Sultanate of Oman.

Highway Design Standards 2010

Preface and Introduction

1 GENERAL
The Oman Highway Design Standards comprise of a set of two documents, Volumes 1 and 2, which present
technical advice and guidelines across a comprehensive range of highway design elements and standards. An
associated Volume 3 provides standard specifications for road and bridge construction, covering materials,
equipment, methods, measurement and payment.

The Oman Highway Design Standards have been prepared under the guidance of a Technical Committee with
representation from :

n Ministry of Transport and Communications - DGRLT

n Royal Oman Police
n Supreme Committee for Town Planning
n Muscat Municipality
n Municipality of Dhofar
n Ministry of Municipalities and Water Resources

The purpose of the Highway Design Standards Volumes 1 and 2 is to set down the basic principles governing
the design of all road construction projects in the Sultanate of Oman. The Standards cover the initiation and
appraisal of such schemes, their design and measurement, and aspects of best implementation practice for their
construction.

The Oman Highway Design Standards provide broad guidance on the responsibilities of particular authorities and
organizations and on procedures. While every effort has been made to render these accurate, these standards
are not intended to be, nor should they be treated as being, legal advice. It is the responsibility of the designer
to ascertain the correct procedures for the particular circumstances by discussion with the relevant authorities.

These Standards are a development of, and supersede, the previous standards prepared, amended and used as a
basis for design over past years. Parts of the Standards control aspects of design that directly affect the experience
of road users, for example road geometric link and junction design. It has been considered important to maintain
the user experience at a level as close as practicable to that to which drivers have become accustomed. Where
changes have been made, they have been on the basis of safety alone.

The basis of drainage design has been revised to consider the effects of greater rainfall intensities and periods in
an attempt to mitigate the effects of extreme storm conditions on the road network.

Other changes have been made to reflect the general updating of standards worldwide that has gone on in the
years since the previous and now superseded standards were produced.

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 2 USE OF THE STANDARDS
Highway design makes use of many engineering disciplines, the outputs from which must be integrated to
produce a satisfactory overall design. It is the nature of a document such as this, that the separate disciplines are
treated as individual entities but it must be emphasized that they cannot be treated entirely separately during the
design process. Successful highway design is to some extent an iterative process and the necessary iterations
inevitably cross the interdisciplinary boundaries. Good management of highway design recognizes this, makes
due allowance and uses the cross boundary interfaces to refine and improve the finished product.
This set of Highway Design Standards is intended to provide a series of guidelines and not to take on the role of a
design handbook. It has been produced for competent practicing designers, and emphasis is placed on when and
what is required to be considered, rather than fine detail of how the work should be done. Those seeking further
information can consult the many publications on the subjects covered or referred to from the references given.
These Standards cannot provide guidance for all aspects of all highway design situations. It is assumed that the
various work disciplines will be undertaken by those with relevant specialist knowledge to enable them to arrive
at economic and safe solutions based on theory, experience and engineering judgment.
Circumstances may arise in which a designer will judge that some particular detail of these standards is not
appropriate for the conditions relating to a certain design situation. Allowance for this circumstance is made
through the provision of the Design Variation Procedure.
4 MONITORING AND UPDATING OF THE DESIGN STANDARDS
It is expected that all records of design variation requests will be monitored by the Ministry of Transport and
Communications, DGRLT. The outcomes from this monitoring process will be the recognition of any recurring
patterns in these requests which might indicate that an updating of the standards in those particular technical
areas of concern would be appropriate.
5 REFERENCES
The major sources of background design information used in the development of these Standards have been :
GCCS Gulf Co-operation Council Standards.
US - TRB United States - Transportation Research Board.
Carries out research into all aspects of transportation. The TRB is a unit of the US National Research
Council, serving both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
AASHTO American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
Lays down guidelines for the design and construction of highways.
UK HA United Kingdom - Highways Agency
Responsible for all aspects of UK Trunk Road Design, Construction and Maintenance.

3 DESIGN VARIATION PROCEDURE
If a design organization considers that a design for a particular project would be improved if a particular aspect
of these Standards were to be changed or relaxed in some way, a request for a variation in the Standards should
be submitted to the appropriate section within the Overseeing Authority: Such a request should be in writing,
Further references, which are more subject specific, are provided within each section of this document.
6 COPYRIGHT
This document has been prepared, published and serial numbered by the Ministry of Transport and

setting out : Communications, DGRLT. This document or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form without the
written permission of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
n Variation requested.
n Reasons why the standard set out in this document is inappropriate in the particular case.
n Full implications of both working to the existing standard and to the variation.

The Overseeing Authority will accept, reject or suggest an alternative to the variation requested. On acceptance
of a variation the Overseeing Authority will issue a Variation Acceptance Notice which is applicable to the
particular case set out in the formal request for a variation. This Notice then forms a retrospective part of the
design brief issued to the design consultant for the project in question.

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