The Design of Highway Alignments

Norman W. Garrick
Lecture 4 Part 1
Street and Highway Design

Blue Ridge Parkway

Trinity College
Lower Long Walk

Storrs Heights
An un-engineered alignment

A Driveway in Willington, CT
Likely engineered alignment

Geometric Design of Highways

The engineering aspects of alignment design is usually referred to as geometric design
Highway alignment is in reality a three-dimensional problem
Design & construction is difficult in 3-D so highway design is typically treated as three 2-D problems:
Horizontal alignment, vertical alignment, cross-section
This often create a dysfunctional situation when the designer forgets that the three dimensions must
work together as one alignment the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Trinity Lower Long Walk
shows how the three dimensions can be coordinated to good overall effect
Storrs Heights and the Willington driveway illustrate a more naturalistic alignment

Austin, TX

Near Cincinnati, OH

Components of Highway Design

Horizontal Alignment

Plan View

Vertical Alignment

Profile View

Horizontal Alignment
Today we focus on
Components of the horizontal alignment
Properties of a simple circular curve
Properties of a spiral curve

Horizontal Alignment

Tangents

Curves

Tangents & Curves

Tangent
Curve
Tangent to
Circular Curve
Tangent to
Spiral Curve to
Circular Curve

Layout of a Simple Horizontal Curve

R = Radius of Circular Curve
BC = Beginning of Curve
(or PC = Point of Curvature)
EC
= End of Curve
(or PT = Point of Tangency)
PI = Point of Intersection
T = Tangent Length
(T = PI BC = EC - PI)
L = Length of Curvature
(L = EC BC)
M = Middle Ordinate
E = External Distance
C = Chord Length
= Deflection Angle

Properties of Circular Curves

Degree of Curvature
Traditionally, the steepness of the curvature is defined by either the radius
(R) or the degree of curvature (D)
In highway work we use the ARC definition
Degree of curvature = angle subtended by an arc of length 100 feet

Definition used
in highway design

Degree of Curvature
Equation for D

Degree of curvature = angle subtended by an arc of length 100 feet

By simple ratio: D/360 = 100/2*Pi*R
Therefore

R = 5730 / D
(Degree of curvature is not used with metric units
because D is defined in terms of feet.)

Length of Curve
By simple ratio: D/ = ?
D/ = 100/L
L = 100 / D
Therefore

L = 100 / D
Or (from R = 5730 / D, substitute for D = 5730/R)
L = R / 57.30
(note: D is not )

Properties of Circular Curves

Other Formulas
Tangent:

T = R tan(/2)

Chord:

C = 2R sin(/2)

Mid Ordinate:

M = R R cos(/2)

External Distance:

E = R sec(/2) - R

Spiral Curve
A transition curve is sometimes used in horizontal alignment design
It is used to provide a gradual transition between tangent sections and circular curve sections.
Different types of transition curve may be used but the most common is the Euler Spiral

Properties of Euler Spiral

(reference: Surveying: Principles and Applications, Kavanagh and Bird, Prentice Hall]

No Spiral

With Spiral

Characteristics of Euler Spiral

Degree of Curvature of a spiral at any point is proportional to its length at that point
The spiral curve is defined by k the rate of increase in degree of curvature per station (100 ft)

In other words,
k = 100 D/ Ls

Central (or Deflection) Angle of Euler Spiral

As with circular curve the central angle is also important for spiral
Recall for circular curve

c = Lc D / 100
But for spiral

s = Ls D / 200

The total deflection angle for

a spiral/circular curve system is

= c + 2 s

Length of Euler Spiral

Note: The total length of curve (circular plus spirals) is

longer than the original circular curve by one spiral leg

Example Calculation Spiral and Circular Curve

The central angle for a curve is 24
degrees - the radius of the circular curve
selected for the location is 1000 ft.

Determine the length of the curve (with no spiral)

L = 100 / D or
L = R / 57.30 = 24*1000/57.30 = 418.8 ft
R = 5730 / D >> D = 5.73 degree

Example Calculation Spiral and Circular Curve

The central angle for a curve is 24 degrees - the radius of
the circular curve selected for the location is 1000 ft

If a spiral with central angle of 4 degrees is selected for

use, determine the
i)
k for the spiral,
ii)
ii) length of each spiral leg,
iii) iii) total length of curve

s = 4 degrees
s = Ls D / 200 >> 4 = Ls * 5.73/200 >> Ls = 139.6 ft
k = 100 D/ Ls = 100 * 5.73/ 139.76 = 4.1 degree/100 feet
Total Length of curve = length with no spiral + Ls = 418.8+139.76 = 558.4 feet