Transportation Engineering

Introduction

ME.Abdul Karim Pouya

Engineering Faculty
Asia Higher Education Institute 2017
1
 Transportation Engineering
• Transportation engineering is a sub-discipline of civil
engineering which deals with the application of technology
and scientific principles to the planning, functional design,
operation and management of facilities for any mode of
transportation in order to provide the safe, rapid,
comfortable, convenient, economical, and environmentally
compatible movement of people and goods (transport).
• The planning aspects of transport engineering relate to
urban planning, and involve technical forecasting decisions
and political factors.
• Transportation engineering, as practiced by civil engineers,
primarily involves planning, design, construction,
maintenance, and operation of transportation facilities
•

2
Highway Engineering

• Highway engineering is an engineering discipline which

involves the design, construction and maintenance of
Highway Roads & Systems, urban streets as well as
parking facilities. Important aspects of highway
engineering include overall planning of routes, financing,
environmental impact evaluation, and value engineering
to compare alternatives.

3
Traffic Engineering
• Traffic engineering involves planning for the volumes of
traffic to be handled, the methods to accommodate
these flows, the lighting and signing of highways, and
general layout.
• Older techniques include signs, signals, markings, and
tolling.
• Newer technologies involve intelligent transportation
systems, including advanced traveler information systems
(such as variable message signs), advanced traffic control
systems (such as ramp meters), and vehicle infrastructure
integration.

4
TRANSPORT NETWORK

MEANS OF TRANSPORT

LAND WATER AIR

INLAND OVERSEAS DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL

ROADWAYS RAILWAYS PIPELINES
WAYS WAYS AIRWAYS AIRWAYS

PUBLIC PRIVATE
UNDERTAKING AIRLINES

5
The Role of Transport Network in the
development
1. Lifelines of the Country
2. Transportation
3. Turning of local market into national market
4. Help in the development of economy
5. National integration of the country
6. Cultural integration

6
Impact of Transportation
• Economic Development

• Social Development

• Spatial Development

• Cultural Development

• Political Development

7
Transportation system

• The characteristics of transportation system that makes it diverse and

complex are listed below.
• Multi-modal: Covering all modes of transport; air, land, and sea for
both passenger and freight.

8
 Transportation system….
• Multi-sector: Encompassing the problems and viewpoints
of government, private industry, and public.
• Multi-problem: Ranging across a spectrum of issues that
includes national and international policy, planning of
regional system, the location and design of specific
facilities, carrier management issues and regulatory,
institutional and financial policies.

9
 Transportation system….
• Multi-objective: Aiming at national and regional economic
development, urban development, environment quality, and
social quality, as well as service to users and financial and
economic feasibility.
Multi-disciplinary: Taking advantage of the theories and
methods of engineering, economics, operations research,
political science, psychology, other natural, and social
sciences, management and law.

10
Study context

• The context in which transportation system is studied is also very

diverse and is mentioned below:
 Planning range: Urban transportation planning, producing long
range plans for 5-25 years for multimodal transportation systems in
urban areas as well as short range programs of action for less than
five years.

11
Study context…..

Passenger transport: Regional passenger transportation, dealing with

inter-city passenger transport by air, rail, and highway and possible
with new modes.
Freight transport: Routing and management of choice of different
modes of rail and truck.
International transport: Issues such as containerization, inter-modal
co-ordination.

12
Background: A changing world

• The strong interrelationship and the interaction

between transportation and the rest of the society
especially in a rapidly changing world are
significant to a transportation planner. Among them
four critical dimensions of change in transportation
system can be identified;
• Change in the demand: When the population,
income, and land-use pattern changes
• Changes in the technology: As an example, earlier,
only two alternatives (bus transit and rail transit)
were considered for urban transportation.
13
Background: A changing world…
• Change in operational policy: Variety of policy options designed to
improve the efficiency, such as incentive for car-pooling, bus fare,
road tolls etc.
• Change in values of the public: Earlier all beneficiaries of a system
was monolithically considered as users. Now, not one system can be
beneficial to all, instead one must identify the target groups like rich,
poor, young, work trip, leisure etc.

14
Major Disciplines of Transportation

• Transportation engineering can be broadly consisting of the four

major parts:
Transportation Planning
Geometric Design
 Pavement Design
Traffic Engineering

15
Transportation Planning

• Transportation planning deals with the development

of a comprehensive set of action plan for the design,
construction and operation of transportation facilities.
• Transportation planning essentially involves the
development of a transport model which will
accurately represent both the current as well as future
transportation system.

16
Geometric Design

Geometric design deals with physical proportioning of other

transportation facilities, in contrast with the structural design
of the facilities. The topics include the cross-sectional
features, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment and
intersections. Although there are several modes of travel like
road, rail, air, etc. but emphasise will be normally given for
the geometric design of roads.

17
Pavement analysis and design

• Pavement design deals with the structural design of roads,

both (bituminous, concrete and Composite), commonly
known as (Flexible pavements, rigid pavements and
Composite Pavements) respectively. It deals with the design
of paving materials, determination of the layer thickness,
and construction and maintenance procedures. The design
mainly covers structural aspects, functional aspects,
drainage. Structural design ensures the pavement has
enough strength to withstand the impact of loads, functional
design emphasizes on the riding quality, and the drainage
design protects the pavement from damage due to water
infiltration.

18
Traffic Engineering

• Traffic engineering covers a broad range of engineering applications

with a focus on the safety of the public, the efficient use of
transportation resources, and the mobility of people and goods.
• Traffic engineering involves a variety of engineering and management
skills, including design, operation, and system optimization.
• In order to address the above requirement, the traffic engineer must first
understand the traffic flow behavior and characteristics by extensive
collection of traffic flow data and analysis. Based on this analysis,
traffic flow. is controlled so that the transport infrastructure is used
optimally as well as with good service quality. In short, the role of
traffic engineer is to protect the environment while providing mobility,
to preserve scarce resources while assuring economic activity, and to
assure safety and security to people and vehicles, through both
acceptable practices and high-tech communications.

19
Other important disciplines

• Public transportation:
Public transportation or mass transportation deals
with study of the transportation system that meets
the travel need of several people by sharing a
vehicle. Generally this focuses on the urban travel
by bus and rail transit.
Characteristics of various modes which required to
considered are; planning, management and
operations; and policies for promoting public
transportation.

20
Environmental role of Transportation

• The negative effects of transportation are more

dominating than its useful aspects as far as
transportation is concerned. There are numerous
categories into which the environmental effects have
been categorized. They are as following.
• Safety
• Air Pollution
• Noise pollution
• Energy consumption

21
Financial and economic analysis.

• Transportation facilities require large capital

investments. Therefore it is imperative that
whoever invests money should get the returns.
• When government invests in transportation, its
objective is not often monetary returns; but social
benefits.
• The economic analysis of transportation project
tries to quantify the economic benefit which
includes saving in travel time, fuel consumption,
etc.

22
Environmental impact Assessment.
• The depletion of fossil fuels and the degradation of the environment
has been a severe concern of the planners in the past few decades.
Transportation; in spite of its benefits to the society is a major
contributor to the above concern. The environmental impact
assessment attempts

23
Accident analysis and reduction
• One of the silent killers of humanity is transportation. Several
statistics evaluates that more people are killed due to
transportation than great wars and natural disasters.
• This discipline of transportation looks at the causes of accidents,
from the perspective of human, road, and vehicle and formulate
plans for the reduction.

24
Intelligent transport system.

with advent to computers, communication, and vehicle

technology, it is possible in these days to operate
transportation system much effectively with significant
reduction in the adverse impacts of transportation. Intelligent
transportation system offers better mobility, efficiency, and
safety with the help of the state-of-the-art-technology.
In addition disciplines specific to various modes are also
common. This includes railway engineering, port and harbor
engineering, and airport engineering.

25
Role of Transportation in Society

• Transportation is a non-separable part of any society.

• Transportation is responsible for the development of
civilizations from very old times by meeting travel
requirement of people and transport requirement of goods.
Economic role of transportation
• Economics involves production, distribution and consumption
of goods and services. People depend upon the natural
resources to satisfy the needs of life So there is an immense
requirement of transport of resources from one particular
society to other. These resources can range from material
things
• The Place, time, quality and utility of goods
• Changes in location of activities

26
Social role of transportation

• Transportation has always played an important role in influencing

the formation of urban societies.
• From the beginning of civilization, the man is living in settlements
which existed near banks of major river junctions, a port, or an
intersection of trade routes.

27
Political choices in transport

• These choices may be classified as

communication, military movement, travel of
persons and movement of freight. The primary
function of transportation is the transfer of
messages and information. It is also needed for
rapid movement of troops in case of emergency
and finally movement of persons and goods. The
political decision of construction and
maintenance of roads has resulted in the
development of transportation system.

28
Classification of Highways

Depending on weather

All weather roads

Fair weather roads

Depending on the type of Carriage way

Paved roads
Unpaved roads

Depending upon the pavement surface

Flexible pavement
Rigid Pavement
Composite Pavement
29
Classification of Highways

Based on the Traffic Volume

Heavy
Medium
Light

Based on Load or Tonnage

Class 1 or Class 2 etc. or Class A , B etc. Tones per day

Based on location and function.

As 64 Metra or Gazergah Roads

30
Road Patterns

• Rectangular or Grid-Iron Street System

• Rectangular combined with Diagonal street
system.
• Concentric and Radial Street system.
• Rectangular combined with Radial street system.
• Organic street system.
• Irregular Medieval street system.
• Combination of Rectangular and Irregular Street
system.

31
Rectangular or Grid-iron Street system

 This system is suitable for a fairly plain country,

without any predominant natural features. Here the
streets have equal widths and they cross each other at
right angles

32
Rectangular combined with Diagonal Street
System.
• It is an improved type of rectangular system. England was the first
town which was designed as this type of system.

33
Concentric and radial street system

• In this system the circular or ring road are

connect to radial roads. It is also called
“Spider’s Web System

34
Urban Road Classification

• ARTERIAL ROADS
• SUB ARTERIAL
• COLLECTOR
• LOCAL STREET
• CUL-DE-SAC
• BY-PASS
• Outer and Inner Ring Roads

35
 ARTERIAL
• No frontage access, no standing vehicle, very little cross traffic.
• Design Speed : 80km/hr
• Land width : 50 – 60m
• Spacing 1.5km in congested areas & 8km or more in sparsely
developed areas.
• Divided roads with full or partial parking
• Pedestrian allowed to walk only at intersection

36
 SUB ARTERIAL
• Bus stops but no standing vehicle.
• Less mobility than arterial.
• Spacing for congested areaa : 0.5km
• Sub-urban fringes : 3.5km
• Design speed : 60 km/hr
• Land width : 30 – 40 m

37
Collector Street

• Collects and distributes traffic from local streets

• Provides access to arterial roads
• Located in residential, business and industrial areas.
• Full access allowed.
• Parking permitted.
• Design speed : 50km/hr
• Land Width : 20-30m

38
Local Street
• Design Speed : 30km/hr.
• Land Width : 10 – 20m.
• Primary access to residence, business or other abutting
property
• Less volume of traffic at slow speed
• Origin and termination of trips.
• Unrestricted parking, pedestrian movements. (with frontage
access, parked vehicle, bus stops and no waiting restrictions)

39
CUL–DE- SAC

• Dead End Street with only one entry access for entry and exit.
• Recommended in Residential areas only

40
 41
Urban
Rural
Hierarchical Structure
of Road Networks
Mobility vs. Accessibility

Road Class Road Function

Freeways Through movement exclusively
Surface Arterials Through movement primary
and some land access

Collectors Traffic movement to higher

rank roads, access to abutting
properties
Local Roads Access to abutting land and
local traffic movement

42
Hierarchy of Movements and Roads
• Trip Phases
• origination (driveway)
• access (local road)
• collection (collector)
• transition (ramp)
• main movement (arterial highway)
• transition (ramp)
• distribution (collector)
• access (local road)
• termination (driveway)

43
Your friend’s Termination
house Major
(driveway)
Highway

Local
Access Roads &
(local) Streets
Distribution
(collector)
Main movement
(arterial)
Collection
(collector)

Access
(local)

Origination Your house

(driveway)

Hierarchy of Movements and Roads

44
Mobility vs. Accessibility

45
46
Expressways/Motorway
• Heavy traffic at high speed (120km/hr)
• Land Width (90m)
• Full access control
• Connects major points of traffic generation
• No slow moving traffic allowed
• No loading, unloading, parking except dedicated places.

47
 Rural Roads

On the basis of functional classification system rural roads are

divided into the following categories:
• Rural principal arterial system
• Rural minor arterial system
• Rural collector system
• Rural local road system

48
Rural principal arterial system has the following
characteristics:

• substantial part of traffic are statewide and interstate trips

• movements between urban areas with populations over 50,000
and majority of movements between areas with population
over 25,000
• integrated connections within the system

49
Rural minor arterial system has the following
characteristics:

• linkage of cities, larger towns, and other major traffic generators

• integrated interstate and inter-county system
• internal spacing consistent with population intensity
• trip lengths and volumes greater than those served by rural
collectors and local system

50
Major collector roads:

• serve intra-county traffic generators

• link these places with larger towns or other routes of

higher classification

51
 Minor collector roads:

• accumulate traffic from local roads

• serve locally important traffic generators (smaller

communities)

52
 Rural local road system

• Rural local road system provides access to abutting land,

individual farms, etc.

53
 54
Urban
Rural
Hierarchical Structure
of Road Networks
Factors Influencing Highway Design

Highway design is based on specified design standards and controls which

depend on the following roadway system factors:
• Functional classification of Roads
• Design hourly traffic volume and vehicle mix
• Design speed
• Design vehicle
• Cross section of the highway, such as lanes, shoulders, and
medians
• Presence of heavy vehicles on steep grades
• Topography of the area that the highway traverses
• Level of service
• Available funds
• Safety
• Social and environmental factors. 55
 Highways Classifications in
Afghanistan
According to the Highway Master Plan of
Afghanistan, Highways are classified as follow.
1. Regional Highways
2. National Highways
3. Provincial Roads
4. Rural Roads

56
 TYPES OF PAVEMENTS

A highway pavement is a structure consisting of

superimposed layers of processed materials above the
natural soil sub-grade, whose primary function is to
distribute the applied vehicle loads to the sub-grade.
The pavement structure should be able to provide a
surface of acceptable riding quality, adequate skid
resistance
The three types of pavements are as follow:
1. Flexible pavements,
2. Rigid pavements, and
3. Composite pavements.
57
Cross section of a flexible pavement

58
The typical cross section of rigid
pavement

59
Typical Cross Section of Composite
Pavement

60
Thank You

61