– Tensile strain -top and bottom of bituminous layer
– Vertical strain in the top of sub grade
• Critical failures to design pavement
– Fatigue
• Micro Cracks - Tensile strain-bottom of bituminous layer
• It will propagate to the top of layer - due to load
repetition
• It would affect serviceability of pavement
• Load repetitions till poor serviceability –fatigue life
– Rutting
• Deformation along longitudinal wheel path
• Due to deformation of subgrade due to repeated traffic
loading
• Excessive rutting reduces serviceability
• Load repetitions till poor serviceability –Rutting life
Rutting failure

Fatigue failure
• Relationship of these strains to critical failures
– Fatigue life
– Rutting life
 Vehicle damage factor

• VDF is a factor that converts the load repetitions of each

vehicle type in to load repetitions of a standard axle.
• Axle
– Single axle
– Tandem axle
– Tridem axle
• Number of wheel on both side of axle can be single or dual
• Standard axle load
– The standard axle load taken in IRC -37, 2018 is 8160 kg
(80Kn) – single axle, dual wheel.
• Damages per pass to a pavement by an axle of a vehicle can
be expressed in terms of damage per pass of a standard axle
load.
• Equivalency factor =

• This equivalency factor is used to identify VDF for

each vehicle type.
Standard axle load conversion – Single Axle
Equivalency factor for a vehicle group
• VDF along a direction on a road stretch
= (V1 * E1 +V2*E2+…. )/ (V1+V2+…)

V1 , V2 … = volume of typical vehicle group along

direction
E1 , E2 … = equivalency factor of vehicle group
Indicative VDF values (IRC 37, 2018)
 Objective of today’s class

• Variables required for pavement design

– Lane distribution factors
– Design traffic

• Input parameters in design

• Design methodology

• IRC 37 -2018
 Lane distribution factor

• Traffic data taken for both directions

• Distribute traffic on to a single lane

• Single-lane roads (1)

– Concentration of wheel load repetitions
– Total commercial vehicles in both directions.

• (ii) Two-lane single carriageway roads (0.5)

• Take 50% of total commercial vehicles in both directions.
• If vehicle damage factor in one direction is higher
– the traffic in the direction of higher VDF.
Single carriage way loads
Dual carriageway loads
iii)Four-lane single carriageway roads (0.4)
• 40% of total commercial vehicles in both directions.

(iv) Dual carriageway roads

• Two-lane carriageway roads -75 per cent of the number
of commercial vehicles in each direction
• three-lane carriageway- 60 per cent
• dual four-lane carriageway -45 per cent
Computation of design Traffic
(>3 tonnes)
 Certain specifications of pavement design
using IRC method
• Commercial vehicles should have a weight greater than
3 tonnes

• Subgrade will have CBR values ranging from 2 to 10

percent

• Design traffic will range from 1 million standard axle to

150 million standard axle (msa)

• Average annual pavement temperature of 350C.

 Input parameters

• Design traffic in cumulative standard axles

– VDF (F), Lane distribution factor (D), A, r

• CBR value of subgrade

• Moment of resilience of pavement layer (Mr)

• Constant ‘C’ to be used in fatigue equation (if necessary)

 Design methodology

• Determine the pavement layered structure using CBR method

• Using the cumulative standard axles calculated in CBR

method determine the allowable tensile strain and
compressive strain

• Using the pavement structure determined, estimate the actual

tensile strain and compressive strain
– IIT pave software

• Check whether allowable strains> =actual strains

 Objective of today’s class

• Design of pavement using IRC 37 -2018

• Problem
• It is proposed to design a 4-lane single carriage with a
granular base and sub-base for the following data
1) Initial traffic in each direction at the year of completion of
construction is 4500 commercial vehicles per day (cvpd). Both the
direction have same composition of vehicle-types.
2)Assume there are 2500 trucks carrying load of 10 tonnes and
2000 trucks carrying load of 12 tonnes – Assume a 50%
distribution of load across the axles.
3) All the trucks are single axle with single wheel on either side.
4)Design life = 15 years
5)CBR of subgrade soil = 6%
6) Traffic growth rate = 9%
7) The reliability for fatigue and rutting failure is 80%
8)Actual compressive strain and tensile strain determined using IIT
pave software respectively are 510 x 10-6 and 220 x 10-6
9) Resilient modulus of bituminous layer is 3000 Mpa
10) Voids filled with bitumen for bottom bituminous layer = 72 %
 Design methodology

• Determine the pavement layered structure using CBR method

• Using the cumulative standard axles calculated in CBR method determine the
allowable tensile strain and compressive strain

• Using the pavement structure determined, estimate the actual tensile strain and
compressive strain
• IIT pave software

• Check whether allowable strains> =actual strains

Thank you
 Objective of today’s class

• Understand the various pavement construction types

• Based on layers
 Bituminous pavement construction

• Layers

• Subgrade

• Sub-base only base course

• Base

• Binder course
only wearing course
• Wearing course
Subgrade
• Clear vegetation – light compaction
• Spread soil in layer – compact
• Take care of moisture
Base and sub base
• Granular Sub-base
• Crushed concrete, broken bricks
• Rolling-Smooth wheeled/vibratory rollers

• Water bound Macadam (WBM) (IRC 19, 2005)

• Crushed aggregate, screening (4-5 mm and smaller), binder
• Coarse aggregate is placed first
• Fine aggregate (screenings) laid over it and broomed
• Water is added and rolled
• Allow drying
• Penetration macadam
• First, Aggregates a spread and compacted
• Then binder of high viscosity is sprayed over it
• Binder penetrates in to voids and binds aggregates
• Full grout and semi grout –based on depth of penetration
Gradation required for penetration macadam (IRC 20,1966)
• Built-up spray grout (IRC 47,1972)
• Two-layers of compacted crushed aggregates
• Bituminous binder is applied after each layer
• Finished with key aggregates at top (<20 mm)
• Used in strengthening existing pavements
• A wearing course has to be provided over it

• Bituminous macadam (IRC 27, 1967)

• Premix method
• Constructed using open graded aggregate
• Thickness of 75 – 50 mm
• Drainage issues
• A course have to be laid over it
Bituminous wearing course
• Bituminous concrete
• Premix method
• Used as a high quality surface course
• Mix design is done to identify optimum bitumen content
• Constructed using dense graded aggregate
• Thickness usually ranges from 40 -75 mm
• Seal coat
• Topmost coat over bituminous pavement that are not
impervious.
• Thin surface treatment or single coat surface dressing over
already existing pavement
• Example of seal coat - sand bitumen seal coat

Functions
•Water proof
•Skid resistance
Interlayer Coats
• Prime coat
• Low viscosity liquid bitumen is applied on porous or absorbent surface
• like Water Bound Macadam (WBM)
• Plug in capillary voids
• Usually cutback bitumen is used
• Mechanical sprayer is used for application
• 24 hours curing time
• Tack coat
• Interface treatment – bond between old and new layer
• Usually low viscosity liquid bitumen is applied on
impervious surface
• Like treated (prime coat)WBM or existing bituminous
surface
• Mechanical sprayer is used for application
 Premix methods
• Aggregate and bituminous binder is mixed before spreading
and compaction.
• Bitumen amount can be controlled – increased quality
• Different types based on gradation of aggregates – open, semi
dense and dense.
 Objective of today’s class

• Understand concept of highway maintenance

• Functional evaluation of pavement

• Distress measurements
• Surface characteristic measurement

• Structural evaluation of pavement

• Pavement maintenance types

 Highway maintenance

• Highways designed for a time frame - design period

• Maintenance
• Routine
• Major reconstruction
• Maintenance -required within or after design period
• Routine:
• Improve the riding quality of surface,
• Reduce distress effects
• Major reconstruction
• Structural failure
Functional evaluation
 Functional evaluation
• It is done to understand the riding comfort of pavement

• Two ways
• Separately measuring each distresses in pavement
• Measuring surface characteristics of pavement as a
whole

• Measuring distress
• Physical measurement of each distress
• Correlating it with an overall pavement rating –PSR
• Empirical equation– PSI

• Measuring surface characteristics

• Roughness index
• Instrument used to measure – profilometer
• International Roughness index (IRI)
 Distresses in pavements

• Surface defects – fatty surfaces, hungry surfaces

• Cracks – alligator cracks, longitudinal cracks, hairline cracks

• Deformations –rutting, corrugation

• Disintegration -potholes
 Alligator cracking

• Reason – fatigue
• Initiates at bottom of pavement – propagate upwards
• Hexagonal shaped cracks
• Sealing to prevent further damage
 Longitudinal cracking

• Along length of road

• Lateral movement layers beneath
 Hairline crack

• Fine cracks
• Reason – insufficient bitumen content, more filler, lack of compaction
 Fatty surfaces
• Bleeding
• Appearance of bituminous binder on the surface of the pavement.
• Reason: excessive bituminous binder in the surface
• Control: proper mix design
 Hungry surfaces

• Cause: Less bitumen or bitumen absorption by aggregate

• Aggregate would be displaced
• Seal coat – overcome the issue
 Corrugations

• Ripples formed laterally across a pavement surface.

• Reason: lack of stability
• Traffic starts and stops or on hills where vehicles brake
• Causes of lack of stability:
• Soft bitumen
• High filler content
• Excessive presence
of smooth and
rounded aggregate
 Rutting

• A rut is defined as a longitudinal depression in the wheel path

• Generally a rut depth of 0.5 in. is considered a rutting failure
• Caused by excessive or less air voids in the in-place mix under traffic
Structural evaluation of pavement
 Structural evaluation of pavement

• Destructive methods
• Core cutting from field
• Bitumen and aggregate are separated

• Non-destructive methods
• Static Creep deflection method – Benkelman Beam deflection
• Static load is appled
• Impulsive loading devices – Falling weight deflectometer
Pavement maintenance types
 Maintenance – other than overlay

• Minor maintenance
• Does not increase the structural strength
• Improves functionality
• Would prevent the rate of structural failure
 Distress type Maintenance required
Alligator cracking Sealing of alligator cracks
Fatty surfaces Application of hot, dry , small aggregates and
rolling
Corrugation Scarification of elevated part by mechanical
blades and rolling
Hungry surface Application of seal coat
Rutting Milling of protruded portion, profile corrective
course
Potholes Patching and partial reconstruction
 Maintenance with overlay

• Overlay – improves structural strength

• Need to find overlay thickness

• Deflection method using
• Benkelman Beam
• Falling Weight Deflectometer

• Bituminous Macadam or Bituminous Concrete (BC) is used as overlay

 Pavement management

• Pavement management would increase the structural life of pavement

• If done at proper time it would reduce the construction cost

• Hence , need to define a proper system that would aid in this management

• Steps in establishing a pavement management system

• Quantification of structural and functional distresses – indices
• Ranking various pavement structures based on priority
• Forecasting future performance for these indices with and without maintenance
• Fund allocation
• Maintenance activity scheduling
 Objective of today’s class

• Understanding the concept of traffic engineering

• Scope of traffic engineering

 Traffic engineering

• Traffic engineering: the science of measuring traffic and

the study of laws related with traffic movement
– Function
• Optimal planning and geometric design of street,
highways, abutting lands, and traffic operations

– Characteristics of an efficient transportation system

• Safe
• Convenient
• Economical
 Scope of traffic engineering

• Traffic characteristics
• Traffic studies and analysis
• Traffic operation, control and regulation
• Planning and analysis
• Geometric design
• Road safety aspects
• Administration and management
 Objective of today’s class

• Understanding different road user characteristics

• Understanding various vehicle characteristics

• Road user characteristics - As pedestrians, cyclist,
drivers etc.
– Physical characteristics

– Mental characteristics

– Psychological factors

– Environmental factors
 Physical characteristics

• Permanent
– Vision
– Hearing
– Strength
– General reaction to traffic situations
• Temporary
– Fatigue
– Alcohol or drugs
– illness
• Vision – dimensions
– Acuity of vision -clarity
• Peripheral vision and eye movement
» Cone of vision 3 degree
» Clear vision up to 10 degrees
– Glare vision
– Glare recovery
– Depth judgement
• Speed of vehicles and distance of vehicle and
other objects
• Hearing
– For drivers
– For pedestrians

• Strength
– Parking manoeuvres

• General reaction to traffic situations

– PIEV theory
– Perception time, intellection time, emotion time,
volition time
 I-E

P V

Stimulus Response
Reflex action
 Mental characteristics

• Knowledge
• Experience
• Skill
• Intelligence
• Literacy
 Psychological factors

• Attentiveness
• Fear
• Anger
• Impatience
• Attitude
 Environmental factors

• Traffic stream characteristics

• Atmospheric conditions
• The locality
– Crowded
• Trade off between
– Saving time, and comfort and convenience
 Vehicular characteristics

• Static characteristics

• Dynamic characteristics
 Static characteristics

• Dimensions of vehicle

• Weight of vehicle

• Maximum turning angle of vehicle

• Vehicle dimensions
– Width
• Width of pavement, parking space, shoulders
• Less pavement width - less capacity
– Height
• Clearance under structures
– Length
• Will effect capacity, overtaking distance, parking
• Weight of vehicle
– Structural design of pavements
– Gradients

12 -tonnes
• Maximum turning angle

– Depend on length of wheel base

– Type of steering system

 Dynamic characteristics

• Speed

• Acceleration

• Breaking characteristics
• Speed

– Sight distances
– Super elevation
– Length of transition curves
– Width of pavement on horizontal curves
– Traffic lane capacity
• Braking characteristics

– Type of breaking system

– Spacing between vehicles

– Stopping sight distance

 Objective of today’s class

• Understanding the various traffic studies carried out

• Traffic volume studies: uses and equipments used

• Spot Speed studies

– Space mean and time mean speed
Traffic studies
 Various traffic studies carried out

• Traffic volume study

• Speed studies

• Origin and destination study

• Parking study

• Accident studies
 Traffic volume

• Volume: Number of vehicle passing a transverse line in

road per unit time
– Expressed as vehicle/hour/lane or vehicles/day/lane

• Need to accommodate heterogeneity of various vehicle

types
– Convert to a common unit - Passenger Car Units (PCU)

• Need to count traffic every 10 -15 minutes interval using

permanent traffic count station on a road stretch
– Will give hourly, daily and seasonal variation in traffic
flow
• Count would give information on
– Hourly variation
– Daily variation
– Seasonal variation
– Lane-wise variation
– Directional variation – time period
– Annual average daily traffic (AADT)
 Traffic volume study

• Uses
– Deciding priority of improvement
– Planning of new facilities
– Analysis of traffic patterns and trends –future prediction
– Classified volume study – structural design of
pavements
– Volume distribution study – deciding one-way
– Turning movement study – at intersections
– Pedestrian traffic study
– Understanding capacity of road
 Counting of motor-traffic volume

– Automatic counters/ classifiers

• Pneumatic hose –with sensors
• Video cameras – image analysis
– Manual counts: done using enumerators
• Done in record sheets
• Data collected on: vehicle direction, vehicle type, number of
occupants
• Limitation – cannot count data through out year for 24 hours
• So samples are used – like specific weeks in a specific season
 Presentation of traffic volume data

• Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT)

– To decide importance of routes
• Volume trend over period of years – trend chart
– Expansion, design and regulation of transport infrastructure
• Hourly variation in traffic – variational chart
– Peak traffic period off-peak period
• Flow diagram at intersections
– Signal timing, flyover
• 30th highest hourly volume
– Hourly volume that will be exceeded only 29 times in a year
– Taken as peak hour volume
 Volume flow at intersections

Hourly variation
in traffic
 Speed studies

• Certain definitions
– Travel time
• Inverse related with speed
• Indicates how well a road is operating
– Spot speed
– Average speed
• Average of spot speeds passing a given point in
highway
• Two categories – space-mean speed and time-
mean speed
– Running speed
• Average speed maintained by a vehicle over a
particular stretch of road.
• Vehicle should be in motion during the running period
• So, delays because of stopping of vehicles need to be
excluded in the travel time used for calculating running
speed

– Overall speed or travel speed

• Average speed between two terminals (origin and
destination)
• It includes delays because of stoppage of vehicles
Space mean speed: represents the average speed of
vehicles in a certain road length at any time

Vs =

Vs = space-mean speed (Km/hr)

d = length of road considered (in metres)
n = number of individual vehicle observation
ti = observed travel time for the the ith vehicle
(seconds)
Time mean speed

Average of instantaneous speed of observed vehicles at a

spot

Vt = time-mean speed
n = number of individual vehicle observation
Vi = observed instantaneous speed of ith vehicle
 Types of speed studies

• Spot –speed study

• Speed and delay study

 Spot speed studies
• Uses
– Used in accident studies
– Used in deciding speed trends over a period of time
• Finding speed limits –lower and safe
• Design speed : new facilities or redesign facilities
– Traffic capacity study – flow, density, speed

• Determining spot speed

– Using Enoscope
– Using radar gun
– Photographic method
For understanding how enscope functions, lets assume a road stretch where an
observer is standing at point B and an enscope is placed at point A which is 50 m
away from the observer. Lets assume that a vehicle is travelling from point A to B.
Enoscope, also known as ‘Mirror box’, is an L-shaped box, open at both ends. A
mirror is set inside it at 45° to both the arms as shown in the figure. As light rays
from the vehicle passing point A impinge on the mirror, it get reflected and pass in a
direction perpendicular to the incident ray and the reflected rays fall on the eye of
the observer at point B. Thus, the observer can start the stopwatch when vehicle
pass point A and stop it when the vehicle pass point B. The travel time estimated for
the vehicle to travel from point A to B can then be used to divide the fixed distance,
which is 50 m in our case, to give the spot speed.
• Finding speed limit
– Plot a graph with cumulative frequency of vehicles
travelled on Y-axis and speed on X- axis
– Safe speed taken as corresponding to 85th percentile
and 15th percentile represents the lower speed limit
– Design speed corresponding to 98th percentile.

• Mode of speed
– Maximum preferred speed
– Speed distribution – usually normal
– Find the mode
– Mode = average
 Objective of today’s class

• Spot speed determination - Problem

 Objective of today’s class

• Speed limit determination - Problem

 Objective of today’s class

• Speed and delay study

• Methods used for speed and delay study

• Floating car method

 Speed and delay study
– Gives information on speed and delay between an origin and
destination
– Information on speed given are
• running speed, overall travel speed
• fluctuations in speeds
– Information on delay given are
• Amount of delay
• Type of delay – fixed or operational delay
• Location of delay
• Frequency of delay
• Cause of delay
– Uses:
• judge the existing efficiency of road –travel speed and time
• Location, duration and cause of congestion
• Suggest improvement measures to overcome congestion
• Various methods for carrying out speed and delay study

– Floating car or riding check method

– License plate or vehicle number method

– Interview technique

– Elevated observations

– Photographic technique
• Floating car method
– Test vehicle – driven against and in the direction of traffic
• ‘q’ is the traffic flow in a particular stretch.
– 4 observers
• One with 2 stop watches
– find the time of arrival and delays at control points
and fixed points
• One -note time, location and cause of these delays
• One observer notes
– number of vehicles overtaking the test vehicle
– number of vehicles being overtaken by test vehicle
• One observer notes
– notes number of vehicles travelling in opp. direction
• t = tw – (ny/q)
• q= na+ny/(ta+tw)
– t= average journey time in minutes
– q = flow of vehicles in one direction of stream (veh/min)
– na =average number of vehicles counted in the
direction of the stream when test vehicles travel in
opposite direction
– ny= the average number of vehicles overtaking the
test vehicle minus vehicles overtaken
– tw=Average journey time in minutes when vehicle is
travelling with stream ‘q’
– ta =Average journey time in minutes when vehicle is
travelling against stream ‘q’
 Objective of today’s class

• Floating car method - Numerical

 Objective of today’s class

• Traffic flow characteristics

– Traffic manoeuvres
– Fundamental variables defining a traffic stream

• Traffic capacity definition and Level of Service

 Basic traffic manoeuvre

– Diverging

– Merging

– crossing

– weaving
 Traffic stream parameters

• Traffic volume (Traffic flow)

– Number of vehicle moving in a particular direction on a lane
or a road that can pass a given point in unit time
(vehicles/hour).

• Traffic density
– Number vehicles on a unit length of road (vehicles/kilometer)

• Traffic speed
– Average speed of vehicles along a stream (Kilometers/hour)
• Fundamental traffic flow variables
– Speed (Vs – km/hour), density (K – veh/km) and flow
(q-veh/hour)

• Fundamental traffic flow relationship

– q = K * VS
– Here when any two of these variables are known third
can be determined.
– Usually flow and velocity are easy to calculate
Features explored in traffic stream flow
studies

– Longitudinal distribution of vehicles on various routes

• Time headway
• Space headway

– Space headway
• The distance between successive vehicles
• Measured from head to head
• Depend on vehicle length and clear gap
• Increases with speed
• Reciprocal of density
 Time headway

• The time interval between the passage of

successive vehicles in same lane
• Measured from head to head
• Reciprocal of flow
• Decrease and then increases with speed
 Traffic lane capacity
– Maximum traffic volume possible in a highway
– Basic capacity
• Under ideal roadway and traffic conditions
• Maximum number of vehicles that can pass a given
point
– Possible capacity
• Maximum capacity under prevailing roadway and traffic
• Lower than basic capacity
– Practical capacity
• It is the maximum number of vehicles that can pass
given point on a road during an hour
• Without unnecessary delay or restriction to driver’s
freedom
• Design capacity - considering the desired level of
service
 Factors affecting practical capacity
• Lane width – decrease in lane width reduces capacity

• Lateral clearance – restricted lateral clearance reduces

driver comfort

• Width of shoulder – narrow width reduces driver comfort

• Presence of commercial vehicles –trucks reduce speed

• Alignment – no proper OSD

• Presence of intersections
Level of service diagram
• Level Of Service (LOS) indicates the specific speed and
level of vehicle interaction that should be provided along a
designed lane of the road, lets say a highway.
• This decided LOS would then determine the possible
capacity adopted for that highway lane.
• LOS A-F respectively represents a decreasing order of LOS.
• LOS A offers the highest LOS.
• If a lane of road stretch is constructed with a LOS A, it
means that the vehicles can travel at the highest possible
speed with ample opportunities to overtake.
• The possibility of travelling with a preferred speed and
getting chances to overtake would reduce with a decreasing
LOS.
• At LOS F, which represents a congested region, vehicle will
have to undergo a stop and go motion.
 Passenger car units (PCU)
• Heterogeneous traffic flow or mixed traffic flow
– Mix of various vehicle classes- eg: car, truck,
autorickshaw, bus etc
– Various dynamic characteristics (speed, acceleration), and
static characteristics (length,width).

• Difficult to estimate a standard value of volume and capacity –

depends on proportion of vehicle types

• So, volume and capacity expressed in Passenger Car Unit

(PCU)/hour or PC/lane/hour
– PCU is a measure of the space occupied by a vehicle
class compared with that of a passenger car
– Another way of understanding PCU is as the ratio of the
capacity of a lane when only passenger cars are there to
when only the required vehicle class is there
 Factors affecting PCU

• Vehicle characteristics such as dimensions, power, speed etc

• Transverse and longitudinal gap

• Traffic stream characteristics – composition of vehicle classes

• Roadway characteristics – gradient

• Regulation of traffic

• Environmental and climactic conditions

 Objective of today’s class

• Traffic regulation and control

• Various traffic control devices

– Signs
– Traffic island
 Traffic regulation

• Traffic regulations – government rules and laws that has

to be obeyed
– Regulations for drivers – minimum age for licence,
driving under influence of alcohol, speed limit etc.

– Regulations for vehicles – vehicle registration,

maximum dimensions and weight, fitness certificate
etc.

– Regulations for traffic flow – keep to left, overtaking

from right, speed limit, one way regulation, turning
restriction etc.
 Traffic control

• Controlling and guiding the movement of vehicles along

a road

• Achieved using traffic control devices

– Signs
– Road markings
– Traffic Islands
– Traffic signals and rotaries
 Traffic sign

• Three types
– Regulatory signs
• Certain laws of which violation is an offence
– Warning signs
• Warn the users of certain conditions
– Informatory sign
• Guide users along route –provide destination,
travel distance
 Regulatory signs

• Stop and give-way signs

•Prohibitory signs
• No parking, No stopping
• Length and weight limit
• Restriction ends
• Compulsory direction control
 Warning signs

• Information to warn drivers of hazards to be encountered

•
• They have white back ground, red border and black
symbols.

• Triangle pointed upwards.

• They should be placed 120 meters (NH), 90 meters

(MDR), 60 meter (ODR) and 40 (VR) ahead.

• Not obeying may result in an accident

 Informatory signs
• Direction and place identification signs
• Facility information signs
• Parking sign
• Flood gauge sign
– Indicate height flood above road level
• Other useful information
 Traffic islands

• Physical barriers used to channelize traffic

• Functionally classified as
• Divisional islands
• Channelizing islands
• Pedestrian islands
• Rotary Island
• Divisional islands
– Separate opposing flow with four or more lanes
– Eliminates head on collision and other accidents
– Width of island should be large to prevent glare
– Kerbs should have sufficient height
• Channelizing islands
– Used to guide traffic in an ‘at grade’ intersection
– Requires large area
– Uses
• Reduce conflicts at intersections
• Can change direction of flow
• Convenient location for other traffic control devices
• Refuge islands for pedestrians
• Pedestrian loading islands
• Rotary Island
 Objective of today’s class

• Intersection types

• Ways of managing intersection

• Channelization of intersection
– Traffic islands
– Rotaries
 Intersection
• Intersection – formed when roads carrying traffic in different
directions cross each other

• Different flows in different direction

• Leads to conflict points

• Reduction in speed -more delay, capacity – less efficiency

• The basic idea behind intersection design is to modify these

conflicts.

• Intersections should be designed efficiently – safety, capacity,

cost of operation
 Crossing Conflicts ……..16
Merging ……… 8
Diverging ……. 8

CONFLICT POINTS AT AN AT GRADE INTERSECTION

 Two types of intersections

• Intersection at grade
– Roads meet at same level
– Merging, diverging and crossing of vehicles occur
– They can be un-channelized, channelized, rotary
intersection, signalized intersection

• Grade separated intersection

• Roads meet at different level – eliminate maximum
crossing points – done by flyover or under-pass
• Suitable interchange facilities should be provided
between grade separated roads
 Ways to deal with at grade intersections

• Channelization of traffic at intersections – provide traffic

islands

• Provide rotaries at intersections

• Provide signals at intersections

• Combinations of above methods

– Island and signal
 Channelized intersections

• Intersection having Traffic islands

• Advantages corresponding to un-channelized

intersection
– Reduce the total conflict area in un-channelized
intersection
– Reduces angle of merging streams- reduce conflict
impact
– Reduces speed of vehicles
 Rotary intersection (IRC 65)
• An intersection having large central island called rotary
• Advantages corresponding to un-channelized intersection
– Whole traffic is given priority instead of individual traffic
– Traffic proceeds at uniform speed
– Collision of through and right-turn movements are
converted
• Milder conflicts namely merging and diverging
– Good for intersections having five or more approaches
• Disadvantages
– As flow increases weaving becomes stop and go
– low traffic, the vehicles are forced to reduce speed
– Not suitable for acute angle of intersection
– Rotaries require large area of relatively flat land
– Pedestrians and cycles high –signals may be required
– Right turning vehicles have to travel longer
• Condition for justification of a traffic rotary
– Volume of traffic taken together in all roads
leading to rotary should be between 500 vehicle
per hour to 3000 vehicles per hour (IRC norm)
– Traffic entering all approaches are relatively equal
– Number of approaches: 5 or more
– Proportion of right turning traffic more
– Insufficient space for queue formation at
approaches
 Rotary design - Steps
• Check whether a rotary is justified based on criteria
given

• Decide the shape of rotary

• Design the parameters

 Shape of rotary (IRC 65)

Squarish rotary with

Circular shaped
rounded edge
 Rectangular shape
Elliptical rotary

Complex rotary
intersection
 Design factors for rotary
• Design speed
– Usually assumed as 30 Km/hr or 40 Km/hr (IRC 65)
• Radius at entry decided based on design speed -25m for 30km/hr and
35m for 40km/hr (refer IRC 65)
• Radius at exit -2 times entry radius
• Radius of central island:1.33 times the radius of entry curve
• Width of carriageway at entry and exit (IRC -65, Table 2)
• Width of non-weaving section – width of widest entry section
• Width of rotary roadway (m) (Weaving width for each section)
– The width of the weaving section should be higher than the width
at entry (e1)and circulation width(width of non-weaving section)
(e2). Thus weaving width is given as,
Width of rotary carriageway
• Weaving length = 4 x width of weaving section (m)
• Capacity of rotary –minimum capacity of individual
weaving sections

– where ’w’ is the is the weaving width (m)

– ‘e’ average entry and exit width, ((e1+e2)/2)) ,
– ’l’ is the length of weaving (m)
– ’p’ is the proportion of weaving traffic to the total traffic at
a stretch (weaving length).
‘a’ and ’d’ are the non-weaving traffic, and ’b’ and ’c’ are the
weaving traffic
 Objective of today’s class

• Problem on design of rotary intersection (IRC 65 – 1976)

 Railway engineering

1
 Salient feature of Indian railways
• 63140 kilometers as on 31.3.2002

• Broad gauge – 45.099 kilometers, Meter gauge – 14776

kilometers, Narrow gauge - 3265 kilometers

• They carry around 14 million passengers

• Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO)

– Sole research and development wing
• Has got a zonal system
 Railway track
• rail + sleepers + Ballast +subgrade = permanent way
Wheel load transmission in a railway track

Rail girder

Sleepers

Ballast

Sub grade
• Rails are joined in series by fish plates and bolts
• They are fixed to sleepers by fastenings
 Components of rail
• Rail
• Sleepers
• Rail fixtures and fastenings and chairs
• Ballast
• Gauge of railway track
– Distance between inner or running faces of two rails

• Gauge of wheel
– Distance between inner or running faces of wheels

• Different gauges in India

– Standard gauge – 1.676 m
– Meter gauge – 1 m
– Narrow gauge – 0.762 m
– Feeder track gauge – 0.610 m
 Factors deciding gauge
• Cost of construction
• Volume and traffic nature
• Development of areas
• Physical features
• Speed of movement
• Coning of wheels
– The surface of wheels are made in cone shape
• An inclination of 1 in 20
• Diameter of wheel is different at wheel cross sections
– The same slope is provided in the rails
• Uses
– Train running on straight track try to move in any direction
– Diameter of the wheel increases over one rail
– Wheel assembly is -forced to move central position
• Due to difference of distances moved over two rails
– Thus coning does not allow any sidewise movement
• Curved track - due to centrifugal force train is forced in outward
direction
– Diameter on outer track increases -distance on tracks adjusted
• Reduce wear and tear -slippage
Coning of wheels on a level track
 Rail
• Steel girders carrying load
• Functions
– Provide a rigid and smooth surface for heavy loads
– Endure vertical stress, lateral stress, thermal stress
– Minimum wear – reduce charges to replace it and
reduce failures
– Reduce stresses on ballast and formation
• Types of rail sections
– Double headed rail

– Bull headed rail

– Flat footed rail

 Rail joints
• Hold adjoining end of rails in correct position

• Weakest part in the track

• Strength – 50% of rail strength

• Requirements of an ideal joint

– Two lines should be arranged in line
– Provide space for expansion
– Easy to dismantle
– Prevent hogging of rail ends – tight fish plates
• Types of rail joints
– Supported rail joints
• Rail ends rest on single sleeper called joint sleeper
• Suspended rail joint
– Rail ends are projected beyond sleepers
• Bridge joint
– Suspended rail end
– will be carried by flat or corrugated plate called
• bridge plate
• Compromise joint
• Joint where two different rail sections meet
• Fish plates which fits both the rails.
 sleepers
• sleepers
– Transfer load to the ballast below
– Laid transverse to the rail
• Functions
– Maintain gauge
– Maintain transverse tilt
– To provide super elevation on curves
– Act as a medium to transfer loads
 Ballast
• Ballast- the granular material usually of broken stone , brick,
gravel or san packed below and around sleepers
• Functions of ballast
– Load transfer – from sleeper to subgrade
– Holds sleeper in position
– Gives elasticity to the track
– Maintain correct level between two parallel tracks
– It helps in drainage of water form surface
• Sleeper spacing (s) = width of sleeper (w) + 2 *
depth of ballast (Db)
Minimum depth of ballast