Geometric Design of Roads Handbook

602 Pages·2015·19.87 MB·English

by  Keith M. Wolhuter

Transport Engineering W
Geometric
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Geometric design covers the design of the visible elements of the road— l
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its horizontal and vertical alignments, the cross-section, intersections and u
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interchanges. Good practice allows the smooth and safe flow of traffic as e Design of Roads
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well as easy maintenance. Geometric design is covered in depth. The book
also addresses the underpinning disciplines of statistics, traffic flow theory,
economic and utility analysis, systems analysis, hydraulics and drainage,
Handbook
capacity analysis, coordinate calculation, environmental issues and public
transport.
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A key principle is that we need to recognise what the driver wishes to do rather

than what the vehicle can do. The book takes a human factors approach to e
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design, drawing on the concept of the ‘self-explaining road’. It also emphasises
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the need for consistency of design and shows how this can be quantified, and o
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sets out the issues of the design domain context, the extended design domain
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concept and the design exception. The book is not simply an engineering
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manual, but properly explores context-sensitive design. e
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Changes in geometric design over the last few years have been dramatic and
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far-reaching and this is the first book to draw these together into a practical Hi
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guide which presents a proper and overriding philosophy of design for road
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and highway designers and students.
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Keith Wolhuter is a Fellow of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers
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and has fifty years of experience in the field, producing national guidelines on
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geometric design, notably in Southern Africa.
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Keith M. Wolhuter
Cover image by Rodney Burrell
Y135499
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Y135499 cvr mech.indd 1 3/10/15 12:20 PM

Geometric
Design of Roads
Handbook

Geometric
Design of Roads
Handbook
Keith M. Wolhuter
Consultant Engineer, South Africa
A SPON PRESS BOOK
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2015 by Keith M. Wolhuter
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
No claim to original U.S. Government works
Version Date: 20150303
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4822-8872-8 (eBook - PDF)
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Writing a book is an extremely demanding and selfish task. This
book is dedicated to my wife, Helen, who spent many weeks,
months and years alone while I was in my study writing it.
And also to
Dr. Graham LD Ross, who showed me that geometric design is a
three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle and is as much art as it is science.

Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables xvii
Foreword xxi
Author xxiii
Glossary xxv
Part I
Geometric design 1
1 What a geometric designer needs to know 3
2 Policy 17
3 Road classification 27
4 Fundamental design considerations 35
5 Design control 59
6 Horizontal alignment 91
7 Vertical alignment 119
8 Cross-section design 141
9 Aesthetics 177
10 Intersections 191
11 Freeways and interchange design 245
vii
viii Contents
12 Low-volume roads 293
13 Road safety 319
14 Vulnerable road users 351
15 Public transport 371
Part II
Supporting disciplines 385
16 Project analysis 387
17 Statistics 405
18 Traffic flow theory 435
19 Capacity analysis: Interrupted flow 461
20 Capacity analysis: Uninterrupted flow 475
21 Transportation planning 497
22 Coordinate calculation 511
23 Environmental issues 529
24 Storm water design 541
References 561