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Road Design Standards 6.1: August 2016
Road Design Standards 6.1: August 2016
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road design 6.1
1.1 Purpose
Most countries issue their own guidelines on highway geometric design (and some issue more than
one guideline). The guidelines offer a good place to start from when a new project involves road
design in their country. Compiling a document on guidelines in different countries is also one step
towards identifying current best practice in design.
This document provides an overview of what the current standards are in a number of different
countries. The details are as accurate as could be prepared at the time of publication, but there are no
claims that they are either complete or fully up to date.
1.2 Structure
This document has four main sections:
Part A Introduction
1. Introduction with some background notes on guidelines and standards
2. Month section this edition has some background notes on Ghana
3. Discussion Background discussion on standards and guidelines
Version 4
04.03 July 2015
Some pages added, other pages updated or checked (here the page titles are usually in red in this
version) Also started adding “special topics” pages.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To
view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
1.6 Contact
This is a “work in progress” document. If you have any suggestions, corrections or details of
potentially interesting documents not presently listed, contact the Editor at : roadnotes2@gmail.com
Background
Wikiipedia introduces Ghana as follows:
"Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a sovereign unitary presidential constitutional democracy,
located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land
mass of 238,535 km2, Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north,
Togo in the east and the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean in the south".
The same webpage also says the country has a population of some 27 million people. Some 24% of
the population live below the national poverty line (link). Poverty is worse in the northern part of the
country, whilst Ghana’s population, income, and mineral resources are concentrated in the southern
half of the country. When "accessibility" is defined as "% of pop without all-season motorable road
within 1-2 km of household"Ghana has an accessibility of 20. In comparison, Germany has an
accessibility of 0 (zero) and Ethiopia an accessibility of 60 (ref. 919).
Road network
According to a document from Ghana's Ministry of
Roads and Highways (ref.2239), in 2012 there were
68,124 km of roads in the country, consisting of:
● 13,344 km of trunk roads
● 12,600 km of urban roads
● 42,210 km of feeder roads
It is not clear whether the totals include cycle ways or
tracks and trails.
(The figure on the left is taken from National Spatial
Development Framework volume I)
Road standards
Engineer Magnus L. Quarshie writes (ref. 2293) that:
"Ghana has a Geometric Design Guide published by
the Ghana Highway Authority. This manual published
in the 1991 was led and funded by the Japanese. It
gives a standard for quality design in the Ghanaian
context. Another manual which affects the design of
roads is the Manual on Road Signs in Ghana….
Ghanaian Consultants and Regulators regularly
consult foreign manuals and other publications in the
pursuit of design excellence. It has become fairly
common for American, European and British
publications to be consulted in the design process
where the Geometric Design Manual is found
wanting. The AASHTO’s A Policy on Geometric Design
of Highways and Streets, popularly called The Green
Book, and the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
are two of such publications. "
"In Cape Coast, as in many other African cities, transport-poverty linkages are strongly in
evidence. The city’s middle class, including government and university staff, commonly own
private vehicles for their personal and family use.... However, the majority of people living in the
study neighbourhoods (Abura and Simiw) do not own personal vehicles. From small surveys
with around 125 children (aged about 9–18 years) in both areas, it emerged that only 4.5 per
cent of children’s households in Abura owned a private car and none whatsoever in Simiw".
Further, the final report of the National Spatial Development Framework (ref. 2317) says that
"Bicycle commuting is popular in the three northern regions, particularly in Northern where it
accounts for about 50 percent of all commuters, but not in the others. In Greater Accra, where
jobs are concentrated and roads are bicycle-unfriendly, 31 percent walk and 2 percent only
bicycle to work.... Nationally, some 64 percent of commuters use non-motorised transport with
54 percent walking and 10 percent using bicycles".
New technology
Ghana may be lacking in terms of modern road design standards, but the country seems to very
interested in applying new technology to the study, planning and development of its road networks.
GIS has been used in studies on road maintenance management (ref.2321), in analysing geo-
environmental data to find the least cost route for a new road (ref.2320), in "GIS a Tool for
Transportation Infrastructure Planning in Ghana A Case Study to the Department of Feeder Roads"
(ref.2319).
The country now has a National Spatial Development Framework . As described in volume I of the
NSDF, "In Ghana, the agency responsible for all spatial planning is the Town and Country Planning
Department, under the Ministry of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation. In 2011, TCPD
established a “3-tier”, hierarchical, spatial planning system that comprises (i) spatial development
frameworks, or SDFs, (ii) structure plans, and (iii) local plans, with each tier having its own function
and process".
Comment
Magnus L. Quarshie (ref.2293) says that in
"There is a mix-up of foreign design standards as the Ghana Standard is not well-developed.
Consequently foreign firms may sometimes bring in designs which may not work and there’s no
way of knowing this by Ghanaian Standards. There has been no revision of the GHA standards
for the 25 odd years it’s been in existence"
And
"Ghana has built a huge network of roads over the past 58 years of independence. It is
important that as the country strives to attain its Human Development goals, this road
network will be improved to help the effort. An effective and efficient Geometric Design
process is one way in which improved safety, operations and optimal cost of road
infrastructure can be achieved".
3.1 Introduction
People say the world is becoming smaller. Companies sell the same goods in scores of countries,
people from one country go on business or holiday trips in other countries and regions, most of the
time without any particular problem. We could say the same about road transport - virtually the same
cars are sold in every country, people from one country into and through in other countries, again
generally without any particular problem.
If the same cars and the same people can be seen on the road in different countries, then perhaps
road design manuals should say the same thing regardless of country. And if they don't, then maybe
highway engineers could benefit from a study of the differences. But you cannot begin such a study if
you don't actually know what the various current design manuals are.
The idea is therefore to prepare a list of road design standards for as many countries as possible.
After that the preparation of summary notes should be quite straight-forward. Of course, life isn't that
simple. It turns out that:
A list of standards should therefore ideally include details of recently superceded documents, of multi-
country standards, and of document titles in both the original language and in an international
language such as English.
3.1.1 Countries
It is not clear how many countries there are in the world (different sources give different lists). This
1
document is based on a UN publication (ref. 1648) , so that there are about 242 countries altogether.
It is also not clear what exactly a “country” is. For example, some parts of the world are not actually
independent - they may be dependent or non self-governing territories. Some countries may be so
small that - for the purposes of this document - they can be ignored. For example the population of
Palau is less than 21,000. But Samoa, with a population of some 200,000, has its own road
standards; and Iceland (population around 323,000) certainly has some interesting standards of its
own.) A country may be part of another country - for example, Scotland is part of the UK.And some
countries may be defined as fragile (or failed) states, ones perhaps where, from Wikipedia:
“central government is so weak or ineffective, that it has little practical control over much of its
territory; non-provision of public services; widespread corruption and criminality; refugees and
involuntary movement of populations and sharp economic decline”
There is even a “fragile states index”. However even a fragile state may have some useful standards
on road design, as for example Nigeria (ranked as “high alert” in the index).
This document generally works to the document “UN Country classification 2012”.
1
Ref. 1648 - UN Country classification 2012
multi-country standards
special topics
The country pages are listed in alphabetical order.
The page layout is almost the same in each section. The exception is an initial “country” column in the
special topics pages. Each page has four sections: a documents table, some notes, some notes on
sources, and some weblinks.
The documents table has straight-forward details such as document name, publisher and year. The
column on the right, headed “Ref. No.”, Refers to the document identification number in the Editor’s
Document Management System (DMS).
The first column in each table (column A) sometimes contains a colour symbol against a particular
document. This indicates the document is available in the DMS.
The notes section provides additional information about the standards listed for the particular
country.
The “source notes” section gives an indication of whether the country’s standards are substantially
derived from those of another country.
4 Country pages
1 Abu Dhabi ........................................................................................................................................ 18
2 Afghanistan ...................................................................................................................................... 21
3 Albania ............................................................................................................................................. 22
4 Algeria .............................................................................................................................................. 23
5 American Samoa.............................................................................................................................. 25
6 Andorra ............................................................................................................................................ 26
7 Anguilla ............................................................................................................................................ 27
8 Antigua and Barbuda ....................................................................................................................... 28
9 Armenia ............................................................................................................................................ 29
10 Australia ........................................................................................................................................... 30
11 Austria .............................................................................................................................................. 32
12 Bangladesh ...................................................................................................................................... 34
13 Belgium ............................................................................................................................................ 35
14 Bhutan .............................................................................................................................................. 36
15 Bolivia ............................................................................................................................................... 37
16 Botswana ......................................................................................................................................... 38
17 Brazil ................................................................................................................................................ 39
18 Canada ............................................................................................................................................. 40
19 Chile ................................................................................................................................................. 42
20 China ................................................................................................................................................ 43
21 Colombia .......................................................................................................................................... 45
22 Costa Rica........................................................................................................................................ 46
23 Croatia .............................................................................................................................................. 47
24 Cyprus .............................................................................................................................................. 48
25 Czech Republic ................................................................................................................................ 49
26 Ecuador ............................................................................................................................................ 51
27 Estonia ............................................................................................................................................. 52
28 Ethiopia ............................................................................................................................................ 53
29 Fiji ..................................................................................................................................................... 55
30 Finland ............................................................................................................................................. 56
31 France .............................................................................................................................................. 57
32 Georgia (Caucasus) ......................................................................................................................... 59
33 Germany .......................................................................................................................................... 60
34 Ghana .............................................................................................................................................. 61
35 Greece ............................................................................................................................................. 63
36 Honduras .......................................................................................................................................... 64
37 Hong Kong ....................................................................................................................................... 65
38 Hungary............................................................................................................................................ 67
39 Iceland .............................................................................................................................................. 68
40 India ................................................................................................................................................. 69
41 Indonesia.......................................................................................................................................... 70
42 Iran ................................................................................................................................................... 71
43 Ireland .............................................................................................................................................. 72
44 Italy................................................................................................................................................... 74
45 Kenya ............................................................................................................................................... 75
46 Latvia ................................................................................................................................................ 76
47 Libya ................................................................................................................................................. 77
48 Lithuania........................................................................................................................................... 78
49 Malawi .............................................................................................................................................. 79
50 Malta ................................................................................................................................................ 80
51 Mozambique..................................................................................................................................... 82
52 Nepal ................................................................................................................................................ 83
53 Netherlands ...................................................................................................................................... 84
5 Multi-country pages
1 Arab Mashreq................................................................................................................................. 116
2 ASEAN ........................................................................................................................................... 118
3 Asian Highway Standards .............................................................................................................. 119
4 Austroads ....................................................................................................................................... 120
5 SADC ............................................................................................................................................. 122
6 TAH ................................................................................................................................................ 123
7 TEM................................................................................................................................................ 124
6 Special topicss
1 Cycling and bikes ........................................................................................................................... 126
2 Non-Motorised Transport ............................................................................................................... 127
3 Streets ............................................................................................................................................ 128
Public realm design Abu Dhabi Urban Planning 2014 ? English 1972
manual Council
Urban street design Abu Dhabi Urban Planning 2013 ? English 1737
manual (version 1.1) Council
Utility corridors design Abu Dhabi Urban Planning 2011 English 2279
manual v. 1 Council
Guidelines for road Road Section, Abu Dhabi 1998 English 966
design, construction, Abu Municipality
Dhabi roadway design
manual
Notes
Abu Dhabi is one of the Emirates of the UAE (United Arab Emirates).
The website which lists the guide to Abu Dhabi urban street infrastructure standards says “As
indicated, the documents listed above will have an Emirate-wide application in future. For
completeness and as an interim measure, until some of the above-mentioned documents have been
adopted, certain documents will still apply during the transition period”.
It also looks like some of the quoted standards may cover the same area.
Abu Dhabi now has a range of very good road and urban design guidelines, which include a number
of online tools such as the "Abu Dhabi Urban Street and Utility Design Tool".
Links
● Abu Dhabi Department of Transport
● Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council
● Abu Dhabi Urban Street and Utility Design Tool
Notes
In February 2013 ANSA, the Afghan National Standards Authority, issued a request for proposals
regarding the preparation of new standards and regulations. These are to include urban development,
and highway street codes. So far no other details available, nor on what earlier standards existed.The
Internet has reference to some Interim Road and Highway Standards, but no further details available
as yet.
Source Notes
Judging by the references, the Rural roads manual is influenced by reference works / guidelines from
the USA and from India. The Engineering manual is influenced by documents from Indian authors.
Links
● Afghan National Standards Authority
● Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development
Notes
Around 2007 the company EPTISA prepared a new highway design manual for Albania. They explain
that this material as it is exclusive right of Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and
Telecommunications (Albania). The document was developed as part of an EU-funded project
managed by the European Commission delegation in Albania.
The Delegation of the European Union to Albania indicated that the Albanian Road Construction and
Design Specifications,documents include the following:
ARCS 1 - General and Preparatory Works
ARCS 2 - Earthworks
ARCS 3 - Road Construction
ARCS 4 - Drainage
ARCS 5 - Structures
ARCS 6 - Road Equipment
ARCS 7 - List of Works
ARCS 8 – Requirement for Materials
Source Notes
Links
Also of interest:
Notes
The main document for road design appears to be B40, although this was published as long ago as
1977. B40 is also used for major urban roads. The document for urban road design is the
"Conception et mise en oeuvre des travaux de VRD", published by the Centre National d'Etudes et de
Recherches Integrées du Bâtiment (cnerib) (~ National centre for integrated construction research
and studies). Design offices in Algeria also use French standards such as ICTAAL, ICTAVRU and
ARP.
There are other documents in the B series, such as B50 for traffic and economic studies.
Some aspects of road design in Algeria are also covered by the CCTP ( Controle Technique des
Travaux Publics ~ Technical control of public works), which has publications on road rehabilitation
and pavement design.
Also Engineer Adel Nehaoua of the Société d’études Techniques de Sétif, has published a series of
documents on road design, of which document 2281 above is one part.
The Ministry of Public Works website refers to three types or groups of roads:
● National roads
● Provincial roads
● Municipal roads
A major national road project is the Algerian East-West Highway project, which will eventually cover
1216 km and cost US$ 11 billion (Wikipedia).
Source Notes
Notes
Wikipedia says that "American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in
the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa”. The country is very small, with a population of around
57,000.
Source Notes
It is likely that the country follows US practice on road design standards.
Links
●
Notes
Wikipedia says that
"Andorra is a sovereign landlocked microstate in Southwestern Europe, located in the eastern
Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. Created under a charter in A.D. 988,
the present Principality was formed in A.D. 1278. It is known as a principality as it is a monarchy
headed by two Co-Princes – the Spanish/Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgell and the President of
France".
Source Notes
It is possible that the country follows French practice on road design standards.
Links
● Andorra government website
Notes
Wikipedia says that :
"Anguilla is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the
Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and
directly north of Saint Martin. The territory consists of the main island of Anguilla itself, together
with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The total land
area of the territory is 35 square miles with a population of approximately 13,500.”
Source Notes
It is likely that the country follows UK practice on road design standards.
Links
● Official government website
Notes
Wikipedia says that
"The politics of Antigua and Barbuda (is) a unitary, parliamentary, representative democratic
monarchy, in which the Head of State is the Monarch who appoints the Governor General as
vice-regal representative. Elizabeth II is the present Queen of Antigua and Barbuda, having
served in that position since the islands' independence from the United Kingdom in 1981"
The country is very small, with a population of around 91,000. English is the national language and,
like the UK, the country drives on the left. There are about 1200 km of roads, some two-thirds of
which are not paved.
Source Notes
No confirmed information but it is likely that the country follows UK practice / road design standards.
Links
● Official government website
Also of interest:
Notes
A 1995 World Bank report (Ref. 1975) said:
“The Armenian roads are classified into five categories defined on the basis of traffic volume
only. The design standards are based on those used by the former Soviet Union. The geometric
standards of the existing roads are generally adequate except in difficult mountainous terrain
where hairpin bends and other reduced standards are common. The road carriageway and
shoulder design width are often too wide for the present traffic needs”.
The ADB's 2011 report (Ref. 2165) on "Armenia's transport outlook - transport sector master plan"
recommended the introduction of international design standards, particularly for geometry and
pavement design".
Armenia was part of the former Soviet Union. Recent advice is that Armenia uses Gost (Russian
standards) with guidance from AASTHO and EU documents, and is also developing its own local
standards. Gost standards are revised from time to time.
Wikipedia say s that some 958 km roads in Armenia form part of the Asian Highway Network,so
these roads are probably subject to the AHN multi-country design standard. Some Armenia roads
may perhaps be subject to the TENs standard as well.
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of transport and communications
Planning and designing for Main Roads Western Australia 2012 English 1973
pedestrians: guidelines
Notes
In December 2014 I split from this page any notes on the multi-country "Austroads" standards.
The existence of Austroads and the AGRD documents does not prevent other organisations in
Australia from producing their own standards, or modifications of the AGRD guidelines. For example
In 2016 the citry of Adelaide opened a website for its new "Adelaide Design Manual", which is
basically on design of public spaces and streets. As the website says:
"The Adelaide Design Manual and its related documents is the product of an extensive
process of research and analysis that has considered a range of public realm guidance
developed at both the national and state level, and addresses a wide range of issues
regarding the design and management of public spaces in the City of Adelaide".
The resource documents available on the website are worth looking through. Chapter 2 for example
includes definitions of up to 13 different street types.
Source Notes
.Australia generally follows the Austroads multi-country design standards.
Links
● Adelaide Design Manual
● Canberra design standards for urban infrastructure
● Queensland road planning and design manual
Also of interest
Notes
The organisation responsible for the production of highway design standards in Austria is the FSV -
the Forschungsgesellschaft Straße - Schiene - Verkehr (Austrian Association for Research on Road -
Rail - Transport). The Publications page of the FSV website lists all the relevant documents, together
with date of issue and an indication as to whether they are still valid and whether they have been
updated.
The FSV documents list appear to group roads into three types
● Freilandstrassen (inter-urban roads)
● Ländliche Strassen (rural roads)
● Strassen im Ortsgebiet (urban roads)
Also of interesst
Notes
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is part of the Bangladesh Ministry of Communications.
The RHD has a document on geometric design, the "Geometric Design Standards for RHD". The
version presently available for download from the RHD website is draft version 4 dated October 2000.
The "Bangladesh road design standards 2004" is a document from the Bangladesh Planning
Commission and is for "standard designs and costing for zila, upazila and union roads, bridges and
culverts".
LGED is the Local Government Enginnering Department, and its website says that the "Local
Government Engineering Department (LGED) is one of the largest public sector organizations in
Bangladesh entrusted for planning and implementation of local level rural urban and small scale water
resources infrastructure development programs".
In Bangladesh, people drive on the left side of the road, as in the UK.
Source Notes
The RHD document has five documents in its list of references, three of which are from the UK.
Links
● RHD home page
● LGED
● Bangladesh Planning Commission
Notes
It appears that there are no formal standards or regulations concerning road design in Belgium. Most
often road authorities refer to guidelines from other countries (e.g.the Netherlands). For specific
issues there exist circulars or guidelines that are developed by Belgian road authorities, but not all
these guidelines are publicly available.
Source Notes
.Links
● Belgian road and traffic agency
● Belgian road research centre
Also of interest:
Bhutan transport vision 2040 - ADB and others 2013 English 2120
integrated strategic vision
Notes
The population is still mainly rural, although more people are moving to urban areas. As recently as
2007, 21% of the population lived more than four hours away from the nearest all-season road.
A 2009 ADB publication (see below) referred to the Road Survey and Design Manual and the Road
Design Manual Part-1 (Geometric Design of Rural Roads) but no further details known as yet.
Earlier, in 2004, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications prepared a set of documents on
District Road Works. Documents from both these sets include geometric design details and typical
cross-sections. These documents are available from the Roads Industry Council website.
Source Notes
-/-
Links
● Ministry of works and human settlement
● RSTA Road safety and transport authority
Also of interest
Manal de diseno de calles par las ciudades Aire limpio / 2015 Spanish --
bolivianas (~Street design manual for Swisscontact
Bolivian cities)
Notes
Bolivia's Highway administration department (ABC - Administradora Boliviana de Carreteras)
introduced a series of new documents on highway engineering around early 2008. ABC's website
presently lists several documents, including:
● Volume I - manual on the geometric design of highways
● Volume II - manual on drainage and hydrology
● Volume III - manual of traffic control devices
● Volume IV - manual on the testing of soils and asphalt materials
Source Notes
Links
● ABC home page
Notes
The Botswana Roads Department is currently updating the Botswana Road Design Manual. A “first
final draft” is now available for volume 2 of the manual. The foreword to the document says:
This Materials and Pavement Design Manual is one of a series of design manuals issued by the
Ministry of Transport and Communications. The Manual is part of the revised Botswana Road
Design Manual (BRDM) and the Standard Specification for Road and Bridge Works (SSRBW)
dated 1982.The five volumes of the revised BRDM are:
● Volume 1: Road Types and Geometric Design including Standard Survey Methods for
Roads and Bridges.
● Volume 2: Materials and Pavement Design.(this Manual)
● Volume 3: Hydrology and Road Drainage.
● Volume 4: Design of Bridges, Culverts and Other Types of Road Structures.
● Volume 5: Road Markings and Road Furniture
Source Notes.
The foreword to volume 2 also says:
This Manual is one of a series that is being developed under the Institutional Co-operation
Agreement between the Roads Department and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration
(NPRA).
Links
● Botswana Ministry of Transport and Communications
Also of interest
Notes
Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world in terms of area and of population. It has a population of
some 205 million persons.
Many of the 26 states of Brazil issue their own documents on highway geometrics and design. For
example the Department of Highways page of Minas Gerais for example lists documents in a series
on "Manual of procedures for the development of studies and projects in the field of highway
engineering" (plus several other documents).
Source Notes
It seems the DNIT documents are based on old AASHTO standards.
Links
● DNIT
● DNIT publications page
Also of interest:
Notes
The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) website says that TAC "is a not-for-profit,
membership-based association that provides a neutral forum to exchange ideas and information on
technical guidelines and best practices related to the Canadian transportation and roadways sectors".
The website also says that "TAC does not set standards, but is THE source for roadway-related
technical documents, best practices, and national guidelines that are referenced in many jurisdictions
across the country". However the TAC documents can be seen as default national standards, in
particular the "Geometric design guide for Canadian roads".
The TAC documents do not prevent other local administrations from producing their own road design
standards. Robinson and others, writing in 2010 (ref.2267) say:
"There is no national road authority in Canada. Instead, constitutional responsibility for all roads
generally rests with the Provinces and we build a uniform consensus on geometric
designpractices across our country through the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), a
not-for-profit organization that is funded by the Federal Government, Provincial and Territorial
Governments, Municipal Governments, and the private sector. TAC – under the technical
guidance of its Geometric Design Standing Committee – produces and publishes the Geometric
Design Guide for Canadian Roads.
Three Canadian Provinces (Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta) also publish their own distinct geometric
design guides which are generally based on the TAC GDG, and these often introduce additional
detail, or variations on design practices that are appropriate totheir particular road environments".
Other authorities produce their own documents - for example the regional municipality of Peel has
produced its own (and interesting) "pedestrian and bicycle facility design guidance" (ref. 2269).
TACs 1999 geometric design guide is somewhat out of date, and a new edition is being prepared,
with an expected publication towards the end of 2016.
Source Notes
"The concept of complete streets .... is rapidly gaining technical, political and public importance
in Canadian communities, but to date it has received little attention at a national level. The
purpose of this briefing is to report on the status of complete streets in provincial and municipal
transportation agencies across Canada, and to accelerate the transfer of information and
lessons learned from moreexperienced TAC members
And
".... complete streets are those that can be used safely and comfortably by all road users
without regard to mode of travel, age, physical ability, or time of day; this concept is applicable
to many types of streets and physical contexts. Importantly, the phrase “complete streets” is not
applicable only to physical design solutions, and communities are increasingly using the idea as
the basis for more inclusive, integrated, healthy and sustainable processes around street
planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance".
The short document "Complete Streets by Design" (ref.2268) is a readable introduction to the topic.
References
2267 - Canada, "Country report: Canada - Pressures for Change: New Developments and Emerging
Issues in Canadian Geometric Design", Robinson et al, 4th ISHGD; 2010
2270 - Canada, TAC briefing note "Complete streets - policy and practice in Canada; 2015
Links
● TA (Transportation Association of Canada)
Also of interest:
Vialidad ciclo - inclusiva (~ inclusive Ministrio de Vivienda y 2015 Spanish
road design for bicycles) Urbanismo
Notes
In July 2016 the Roads Department of Chile's Ministry of Public Works issued a new and updated set
of documents related to highway construction and design. The 9 volumes are:
Dated 1997:
Volume 1 book II / Planificación, Evaluación y Desarrollo Vial TOMO II "Evaluación de Proyectos
Viales Interurbanos"(road planning, evaluation and development: inter-urban roads)
Dated 2016:
Volume 2 - Procedimientos de Estudios Viales (procedures for road studies)
Volume 3 - Instrucciones y Criterios de Diseño (instructions and criteria for design)
Volume 4 - Planos de Obras Tipo (drawings)
Volume 5 - Especificaciones Técnicas Generales de Construcción (general technical specifications for
construction)
Volume 6 - Seguridad Vial (road safety)
Volume 7 - Mantenimiento Vial (road maintenance)
Volume 8 - Especificaciones y Métodos de Muestreo, Ensaye y Control (specifications and methods
for sampling, testing and control)
Volume 9 - Estudios y Criterios Ambientales en Proyectos Viales (environmental studies and criteria
for road projects)
In March 2015 the Roads Department issued supplementary notes to volumes 2 to 9 of the 2014
edition of these documents.
Source Notes
Manual de Carreteras Vol. 3 section 3.206.6 lists design standards from several countries which it
says were used as references, including the USA, Germany and Switzerland. The text has several
references to AASHTO publications
Links
● Ministry of Public Works
● Ministry of housing and urban development
Also of interest
Urban design manual for NMT World Bank 2013 English 2257
friendly neighbourhoods
Notes
In China, there are five classes of highways: arterials (expressways, grade-one and grade-two
highways), collectors
(grade-three highways) and locals (grade-four highways).
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of Transport
Also of interest
Notes
A paper by John J. Posada, Carlos A. González and Viviana Farbiarz (ref. 783) gives some useful
background on the development of road standards in Colombia. For example the authors say that
"Regulations of highway geometric design have existed in Colombia since early 1970. This
were defined for the national territory by government agencies, first by the Ministry of Public
Works (1970) and latter by the Ministry of Transportation (1998 and 2008).... The latest
version was issued by the Ministry of Transportation in 2009 and is applicable starting March of
the same year..... Additionally, local governments create standards that regulate roads within
their jurisdiction".
Source Notes
The paper referred to above also says that:
"A common feature between standards is the use of foreign resources. All of the Colombian
standard issues have been supported by standards developed in other countries. This needs to
be improved through the creation of research projects that resemble the characteristics of the
region, considering several of the elements, such as: friction factors, design vehicles,
topography, among others."
Links
● Ministerio de Transporte, Instituto nacional de vias
● National highways institute
Notes
The best information is that Costa Rica, as with some other countries, does not have its own highway
geometric design standards, but uses the multi-country standards developed by SICA.
Source Notes.
Links
● Ministry of public works and transportation
● COSEVI
Design standards for rural and regional Miniistry of 2001 English 2179
roads (approximate title) maritime affairs,
transport and
communications
Notes
Croatia presently uses tandards based on German standards for road geometric design. Pavement
structure design is based on the Croatian JUS standard and AASHTO publications.
Further research
The Croatian Roads website has some documents on road construction, tunnels etc. The Ministry of
Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure also has some relevant documents on its "regulations"
page (documents on topics such as changes to road classification, safety requirements in tunnels).
The University of Zagreb has a department of transportation engineering which can be a source of
information on road design in Croatia.
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure
Also of interest
Notes
Wikipedia says that "Cyprus is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus is the third
largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and a member state of the European
Union.
MCW = Ministry of Works and Communications. The Nicosia sustainable transport guidelines draw
heavily on UK publications, but also include reference to a New Zealand guidelne.
Source Notes
Details of the geometric design standards were provided by the Public Works Department of the
MCW.
.Links
ČSN 73 6110 amendment no. 1 Ministry for regional 2010 Czech 1792
development
Also of interest:
Notes
The forward to the 2004 edition of ČSN 73 6101, commenting on changes to the previous standard,
appears to say:
This standard regulates and complements the previous CSN intended to ensure conditions for
enhancing road safety and allow the application of new technical knowledge in the design of
roads and highways. Change in design categories including, in particular, single-lane roads,
four-lane divided highway guardrail direction for suburban sections and six-lane highways and
expressways.
The content and scope of articles on stretches of road transit villages, increasing the number of
lanes, routes and spatial solutions drainage has been adjusted to reflect the current
requirements. The average height of the driver's eye above the ground considered for the
calculations outlook was changed from 1.2 m to 1.0 m.
The amendment of standard ČSN 73 6110 from 2010 contains changes due to a new law on
parameters for disabled persons.
Source Notes
I believe Czech designers also refer to German standards
Links
● Ministry of regional development
● Ministry of transport
● Transport Research Centre (CDV)
Also of interest
Notes
Ecuador's Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) recently published a new series of
documents on the design and construction of land transport facilities, NEVI-12 (NEVI is an
abbreviation of Norma Ecuatoriana Vial). The website lists 6 separate volumes and two
supplementary volumes. The two parts of volume 2 deal with road geometric design.
1. Procedures for road projects
2A Standards for road studies and designs
2B Standards for road studies and designs
3 General specifications for the construction of roads and bridges
4 Manual for environmental studies for land transport infrastructure works
5 Procedures for operation and road safety
6 Road maintenance
Supplementary 1 - Manual on economic evaluation of transport infrastructure projects
Supplementary 2 - Manual on quality control of the construction of transport infrastructure projects
Source Notes
.Links
● MTOP NEVI 12 web page
RTL 2000, 23, 303 - Tee projekteerimise EVS 2000 Estonian 1095
normid ja nõuded (~Road design
standards and requirements)
Notes
EVS is the Estonian centre for standardisation
Source Notes
Links
● Estonian Road Administration
● Estonian Centre for Standardisation (EVS)
Design manual for low volume roads part Ethiopian 2002 English 1005
A (introduction to low volume road design) roads
authority
Design manual for low volume roads part Ethiopian 2002 English 308
B (design standards for low volume roads) roads
authority
Design manual for low volume roads part Ethiopian 2002 English 1064
C (complementary interventions) roads
authority
Design manual for low volume roads part Ethiopian 2002 English 1056
D (explanatory notes for low volume road roads
design) authority
Notes
The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) has a webpage with download links for its various design
manuals. These include the old (2002) edition of the geometric design manual and most of the new,
2013 edition (chapter 5 is missing from the download page).
Source Notes
Links
● ERA Ethiopian Roads Authority
Notes
Fiji is an island country with a population of around 860,000. One estimate says there are some
11,000 km of road (ref.1), and probably less than half of these are sealed . Advice is that the rural
roads are generally based on Austroads standards, whilst a "Safe Systems" approach is now being
used for urban roads.
Source Notes
References
1 How a team of Kiwis overhauled the Fiji roads system 2015
.Links
● Fiji roads authority
Also of interest
Notes
The Finland standard on road alignment design is Transport agency guideline 30 / 2013
(Liikenneviraston ohjeita 30/2013). The city of Finland's website has some detailed documents on
street designs and cross-sections.
Some information obtained with the help of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of
the University of Aalto.
Kulkulaaria - walking and cycling national databank - makes available a number of documents on
designing for pedestrians and cyclists.
Source Notes
Links
● Finnish transport agency
● Finnish Road Association
● Kulkulaaria - walking and cycling national databank
Also of interest
Notes
ICTAAL has a new edition of its "Instruction sur les conditions techniques d'amenagement des
autoroutes de liaison (Guide on technical design of motorways). The document Guide espaces
publics communautaires (guide on design of public open spaces) includes a number of cros-section
illustrations.
In January 2014 a number of independent organisations, including SETRA and Certu, were merged
into a new organisation called "Cerema" (Centre of expertise and research into safety, the
environment, mobility and planning).
There is also a website, apparently under Cerema, called the DTRF (La Documentation des
Techniques Routières Françaises ~ documents on French road techniques). Presently this says that
documents from two relevant organisations are not being added to this document library. The two
organisations are:
● DTecTV (Centre de documentation de la Direction technique Territoires et ville)
The DTRF did not seem easy to use in the past, and now CEREMA plans to improve and update the
DTRF site during 2016.
Source Notes
Links
● Cerema
● DTRF
Notes
The document “SST Gzebi:2009” appears only to apply to "public motor roads". It gives details of
geometrical and structural requirements. Meanwhile a document (ref. 1393) for the Municipal
Development Fund in 2013 said that:
The Georgian norms SST Gzebi:2009, TEM standard and AASHTO standard were applied
during preparation of the design documentation for Modernization of Tbilisi~Rustavi section
(Section 2) of the Tbilisi~Redbridge(Azebaijani Boarder) road as well as such other design-
construction norms.
● Design for road – TEM Standard (Trans-European North-south Motorway)
● Design for Bridges and overpasses – AASHTO Standard
.
And that
Application of various norms and standards is caused by the fact the Georgian National
Standards are not comprehensive and do not include all required norms and regulations and
still under elaboration
Another document (ref. 1394 of 2011) says that the Government of Georgia has adopted international
legislation including on the Asian Highway (AH), 2001 and the • Trans-European Motorway (TEM),
1992.
Source Notes.
References
1393 “EE for Tbilisi Rustaviurban link section 2”, Municipal Development Fund (2013)
1394 Gvenetadze et al, “Safety directions of road transport in Georgia”, Inland Transport Security
Discussion Forum OSCE-UNECE Roundtable (2011)
Links
RAA - Richtlinien für die Anlage von fgsv 2008 German 1615
Autobahnen (Guidelines for the
construction of motorways)
RASt - Richtlinien für die Anlage von fgsv 2006 German 1006
Stadtstrassen (Guidelines for the
construction of urban roads)
RAL - Richtlinien für die Anlage von fgsv 2012 German -/-
Landstrassen (Guidelines for the
construction of rural roads)
Also of interest:
ERA 2010: Grundlage für Planung & fgsv 2010 German -/-
Betrieb von Radverkehrsanlagen
(principles for the design and operation
of cycling facilities)
Notes
The Richtlinien (guideline) documents are published by Germany's FGSV, (Road and Transportation
Research Association) which is a non-profit organisation with members from both engineering and
scientific backgrounds. The fgsv documents are widely respected, and are used in a number of other
countries (for example, Greece). The document ERA 2010 has been fully translated into Czech.
English language versions of RAA and RASt are available from the fgsv.
Source Notes
Independent, integrated set of standards, recently updated
.Links
● fgsv
Also of interest
Notes
Ghana is a country in West Africa, and has a population of some 27 million. The official language is
English.
In 2015 Engineer Magnus Quarshie presented a paper (ref. 2293) at the 5th ISHGD which explained
the present situation with road design standards in Ghana. He referred to the Geometric design guide
and said that "It has become fairly common for American, European and British publications to be
consulted in the design process where the Geometric Design Manual is found wanting." He also
writes critically of problems such as lack of consistency in road design in Ghana, and says "there is
the need for a new design standards and manuals for our rural roads, highways and urban roads".
The paper also gives notes on background, such as:
● The Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) was established in 1974 with responsibility for the
administration, control, development and maintenance of the country's trunk road network.
● The Department of Urban Roads (1988) and Department of Feeder Roads (1980) are
responsible for supervision of works on roads in urban settlements and connecting rural
settlements respectively.
Notes
Greece's Ministry of Infrastructures, Transport and Networks published a series of guidelines for the
design of highways (Οδηγίες Μελετών Οδικών Έργων or "ΟΜΟΕ") from1999. One of these is a
guideline on geometric design, "ΟΜΟΕ-Χ" which was published in 2001 and which covers rural
highways. It is based mainly on the German guideline RAS-L.
Source Notes
To an extent based on German design standards such as the RAS-L..
Links
● Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks
Notes
The "year" date of 1996 is indicated in the document headings. The documents were published by the
Honduras Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing (SOPTRAVI) in 8 volumes (see below).
Volume 3 deals with geometric design.
Source Notes
.Links
Also of interest:
Notes
The introduction to chapter 7 of the Transport planning and design manual (TPDM) says that the
manual consists of 11 volumes:
1. Transport planning (ref. 2167)
2. Highway design characteristics (ref. 55)
3. Traffic signs and road markings
4. Road traffic signals
5. Accident investigation and prevention
6. Traffic and environmental management
The Hong Kong Planning Department has issued its Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines.
As at June 2015 the chapters in these planning standards are:
Ch1 Introduction
Ch2 Residential Densities
Ch3 Community Facilities
Ch4 Recreation, Open Space & Greening
Ch5 Industry
Ch6 Retail Facilities
Ch7 Utility Services
Ch8 Internal Transport Facilities (ref. 2168)
Ch9 Environment
Ch10 Conservation
Ch11 Urban Design Guidelines
Ch12 Miscellaneous Planning Standards & Guidelines
Source Notes
.Links
● Hong Kong Highways Department
● Hong Kong Planning Department
● Hong Kong Transport Department
UT 2-1-201:2004 Road
planning: General road design
regulations and special
requirements for design of
motorways, rural and urban
roads.
Also of interest:
Notes
MAUT is the name ofthe Hungarian Road Society. The MAUT website says:
The best experts of various organizations such as highway administrative agencies, research
institutes, design and consulting companies, construction enterprises and local governments
are participating in the activity of the Society, reflecting the wide scope of technical regulation
problems and common interests. The Society is preparing technical regulations within 30
working groups, in coordination with the executives of the highway administration and submits
them for approval for use in the national highway network. At the same time - in accordance
with the European practice - the guidelines are recommended to local governments.
Source Notes
.Links
MAUT (Hungarian Road Society)
Also of interest:
Stefna um notkun nýrra Icelandic Road and Coastal 2011 Icelandic 2287
veghönnunarreglna (Policy Administration (IRCA)
on the use of the new
design regulations)
Notes
The principal document for road design is the Veghönnunarreglur (~ road design regulations). Copies
can be downloaded from the website of the IRCA. Where local standards are not sufficient, engineers
in Iceland use Norwegian standards, and if appropriate also German, Swedish and Danish standards.
The USA's Highway Capacity Manual is also referred to.
Source Notes
The Veghönnunarreglur are based on guidelines from a number of European countries, including
Norway, Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
Links
● VEGAGERDIN - Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (IRCA)
Also of interest:
Street design guidelines .... for UTTIPEC / Delhi 2010 English 1450
equitable distribution of road Development Authority
space
Notes
The most important source of documents on standards for road design in India is the Indian Road
Congress (IRC). A catalogue of publications available for sale can be downloaded from the IRC
website.
The Delhi street design guideline is also an interesting document. It includes details on pedestrian
zones, non-motorised transport, street lighting, underground utilities, and a selection of street cross-
sections.
It seems that India’s Border Roads Organisation has a design manual for mountain roads, but no
details are so far available.
Source Notes
.Links
● IRC India Roads Congress
Notes
The Indonesian documents quoted are published by the Indonesian National Standardization Agency.
However the government body responsible for roads is the Directorate General of Land
Transportation.
The Delhi street design guideline is also an interesting document. It includes details on pedestrian
zones, non-motorised transport, street lighting, underground utilities, and a selection of street cross-
sections.
It seems that India’s Border Roads Organisation has a design manual for mountain roads, but no
details are so far available.
Source Notes
.Links
● Directorate General of Land Transportation
Also of interest:
Notes
MOPRG is the Management and Planning Organisation of Iran.
Source Notes
.Links
● MPORG website
Design manual for urban roads and DTTAS 2013 English 859
streets
TD10 - Road link design for type 2 and NRA 2007 English 1195
type 3 dual carriageways
Also of interest:
Notes
The National Roads Authority (NRA) is responsible for Ireland's national road network. County
councils are responsible for the local and regional roads. The NRA has a standards website, from
which documents relating to the design, construction and maintenance of national roads can be
accessed.
The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS) has specific objectives concerning roads.
These include:
● ensure, as far as possible, the provision of a safe and efficient network of national roads,
● ensure, as far as possible, the provision of a safe and efficient network of regional and local
roads
The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG) is a ministry
responsible for local government. The DECLG and the DTTAS were responsible for the new design
manual for urban roads and streets, which was issued in March 2013.
There is an organisation, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) which “is responsible for managing and
improving the country's national road and light rail networks”. In June 2016 TII launched a publications
website, which offers access to documents such as standard cross-sections.The DTTAS also has a
publications website.
Source Notes
Wikipedia says that:
.Links
● Department of transport, tourism and sport
● NRA Standards
● National Roads Authority (NRA)
● TII publications website
Notes
The standards are published by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Much research on road
design is carried out by the CNR, the National Research Council.
A useful site for copies of Italian design standards is Stradelandia (see link below).
Source Notes
.Links
● Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport
● CNR
Design manual for roads and Ministry of Roads 2009 English 1608
bridges, part 1a / geometric
design (Draft version of
October 2009)
Notes
It seems that the EU funded an update of Kenya's road and bridge design manuals and specifications
around 2008. No other information available so far, but there are are probably other related
documents.
The 1979 manual superceded the preceding manual of 1970, and was itself superceded by the 2009
manual.
Source Notes
In Kenya, people drive on the left side of the road (as the UK). In fact, the country was a former British
colony, gaining independence in 1963.
I suspect that the 1979 standards are related to UK standards.
.Links
● Kenya urban roads authority
● Kenya rural roads authority
Notes
Technical standards on roads are published by the LVS (Latvian standards authority). The standards
can be purchased on-line from their "e-store". Note that although the document number includes
"2000" the LVS website says it was approved and came into force in 2012.
Riga Technical University's Transport Institute published a guide to road design "AUTOCEĻU
PROJEKTĒŠANA" (2006), which is largely based on Latvian standards.
Source Notes
.Links
● LVS
● Ministry of Transport
Notes
The Jordanian company CEC announced that it is preparing a new Road Design Manual for Libya.
The document is not yet available
Source Notes
.Links
Notes
The Lithuanian Road Administration under the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the
Republic of Lithuania
"is an enterprise founded by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania which is in charge of
organizing and co-ordinating the reconstruction, maintenance and development of the roads of
national significance".
Source Notes
.Links
● Lithuanian Road Development Administration
Design manual for low volume sealed MTPW 2013 English 1098
roads
Design manual for low volume sealed MTPW 2013 English 2012
roads using the DCP design method
Also of interest:
AICD country report - Malawi: Malawi’s World Bank 2010 English 2248
Infrastructure: A Continental Perspective
Notes
Malawi has a population of around 16 million.
Advice is that Malawi uses the "multi-country" Southern Africa Transport and Communications
Commission (SATCC) design standards, SATCC Code of Practice for Geometric Design of Trunk
Roads.
Source Notes
.Links
● Malawi Roads Authority
Design manual for roads and bridges Malta 2003 English 841
Transport
Authority
Also of interest:
Notes
The summary of the publication says:
“This hand book has been prepared by Prof. Dr. Heinrich Semar for use on national road
schemes in Malta. It contains extracts from those Standards contained in the ADT Design
Manual for Roads and Bridges (ADT DMRB) that relate to the Geometric Design of Roads.The
ADT DMRB is based on the UK Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. The information has
been selected to represent the most frequently used sections of the Standards. The user
should, therefore, be aware that additional information is available in the full Design Manual”.
The MEPA document (Ref. 2171) is interesting. In a separate publication on the development of the
document (also worth reading), the lead author says:
"... It traces the struggles of challenging blinkered and insular attitudes towards design and
construction, not least due to the influence of political undercurrents. It also narrates the
attempts to close the ‘theory-–practice gap’, by formulating a document that develops
from established academic principles and is equally grounded in practice. Finally, it outlines the
document’s important change in philosophy – from one containing inflexible and restrictive
quantitative policies to providing a more enabling role through qualitative performance
criteria that encourage good street design".
References
2172 - Malta, "Reshaping our Urban Environments through street-based design policies - the Maltese
experience", by Dr. Antoine Zammit, Future of Places conference 2014
.Links
● MTA manuals page
● Malta Environment and Planning Authority
● Malta Transport Authority MTA
Notes
Mozambique is one of the countries which drives on the left. The official language is Portuguese and
the population is around 25 million.
Mozambique uses the "multi-country" Southern Africa Transport and Communications Commission
(SATCC) design standards, SATCC Code of Practice for Geometric Design of Trunk Roads. These
were used for example in a 2010 study by JICA on the Nacala Development Corridor.
In mid-2014 the World Bank issued calls for expressions of interest for the review of design standards
for roads in Mozambique. The replies were to be sent to the ANE, the country's national roads
administration.
Source Notes
.Links
● Mozambique government portal
● NE (National roads administration)
Nepal Rural Roads Standards (2055) 1st DoLIDAR 2012 English 508
revision
Also of interest
Notes
Nepal has had road design manuals for many years. The first one I have seen reference to is the
Manual of Highway Design and Construction of 1960. Various documents have been issued by a
number of different government bodies since then.
One document issued in 2013 is the Nepal Road Standard 2070 (ref. 2108). In its introduction this
document says that:
"Nepal Road Standards -2027(Second Revision 2070), in short called NRS-2070, shall apply to
all Strategic Roads in rural areas being constructed within Nepal. For non-strategic (Local
Roads) and urban roads separate standards shall be considered".
It seems that, at the 4th Kathmandu Sustainable Urban Mobility Forum held in February 2015 saw the
presentation of a concept paper entitled "Nepal Urban Roads Standard". This was developed with the
support of UN_HABITAT. Certainly someone seems to have prepared a draft urban road standard in
2068/2011, and DoLIDAR issued a revised Nepal Rural Roads Standard in 2012.
Source Notes
.Links
● DoLIDAR
● Department of Roads
Notes
The Dutch Ministry of infrastructure and the environment published ref. 1062. The document refers to
"highways - national high speed roads with a design speed about 120 km/h".
CROW issues documents on the horizontal radius of lower speed roads withn a design speeds up to
100 km/h. The details for the horizontal radius of various types of lower speed roads are provided in
two CROW publications. CROW-publication "ASVV 2012" specifies the details for lower speed roads
in built-up areas, website (2) below. CROW-publication "Handboek Wegontwerp" specifies these
details for roads outside built-up areas, website (3) below.
The Vegvesen website has a page which lists several design handbooks and manuals, including the
ones listed above.
Source Notes
Independent
.Links
● CROW
Also of interest:
Notes
The doccument introduction says “this update of the Highway Manual was compiled by the Road
Sector Development Team (RSDT) of the Federal Ministry of Works with the assistance of the
consultants Royal HaskoningDHV”.
Volumes (May 2014) :
Code of procedure
Part 2 volume II maintenance
The document "Draft national transport policy" is available from the website of the Nigeria
Governance Project (NGP).
Source Notes
Most of the standards on highway geometrics listed in the references section of the Highway Manual
part 1 are from the USA.
.Links
● RSDT
● NGP website
Also of interest:
Bridging the gap- NZTA urban design NZTA 2013 English 2041
guidelines
Cycle network and route planning guide LTSA 2004 English 204
Notes
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) published a draft "State highway geometric design
manual" in 2000, and the documents are still (April 2015) available on the NZTA website.
It is not clear what official status these documents have now, partly because New Zealand is also part
of the organisation which developed the Austroads multi-country standards. However they are still
worth looking through.
The "cycle nework and route planning guide" is quoted in Cyprus' sustainable transport guidelines".
The SHGDM was published between 2000 and 2005 as a series of parts:
● Glossary of Terms
● Appendix A & B
● Part 1 - Cover/Contents/Introduction
● Part 2 - Basic Design Criteria
● Part 3 - Design Form
● Part 4 - Horizontal Alignment
● Part 5 - Vertical Alignment
● Part 6 - Cross Section
● Part 7 - Roadside Features
● Part 8 - Intersections and Interchanges
Source Notes
Most of the standards on highway geometrics listed in the references section of the Highway Manual
part 1 are from the USA.
.Links
● NZTA
Notes
The Norwegian Public Road Administration (NPRA / “Statens vegvesen”) is also involved in the
development of highway design manuals in other countries. For example NPRA staff worked on the
development of the 2011 edition of the Tanzanian "Road geometric design manual" (ref. 294), and
were involved in the project which developed the SADC Guideline on low-volume sealed roads (ref.
1042).
The documents listed above (and others) can be downloaded from the NPRA website (see link
below).
Source Notes
.Links
● NPRA website (English)
دﻟﯾل اﻟﺳﻼﻣﺔ اﻟﻣرورﯾﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟطرق ﻓﻲ ﻓﻠﺳطﯾن Ministry of 2013 Arabic 2174
(Road Traffic Safety in Palestine Directory) Transportation
Also of interest:
Notes
Palestine does not have full authority on its resources. They have generally no highway design
standards of their own, although the 2013 document on road traffic safety has geometric design
recommendations.
Information is that at the moment Palestine follows the UK or the USA standards, and in some cases
also make use of Israeli standards. Ref. 2174 appears largely to be based on US standards .
Source Notes
.Links
● Ministry of transport and communications
● Islamic Univer
Notes
There is a Paraguay Highway Manual (Manual de Carreteras del Paraguay) which is issued by the
Ministry of Public Works and Communications (Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Comunicaciones or
MOPC). The MOPC website refers to nine different documents, each of one or more volumes.
Document 1 is on "Standards for project evaluation and highway geometry (Normas para la
evaluación de proyectos y geometría vial) and consists of two volumes:
● Guide on the evaluation of projects
● Geometric design
Source Notes
.Links
● MOPC
Notes
Source Notes
.Links
● ICG (Instituto de la construccion y gerencia)
● MTC (Ministry of Transport and Communications
Also of interest:
Notes
Portuguese organisations responsible for roads have been undergoing reorganisation recently. For
example, I believe the IMT (Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes) is a rename of the IMTT and
has taken over other transport institutes such as the INIR (institute of road infrastructure).
03 Níveis de Serviço em Estradas e Auto- Levels of service for roads and motorways
estradas
06 Rotundas roundabouts
08 Peões pedestrians
09 Estacionamento parking
Source Notes
.Links
● CCDRN
Notes
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the USA.
The website of the DTOP (department of transport and public works) has downloadable file for the
various chapters of the 1979 edition of the highway design manual. The chapters cover topics such as
basic design elements, typical sections, utilities etc.
Source Notes
Related to USA standards
Links
● DTOP home page
Also of interest:
Notes
Qatar's Ministry of Municipal and Urban Planning (MMUP) is working up new versions of the Qatar
highway design manual and the Qatar traffic control manual. Both documents have three volumes. It
appears the latest versions of these two documents are referred to as "Final draft June 2014 - not to
be used for design purposes).
Source Notes
The 1997 manual says the four main international sources come from the UK, USA and Australia.
The document on road link geometry is referred to as "draft for June 2013 stakeholder workshop
only". A look at the table on page 16 (and the reference on page 39) of this document gives the
impression that the work is based on UK practice.
Copy of the 1997 manual and a 2013 draft of the new manual is available. Tables of contents of the
June 2014 highway design manual and traffic control manual available and can be downloaded from
the MMUP website.
Links
● ASHGHAL Public Works Authority
Low cost design standards Ministry of the Administration 2005 English 727
for rural roads projects and Interior
Also of interest:
Notes
The Engineering Consultancy company EPTISA says that in 1997 it carried out a project to improve
the standards and norms that cover roads design, construction, works supervision, marking and
signaling, in accordance with the EU legislation and standards. No other details available as yet.
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of Transport
Notes
Update (July 2014) - The Russian organisation ROSDORNII says that the first document (SP
34.13330.2012) is the current relevant document. It appears to supercede document 2.05.02-85.
The Asian Highway Network (and therefore its standards) cover some links in the Russian Federation
(see ref. 1147).
Source Notes
Links
● ROSDORNII
Notes
Samoa is an independent state in the South Pacific, and has a population of about 200,000.
In June 2016 the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure issued a request for proposals for
consultancy services for the review of national road standards in Samoa.
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure MWTI
Also of interest:
Notes
These documents are not dated, and it is quite other documents also exist, and probably in Arabic.
Probably the Engineering design manual for roads is a (the?) current document.
The highway design manual had four volumes. They were prepared in cooperative effort by the
Ministry of Communications and The USA Federal Highway Administration.
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of Communications and Information Technology MCIT
● MOMRA
Notes
The "year" data is indicated in the document headings, although the document footer on the first page
says the document was published in 2008.
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of culture and information
● Serbia Institute for Standardisation
Civil design criteria for road and rail transit LTA 2010 English 1745
systems (E/GD/09/106/A1)
Code of practice for vehicle parking LTA 2011 English 1744
provision in development proposals
Notes
The LTA website says that the LTA is "responsible for planning, operating, and maintaining
Singapore’s land transport infrastructure and systems".
Source Notes
Links
● Singapore Land Transport Authority
Notes
Documents on road design in Slovenia are available from the website of the Ministry of Infrastructure
and Spatial Planning. The Ministry :
"is responsible for the areas of railway, air, maritime, waterway and road transport with the
exception of control over road traffic safety, as well as for the areas of transport infrastructure
and cableway installations, spatial planning, construction, housing policy, energy sector, mining
and efficient use of renewable energy source".
Source Notes
Links
● Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning
Notes
I believe these are the two main current documents on highway design in South Africa
Source Notes
Independent
Links
● CSIR
Also of interest :
Notes
Spain's Ministry of Development (Ministerio de Fomento) now has a website where documents such
as standards can be downloaded. The technical standards are listed under 20 different headings, and
often more than one document is available under each heading.
Ref. 1492 says that a "nudo vario" is a zone in which two or more highways cross, or more specifically
any type of spatial concurrence of two or more highways which involve the possibility of passing from
one to an other (own translations).
Ref. 522 is a bit old (published 1993) and may have been superceded, although it can still be
downloaded from the Ministerio de Fomento website.
Source Notes
Independent
Links
● Ministry of development, technical standards
Ref. 2012-181 / RÅD FÖR Vägars och Trafikverket 2002 Swedish 1625
gators utformning ( Road and street
design, overall requirements)
Ref. 2012-180 / RÅD FÖR Vägars och Trafikverket 2005 Swedish 1624
gators utformning ( Road and street
design, advice on)
Ref. 2012-179 / KRAV FÖR Vägars och Trafikverket 2001 Swedish 1626
gators utformning ( Road and street
design, requirements for)
Notes
Trafikverket indicated the most relevant documents for the geometric design of roads and strees are
179, 180 and 181 (the first three in the table above), Most of the documents can be downloaded from
the Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration) website.
Source Notes
Likely independent
Links
● Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration)
Notes
Switzerland's VSS (Association of Highway and Transportation Specialists) is involved in research
and standardisation in the field of roads and transportation. It produces many if not all the standard
documents related to road design. There is even a page on Wikipedia which lists all these documents
(here).
There are several more relevant standards besides the three listed above.
Source Notes
Likely independent
Links
● VSS home page
Road Geometric Design Manual (2011 ed) Ministry of Works 2011 English 294
Notes
From the preface to the document:
The Ministry of Works has prepared this Road Geometric Design Manual - 2011 Edition for
design of roads in order to promote uniformity in design procedures in the country.
The major benefits to be gained in applying this manual are the harmonization of professional
practice and the assurance of satisfactory levels of safety, health and economy with due
consideration of the objective conditions and need of the country. The Road Geometric Design
Manual will be useful to designers, researchers, academia and professionals interested in
geometrics of roads. The 2011 Edition Road Geometric Design Manual supersedes the inistry
of Communications and Works Draft Road Manual - 1989 Edition.
Source Notes
The document was developed with support from specialists from the Norwegian Public Roads
Administration. In addition, the document acknowledgements page says:
Also, the Working Group acknowledges use of valuable information from corresponding
manuals in the neighbouring countries. Particularly the Geometric Design Manual of Uganda
was of great value in developing this Manual.
Links
Notes
The General Directorate of Highways (KGM) is a state agency in charge of the construction and
maintenance of all public roadways outside of cities and towns in Turkey. It is part of the Ministry of
Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication (UBAK I believe).
Source Notes
The list of references refers to 7 documents, most of which come from the USA.
Links
● KGM
● UBAK
District road works vol. 1 Planning Ministry of Works, 2002 English 2309
Manuals / Manual A - Functional Housing and
Road Classification System &Route Communications
Numbering
District road works vol. 1 Technical Ministry of Works, 2004 English 2305
Manual / Manual A - technical Housing and
manual Communications
Road design manual volume 1: Ministry of Works and 2010 English 2200
geometric design Transport
Also of interest:
Notes
The preamble to (ref. Xxxx) says:
This Road Design Manual Volume I: Geometric Design is one of a series of Engineering
Specifications, Standards, Manuals and Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Works and Transport.
The Manual is part of the revised Road Design Manual, November 1994. The four Volumes of the
Road Design Manual include:
a) Road Design Manual: Vol. I Geometric Design;
b) Road Design Manual: Vol. II Drainage Design;
c) Road Design Manual: Vol. III Pavement Design; and
d) Road Design Manual: Vol. IV Bridge Design
The bibliography refers to the 1994 AASHTO publication "A policy on Geometric Design of Highway
and Streets", but also to documents from South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia.
In 2006 the Ministry of Works and Transport produced a set of documents called the "District road
works and community access manuals" (~DRWCAM). Volume 6 refers to community access, and
includes designs for tracks and trails. These may have been for the Community Access Support
(CAS) project.
Source Notes
The road design manual refers to documents from the USA (AASHTO), Kenya, Ethiopia and South
Africa.
Links
● Roads Industry Council RIC
● Ministry of works and transport
Also of interest:
Notes
The “Design Manual for Roads and Bridges” (DMRB) currently has 15 volumes ranging from road
geometry (volume 6) to the economic assessment of road schemes (volume 13). Each volume
consists of one or more documents.
Volume 6 of the DMRB (road geometry) has three sections, each consisting of a number of
documents
Section 1 - Links
Section 2 - Junctions
Section 3 - Highway features
The DMRB is not the only UK publication on road design. There is a “Manual of contract documents
for highway works” (MCHW), plus various local transport notes, interim advice notes (IAN) and so on.
Traffic signs manual was published in 2006, updated in 2013. There are 7 chapters (chapter 6 seems
to be missing), with 9 volumes. Downloadable documents (May 2015) are:
● Chapter 1 introduction
● Chapter 2 (in draft) informatory signs
● Traffic signs manual chapter 2 determination of x-height
● Traffic signs manual chapter 2 primary route destinations in England by region
● Chapter 3 regulatory signs
● Chapter 4 warning signs
● Chapter 5 road markings
All the DMRB documents listed above (plus the others) can be downloaded from the UK Department
of Transport website (see link below).
Source Notes
independent
Links
● UK Department for Transport website / documents
Also of interest:
Notes
The AASHTO publication "A policy on geometric design of highways and streets" is often seen as an
international standard, but this may be over-rated. Many if not all of the US states have their own
highway design manual, and many cities and organisations also have their own detailed documents.
For example, one organisation is NACTO, the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
The website of the “Model streets design manual” (ref. 2206) has an interesting explanation of its
purpose. The website says:
“Overall, this manual is intended for three groups of users:
● Municipalities who lack the resources to undertake a major revision of their manuals and are
looking for examples to assist in re-tooling their current manuals. This document may be
adopted as written, or customized for any municipality
● Municipalities that want to adopt the latest thinking in street design
● Designers, planners and engineers who are looking for tools to provide flexibility within their
existing street standard
This could be a good approach to standards on other topics, and to the development of standards
which could be used in and adapted by other countries.
Source Notes
Independent
Also of interest:
Notes
Zambia has a population of around 16 million.
Advice is that Zambia uses the "multi-country" Southern Africa Transport and Communications
Commission (SATCC) design standards, SATCC Code of Practice for Geometric Design of Trunk
Roads.
In 2014 the Road Development Agency issued calls for proposals for "Consultancy services for the
development of geometric design dtandards gor urban and rural (low volume) roads In Zambia, but it
is not known if anything resulted from this.
Source Notes
Links
● Road Development Agency
Also of interest:
Notes
The Arab Mashreq International Road Network is, according to Wikipedia:
“The Arab Mashreq international Road Network is an international road network between the
Arab countries of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine (Israel included), Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Yemen”.
Source notes
Seem largely to be based on AASHTO
References
● ESCWA (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia)
Notes
The ASEAN website explains that
“The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in
Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the
Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and
Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten
Member States of ASEAN."
Documents on the ASEAN website include the "ministerial understanding on the development of the
ASEAN highway network project" with its appendix B , the ASEAN highway standards.
It appears that the "ASEAN standards were developed from the Asian Highway Standards of
UNESCAP. The only difference is that ASEAN Standards allow some variations in terms of right of
way and design speed for the given road classes".
The ASEAN member states are:
● Brunei
● Cambodia
● Indonesia
● Lao PDR
● Malaysia
● Myanmar
● Philippines
● Singapore
● Thailand
● Vietnam
Source notes
References
ASEAN home page
Notes
Document 1147 (reference number ST/ESCAP/2173 ) says that the publication was issued by the
Transport, Communications, Tourism and Infrastructure Development Division of the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Annex I of the document is titled “Asian Highway classification and design standards”, and covers 8
pages (page numbers 131 to 138).
The member states of the Asian Highway Network appear to be:
Source notes
Seem largely to be based on AASHTO
References
● ESCAP Asian Highway web page
Notes
In Australia and New Zealand, highway design standards are heavily influenced by the work of
Austroads. The Austroads website explains that Austroads is: "the association of Australian and New
Zealand road transport and traffic authorities. Austroads promotes improved Australian and New
Zealand transport outcomes by providing expert technical input to national policy development on
road and road transport issues".
A paper by Barton O’Callaghan (Ref. 1539) explains that "Austroads has developed a new, truly
national Guide to Road Design. Released in July 2009 and comprising eight parts, this guide provides
the essential reference to road design practitioners across Australia and New Zealand. For the first
time, each of the member authorities has agreed to use the new national guide in lieu of their State
based guidelines.
The Austroads publications website says that the set of documents in the new Austroads Guide to
Road Design (AGRD)involves eight parts, some of which consist of more than one volume. The main
parts are:
Part 1: Introduction to Road Design
Part 2: Design Considerations
Part 3: Geometric Design
Part 4: Intersections and Crossings - General
Part 5: Drainage – General and Hydrology Considerations
Part 6: Roadside Design, Safety and Barriers
Part 7: Geotechnical Investigation and Design
Update
The Austroads website says that the Guide to Road Design Part 3: Geometric Design is currently
under review. It is expected that a new edition will be published in August 2016.
Source Notes
References
1539 - Barton O’Callaghan “Australia: New National Guide to Road Design”; 4th International
Symposium on Highway Geometric Design; 2010.
Links
● Austroads
● Austroads publications
Notes
Document ref. 771 was apparently reprinted in 2001 and appears to be still valid.
Wikipedia says that:
"The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization
headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and
integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states. It
complements the role of the African Union".
SADC's website explains that:
"The main objectives of SADC are to achieve development, peace and security, and economic
growth, to alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern
Africa, and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration, built on democratic
principles and equitable and sustainable development".
Angola Namibia
Botswana Seychelles
Democratic Republic of Congo South Africa
Lesotho Swaziland
Madagascar United Republic of Tanzania
Malawi Zambia
Mauritius Zimbabwe
Mozambique
Source notes
References
● SADC home page
Also of interest:
Notes
The international agreement on the TAH (ref. 2177) says of these roads that they would:
a. Provide as direct routes as possible between the capitals of the continent,
b. Contribute to the political, economic and social integration and cohesion of Africa,
c. Ensure road transport facilities between important areas of production and consumption"
The main agreement (ref. 2177) has three annexes:
· Annex I - Trans African Highway network
· Annex II - Trans African Highway network, classification and standards
· Annex III - Identification and signage of the Trans African Highways
There is a separate document, available from the African Union website, which has more, and
possibly different, detail to the apparent main agreement (see ref. 1840). There also exists a much
earlier document, of only 2 pages, with some recommendations on the geometrics for a Trans-African
highway (ref. 2178)
The current situation with the TAH standards appears to be that they are not yet approved
Source notes
References
· African Union homepage
· UNECA (Economic commission for Africa)
Also of interest:
Notes
UNECE - the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - is one of five regional commissions
of the United Nations. It says that its major aim
"is to promote pan-European economic integration. To do so, it brings together 56 countries
located in the European Union, non-EU Western and Eastern Europe, South-East Europe and
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and North America. All these countries dialogue
and cooperate under the aegis of UNECE on economic and sectoral issues."
One of its projects is the "The UNECE Trans-European Motorways (TEM) Project, (which) is a sub-
regional cooperation among Central, Eastern and South Eastern European countries". As part of this
project, UNECE produced a document which includes some geometric design standards. UNECE
says that the third edition of the TEM standards are based on the original TEM Standards of January
1981 and on their first revision of July 1992.
Source notes
References
● UNECE page on TEM standards, 3rd edition
● UNECE home page
Notes
Not all these documents are government-issued standards or guidelines.
Source notes
References
Links
Also of interest:
Notes
To quote from the foreword by the Minister of Transport in South Africa’s “Draft national NMT policy”
(ref. 2244):
“This Non- Motorized Transport policy has been developed to cater for the broader spectrum of
our population by providing alternative transport modes such as Cycling , Animal Drawn
Transport and Walking. Through this policy, the Department would intervene towards
addressing challenges of accessibility and mobility and eventually putting Non-Motorised
Transport where it belongs i.e. as a recognised mode of transport.
The notion that Non Motorised Transport is an add-on, as opposed to being a fully acceptable
mode of transport must be defeated. The issue of Non Motorised Transport such as animal
transportation is not only a rural but also an urban issue in so far as the acceptance, again, of
this mode of transportation is concerned”.
Source notes
References
India Street design guidelines .... for UTTIPEC 2010 English 1450
equitable distribution of road
space
UAE Abu Dhabi - Urban street design Urban 2014 ? English 1737
manual v. 1.1 Planning
Council
USA San Francisco better streets San Francisco 2010 English 969
plan Planning
Department
USA Model streets design manual Los Angeles 2011 English 2206
County
Notes
Source notes
References