Chapter 4

Hill Roads

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 COURSE OUTLINE
Introduction

Special consideration in hill road design

Alignment of hill road design: general consideration,
route location hills, gradient, design and types of hair
pin bends, types of hill road cross sections

Special structure in hill road

Types retaining structures, river training structures, land

slide stabilization structures and gully control structures

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 INTRODUCTION
According to Nepal Road Standard 2045,
terrain are classified as percent cross-slope as;

A hill road is defined as the one, which passes

through a cross-slope of 25% or more i.e.
mountainous or steep terrain.
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 Design and construction problems of
hill roads
Design and construction of a hill road is more complicated than
plain area. It is because of several factors associated with such
area some of them are:
A hilly or mountainous area is characterized by a highly
broken relief with widely differing elevations, steep slopes.
This may cause unnecessary increase in length of the road.
The formation of rock differs in a wide range. The geological
condition varies from spot to spot. This will make difficult to
assess the foundation and find the suitable one for the road
embankment and other road structures.

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 Cross slope highly stable before construction may turn into
more unstable after construction.

Variation in hydrological condition from place to place is

difficult to perceive and may be easily overlooked in design
phase which causes various damages of roads after
construction.

A highly broken relief is the main reason requiring the

installation of various types of special road structure such as
stepped culverts, aqueduct, retaining structures etc.

Presence of high cross slope needs a careful arrangement of

erosion protection works.
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 Due to presence of high cross slope surface water reaches
quickly to road side with high speed. In its course to road side
it may bring lot of debris (land slide may be followed) which
has higher damage strength.
Variation in climate condition should be considered in design
and construction period, such as:
Temperature decreases as the height increases.
Pressure (atmospheric) decreases as the altitude
increases.
Precipitation increases as the height increase
Velocity of wind varies from place to place depending
upon the location of valley.
Design of hair pin bends to gain height
Frequent blasting are required due to the presence of hard
rocks etc.
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 Alignment Selection in Hill Road
The selection of alignment in hilly region is a complex problem.
The main target of designer is to search the shortest possible
short route. Following points are considered in alignment
selection.
a. General Consideration:
A hilly area is characterized by a highly broken relief with
widely differencing elevations, steep slopes, repeated turns
and bends.
When designing hill roads the route is located along valley,
hill sides and mountain pass.
Most of the work has to be carried out in rock using
explosives and retaining walls.
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 Unfavorable geological conditions such as landslides may be
encountered and special structures have to be provided to
establish the stability of road.
In locating the alignment of hill road and structures following
points are considered.

I.Temperature:
The temperature of air varies inversely with altitude. The
temperature drop being about 0.5C per 100 m of rise.
Similarly the amount of heat received by hill slopes varies
with their orientation in relation to the exposure to sun.
On slopes facing south and south west snow disappears
rapidly and rain water evaporates quickly.

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II. Rainfall:
The amount of rainfall in a hilly region is inversely
proportional to the altitude.
The maximum rainfall is in the zone of intensive cloud
formation (1500-2500m) above the sea level after which it
decreases substantially.
Mountain range slopes with face winds coming in from the
sea receive more rainfall than other side of the range.
III. Atmospheric pressure and winds
The variation of atmospheric pressure and wind speed may
cause snowfall, snow drift (mass of snow thrown by wind)
and avalanches (mass of snow in mountains).
So it is very important for designer to be familiar with the
local climatic condition.
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IV. Geological condition:
The degree of stability of hill slope depends upon the type of
rock, the degree of strata inclination, hardness of rock and
presence of ground rock.
Sedimentary rocks have tendency to slip under the influence
of force parallel to the layer.
The instability of hill road may be due to ground water,
landslide and unstable folds.

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b) Route location:

Hill routes tend to follow tortuous routes with large

number of curves to bypass obstructions, to cross
water courses and to develop the route for
negotiating elevation differences.

The approach to the location of hill road alignment

varies for the section along the valley bottom (river
route) and along the mountain pass (ridge route).

There are both advantages and disadvantages of

both locations.

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 i. River route:

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 The location of a route along the river valley is known as river
route. River route is generally used in hill road due to
comparatively gentle gradient.

The advantages of river route are low vehicle operation cost,

availability of water and other construction material in the
vicinity.

However, a river route may involve numerous horizontal

curves, construction of large bridges over tributaries and on
the stretches along steeply sloping hill sides, which in some
places may be unstable.

It may also be necessary to construct special structures and

massive river training and protection structures on the valley
sides to safeguard the road against washout, toe cutting etc.

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 ii. Ridge Route:

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 A ridge route is characterized by very steep gradient,
numerous sharp curves including hair pin bends and
expensive rock work.

The road usually follows the top section of the hill system and
crosses successively mountain pass (location in the range of
mountains that is lower than the surrounding peaks).

The ridge route climb continuously up from the valley floor till
it reaches a mountain pass and then descends down to catch
another hill system.

Geologically stable and comparatively mild slope sections are

selected for the development of the route. The route is traced
in the map by following more or less the line of equal
gradient.

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Design and types of hair pin bends
To attain height at a particular location
without attaining substantial covering of
horizontal distance , in such cases hair-pin
bend is provided.
When developing a route in hilly area, it is
frequently necessary to insert sharp turning
angle, within which it is very difficult and
sometimes impossible to layout curves
following normal geometric design.

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 Design criteria for hair pin bends
The straight length between two successive hair pin bends
should be minimum of 60 m excluding the length of circular and
transition curve.
Minimum design speed = 20 kmph
Minimum radius of inner curve = 14 m
Minimum length of transition curve =15 m
Super elevation in circular portion of the curve = 1 in 10
Minimum width of carriage way at the apex of curves should
be 11.5 m and 9 m for two lanes and one lane respectively.
The maximum and minimum gradients should be 1 in 40 and 1
in 200 respectively at the curve.
For good visibility the island portion should be cleared of all
the trees.

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 Types

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 Typical cross sections of hill roads
a) Cut and fill

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b) Benching cutting

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c) Box cutting

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d) Embankment
with retaining
walls

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e) Semi bridge

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f) Semi tunnel

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g) Platform

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 Main Structures in Hill Roads

On the basis of function of structures, these are

classified into three groups:

a) Retaining structures

b) Drainage structures

c) Slope protection structures

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 Retaining structure
A retaining structure is usually a wall constructed for the
purpose of retaining a vertical or nearly vertical earth bank
which in turn support vertical load.
It is most important structure in hill road construction.
It provides adequate stability to the slope.

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 b) Drainage structures:
Drainage is one of the main problems during
construction as well as in operation of roads. Some of
the features of hill road drainage system are:

1. Drainage of water from hill slope:

2. Road side surface drainage:

3. Sub-surface drainage:

4. Cross-Drainage:

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1. Drainage of water from hill slope:

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2.Road side surface drainage:

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c. Cross-Drainage:

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 c) Slope protection structures

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 Passing lane in hill roads
The construction of hill road is not only costly but
also tedious work due to abrupt change in level,
geological conditions and limited funds. Sometimes it
is very difficult to cut the hard rock while sometimes
it is very tedious to make stable flow ground. So the
width of hill road is not uniform throughout. Width
of hill road is fixed based on the geological
conditions, traffic volume, method of construction
and availability of fund. At certain interval some
extra space is provided to pass the traffic coming
from opposite direction or to overtake the slow
moving vehicle. This type of arrangement is known
as passing lane in hill road.
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