Improved Geometric Design of Existing Hill Road

Abstract

The geometric design of any road deals with the dimensions and layout of visible features of the road. The emphasis of the geometric design is to address the requirement of the driver and the vehicle such as safety, comfort, efficiency, etc. The features normally considered are the cross section elements, sight distance consideration, horizontal curvature, gradients, and intersection. The design of these features is to a great extend influenced by driver behavior and psychology, vehicle characteristics, traffic characteristics such as speed and volume. Proper geometric design will help in the reduction of accidents and their severity. Therefore, the objective of geometric design is to provide optimum efficiency in traffic operation and maximum safety at reasonable cost. Hilly regions, generally, have extremes of climatic conditions, difficult and hazardous terrain, topography and vast high altitude area. The roads are affected by flood consequent to torrential rainfall, land slide, snow fall, avalanche, etc. For the geometric design of hill road design specification are given separately from that of in plane for the provision of safety and comfort to the road users. The specification for the design is explained in chapter 2. In this project, an existing hill road stretch is chosen and is studied and checked against required geometric design standards as specified by the Indian Roads Congress (IRC). For any short comings in the geometric design of the chosen road stretch, an improved geometric design is proposed; which is done using MXROADTM software and also by hand calculations. The cost analysis for implication of this improved geometric design for this road stretch is also done