TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING-II

Lecture-3
Introduction to road alignment
(vertical alignmrnt)

Muhammad Usman Haider

Lecturer
Email:
[email protected]
 Highway alignment
• The position or lay out of centre line of the highway
on the ground is called the alignment.
• It includes straight path, horizontal deviation and
curves.
• Due to improper alignment , the
disadvantages are,
 Increase in construction
 Increase in maintenance cost
 Increase in vehicle operation cost
 Increase in accident cost
• Once the road is aligned and constructed, it is not
easy to change the alignment due to increase in
cost of adjoining land and construction of costly
Requrements of highway alignment
 Short
 Easy
 Safe
 Economical

• Short- desirable to have a short alignment between two

terminal stations.
• Easy- easy to construct and maintain the road with minimum
problem also easy for operation of vehicle.
• Safe- safe enough for construction and maintenance from
the view point of stability of natural hill slope, embankment
and cut slope also safe for traffic operation.
• Economical- total cost including initial cost, maintenance
cost and vehicle operation cost should be minimum.
 Factors controlling alignment
 Obligatory points
 Traffic
 Geometric design
 Economics
Other considerations
Additional care in hill roads
 Stability
 Drainage
 Geometric standards of
hill roads
 Resisting length
 Factors controlling alignment cont...
Obligatory points
 Obligatory points through which alignment is to pass
Examples:-bridge site, intermediate town , Mountain pass
etc…
 Obligatory points through which alignment should
not
pass.
Examples:-religious places, costly structure, unsuitable land

etc…

Traffic
• origin and destination survey should be carried out in the
area and the desire lines be drawn showing the trend of
traffic flow.
Geometric design
• Design factors such as gradient ,radius of curve and sight
distance also govern the final alignment of the highway.
• Gradient should be flat and less than the ruling gradient or
design gradient.
• Avoid sudden changes in sight distance, especially near
crossings
• Avoid sharp horizontal curves
• Avoid road intersections near bend
Economy
• Alignment finalised based on total cost including initial cost,
maintenance cost and vehicle operation cost.
Other consideration
• Drainage consideration, political consideration
• Surface water level, high flood level
• Environmental consideration
 Topographical control points
• The alignment, where possible should avoid passing
through
 Marshy and low lying land with poor drainage
 Flood prone areas
 Unstable hilly features

Materials and constructional features

 Deep cutting should be avoided
 Earth work is to be balanced; quantities for filling and
excavation
 Alignment should preferably be through better soil area
to minimize pavement thickness
 Location may be near sources of embankment and
pavement materials
stability
• A common problem in hilly roads is land sliding
• The cutting and filling of the earth to construct the roads on
hilly sides causes steepening of existing slope and affect its
stability.
Drainage
• Avoid the cross drainage structure
• The number of cross drainage structure should be
minimum.
Geometric standard of hilly road
• Gradient, curve and speed
• Sight distance, radius of curve
Resisting length
• The total work to be done to move the loads along the route
taking horizontal length, the actual difference in level between
two stations and the sum of the ineffective rise and fall in
 Vertical alignment

The vertical alignment is the elevation or profile of the centre line of the
road.
The vertical alignment consist of grade and vertical curve and it influence
the vehicle speed, acceleration, sight distance and comfort in vehicle
movements at high speed.
 Gradient
• It is the rate of rise or fall along the length of the
road with respect to the horizontal. It is
expressed as a ratio of 1 in x (1 vertical unit to x
horizontal unit). Some times the gradient is also
expressed as a percentage i.e. n% (n in 100).
• Represented by:
+n % + 1 in X (+ve or Ascending)
or -n% - 1 in X (-ve or descending) valley

summit
 Typical Gradients (IRC)
• Ruling Gradient
• Limiting Gradient
• Exceptional gradient
• Minimum Gradient
• Ruling gradient (design gradient):
• It is the maximum gradient within which the designer
attempts to design the vertical profile of road, it depends on
 Type of terrain
 Length of grade
 Speed
 Pulling power of vehicles
 Presence of horizontal curves
 Mixed traffic
Limiting Gradient:
• Steeper than ruling gradient. In hilly roads, it may
be frequently necessary to exceed ruling gradient
and adopt limiting gradient, it depends on
 Topography
 Cost in constructing the road
Exceptional Gradient:
• Exceptional gradient are very steeper gradients
given at unavoidable situations. They should
be limited for short stretches not exceeding
about 100 m at a stretch.
 critical length of the
• grade:
The maximum length of the ascending gradient which a
loaded truck can operate without undue reduction in
speed is called critical length of the grade. A speed of 25
kmph is a reasonable value. This value depends on the
size, power, load, initial speed.
Minimum gradient
• This is important only at locations where surface drainage
is important. Camber will take care of the lateral drainage.
But the longitudinal drainage along the side drains require
some slope for smooth flow of water. Therefore minimum
gradient is provided for drainage purpose and it depends
on the rain fall, type of soil and other site conditions.
• A minimum of 1 in 500 may be sufficient for concrete drain
and 1 in 200 for open soil drains.
 Value of gradient as per IRC
Terrain Ruling Limiting Exceptional
gradient gradient
gradient
Plain and Rolling 3.3% 5% 6.70%
(1 in 30)

Mountainous terrain 5% 6% 7%
(1 in 20)

Steep terrain up to 5% 6% 7%
3000m (MSL) (1 in 20)

6% 7% 8%
Steep terrain ( >3000m) (1 in 16.7)
 SUMMIT CURVE
Length of summit curve(L) for SSD
• Case-1(L > SSD)
NS NS 2
L

L 2 or
2H  2h 4.4
 2
• Case-2(L < SSD)

L  2S
 2H  2h or L  2S 
4.4
N
  N 2
length of summit curve for OSD
• Case-1(L > OSD)
NS 2 NS 2
L  or L
8H 9.6
• Case-2(L < OSD)
8H
L  2S  or L
9.6 2S 
N
S=sight distance i.e. SSD, OSD or ISD
N
N= deviation angle
i.e. algebraic difference between two
grade
H=height of driver eye above the carriageway i.e. 1.2 m
h=height of driver eye above the carriageway i.e. 0.15 m
 VALLEY CURVE
Length of valley curve for comfort condition:
1


3
 V  2 OR
 N  
  3.6 
L  2

 1


C 

L  0.38 NV 3 2


N= deviation angle i.e. algebraic difference between two grade
C= rate of change of centrifugal acceleration may be taken as 0.6 m/sec³
V= speed of vehicle in kmph
 Length of valley curve for head light sight distance
• Case-1(L > SSD)

NS 2 OR
NS
L 2 L
2h1  2S tan  1.5  0.035S

• Case-2(L < SSD) 
2h1  2S tan L  2S
1.5 
L  2S OR

  N  0.035SN 
h1=height of head light above the carriesway
α= inclination of focused portion of the beam of light w.r.t horizontal or beam angle .
N= deviation angle i.e. algebraic difference between two grade.
S=head light distance is equal to SSD
Example -1
• A vertical summit curve is formed at the intersection of
two gradient, +3% and -5%. Design the length of
summit curve to provide a SSD for a design speed of
80 kmph. Assume any other data as per IRC.
Example-2
• A vertical summit curve is to be designed when two
grades, +1/50 and -1/80 meet on a highway. The SSD
and OSD required are 180 and 640 m respectively.
But due to the site conditions the length of the vertical
curve has to be restricted to a maximum value of 500
m if possible. Calculate the length of the summit curve
needed to fulfil the requirements of SSD , OSD or
atleast ISD.
Example-3
• A valley is formed by a descending grade of 1 in 25
meeting an ascending grade of 1 in 30. design the
length of valley curve to fulfill both comfort condition
and head light distance requirements for a design
speed of 80 kmph. Assume allowable rate of change
of centrifugal acceleration is 0.6 m/sec3
Example-4
• An ascending gradient of 1 in 100 meets a descending
gradient of 1 in 120. a summit curve is to be designed
for a speed of 80 kmph so as to have an OSD of 470
m.
 Grade compensation
• At the horizontal curve ,due to the turning angle α of
the vehicle, the curve resistance develop is equal to
T(1-Cos α). When there is a horizontal curve in
addition to the gradient, there will be a increase in
resistance to fraction due to both gradient and curve.
It is necessary that in such cases the total resistance
due to grade and the curve should not exceeded the
resistance due to maximum value of the gradient
specified.
• Maximum value generally taken as ruling gradient
 Cont….
• Thus grade compensation can be defined as the
reduction in gradient at the horizontal curve
because of the additional tractive force required due
to curve resistance (T−Tcosα), which is intended to
offset the extra tractive force involved at the curve.
• IRC gave the following specification for the grade
compensation.
1. Grade compensation is not required for grades flatter than 4%
because the loss of tractive force is negligible.
2. Grade compensation is (30+R)/R %, where ‘R’ is the radius of
the horizontal curve in meters.
3. The maximum grade compensation is limited to 75/R%.