Route Location

Principles
General
• The basic principle is
• Highway components/elements should blend each
other
• The roadway should meet design criteria and safety
standards
• Roadway should cause minimal disruption to
historic and archaeological sites
• Therefore environmental impact studies are
necessary
Phases of highway location
process
• Office study of existing information
• Reconnaissance survey
• Preliminary location survey
• Final Location survey
Office Study
• Involves examination of all available data in areas
like:
• Engineering: topography, geology, climate, and traffic
volumes
• Social and demographics, land use and zoning
patterns
• Environmental: wildlife, location of recreational,
historic, archaeological sites, and possible effects of
air, noise and water pollution
• Economic: Unit costs of construction, trend of
agricultural, commercial and industrial activities
• It is done prior to any site visit
• This decides whether any site should be excluded
from further considerations.
Reconnaissance Survey
• In this phase, several feasible routes are
identified
• For each route a band of few hundred meters
is proposed where a route can pass
• Done through stereoscopic examination of
aerial photographs considering the following:
• Terrain and soil condition
• Serviceability of route
• Crossing of other transportation facilities like rivers,
railroads and other highways
• Directness of route
Reconnaissance survey
• At this stage control points are established
along the feasible route
• Some immovable unique features are taken
eg. A unique bridge site
• The feasible routes are then plotted on
photographic base map
Preliminary Location Survey
• Positions of feasible routes are set at closer
interval
• All the control points are established
• Preliminary horizontal and vertical alignment
are determined for each
• Economic and environmental feasibility are
evaluated from the preliminary alignments
Preliminary- Economic
evaluation
• Cost benefit analysis is carried out
• Factors involves:
• Road user costs
• Construction costs
• Maintenance osts
• Road user benefits
• Disbenefits involved like families and business
dislocation, etc
• Such information can help the decision maker
on determining whether or not to build the
highway and what type should be built?
Preliminary- Environmental
evaluation
• Environmental impact assessment should be carried
out to evaluate the project.
• The environmental impact assessment statement
should include:-
• Detailed description of the project
• Probable positive and negative impacts
• Short-term impact Vs Long term impact
• Any secondary effect eg. Change in patterns of social and
economic activities
• Probable adverse environmental effects that cannot be
avoided if constructed
• Public hearings may be involved at this level
• The best alternative based on the above factors is then
selected
Final Location Survey
• Detailed layout of the selected route is then
prepared.
• Horizontal and vertical alignments are determined
• Location of structures and drainage channels is
determined
• The preferred process is usually:
• Setting out point of intersections (PI) of straight
portions of the highways
• Fit suitable horizontal curves
• Detailed design of horizontal and vertical alignment is
then carried out.