DEBRE BIRHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

HIGH WAY ENGINEERING

INTRODUCTION
In the world there are various types of transportation systems which can be selected to meet any given
demand. Each transportation system has its own importance. One of the transportation systems that
are economical for developing countries like Ethiopia is road. In many years ago peoples were
constructing with low quality and weak strength roads. Due to this, structures fail and exposed to
economic recession. Due to the occurrence of those problems and the development of human brain
many aspects of design are examined before to obtain safe and economical structures. A well –
designed road network plays an important role in transporting people and other industrial products to
any direction with in short time.

This project focus on the following point

The selection of route based on identifying the problem/route location

The geometric design of the route
Earthwork and quantification
Drainage system design and
The pavement design of route based on ERA version 2013

BACKGROUND

In many years ago peoples were constructing with low quality and weak strength roads. Due to this,
structures fail and exposed to economic recession. Due to the occurrence of those problems and the

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development of human brain many aspects of design are examined before to obtain safe and
economical road structures.

Highway engineering is the most critical enabling condition for improving living condition in a rural
and urban area. The development of sufficient rural road system distribution is one of the current
problems in the facilitations of economic growth and transportation problem in Ethiopian.

Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. Even
if transport is performed by different modes, we will design transport through road. A road is an
identifiable route, way or path between two or more places. Road transport is a flexible and versatile
mode of transport. During the design of road we must know the functional classification of the road
and the sub grade soil.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Transportation problem in Ethiopia now days in some extent solved; but there are many localities and
small cities which have no access road for vehicles and pedestrians that is short length and minimize
its time. The route from DIBORA CAFÉ to DEBRE BIRHAN UNIVRESTY Main Gate has not
appropriate and comfortable pavement structure for transportation of car and drivers. Beside this

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route there is economic and urban development of this place is low and there is no transportation
access. So we select the route to construct the best easy, economical and comfortable for transporting
and movement of local available goods and service.

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

However, this project focuses to design short, easy and economical root connecting the two
destinations. The main objective of this project is to design a road to connect DIBORA CAFÉ to
DEBRE BIRHAN UNIVRESTY MAIN GATE.
Full highway pavement design is used in order to boost up economy of the country by increasing
communication between city, interchanging goods and services.
In general after we complete this project we will develop:

 To improve our skills of analysis and design of road

 To help the students in order to revise what we have learnt
 To develops the habit of working together
 To solve the problem of one society or individuals and
 Students to be matured in BSC. Degree

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
During the construction of highway projects from DIBORA CAFÉ to DEBRE BIRHAN
UNIVRESTY MAIN GATE there is used to increase wise use of local available materials and
livelihood of locally available peoples.

Generally the specific objective of this project is:

To identify road problem of community.

To select an ideal alignment for the road.
To develop short, economical and comfortable/versatile road for the society and driver.
To develop the design of geometric elements.
To develop the design of structural elements.
To design geometric and pavement based on local available material and
To develop team work of students.

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SIGNFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

As we mentioned above the objective of the study; the project attempts to analysis and design the
highway geometric and pavement Design. This BSC Thesis project work used to revise and analyses
what we learned as profession of civil engineer. After doing this project we identify the problem of
society and take the remedial action at one community. And also the project is used to improve team
work or the habit of working together.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials
For the design and analysis of this project we use the following materials to collect the data. Materials
are:

Total station
GPS
Tape
Leveling and staff
CBR test machine
Paper &pen
Reflector
Tripod
Computer and reference books.

Method of data collection

The data collect methods of this project are;

 Interview
 Site visit and Reconnaissance survey
 Secondary data
 Route survey
 Lab test
 Final office work

Construction, analysis and Design method

For highway pavement designs there are different methods like Group index (GI) methods, Asphalt
Institute method, AASHTO method and TRL road note 31 by ERA design and manual. We will
follow TRL road note 31 ERA Design and manual version 2013 method to analysis design and
construction of the access road.

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Required data

To achieve the goal of the project the following data’s are necessary for the design of highway
geometric and pavement design and construction of the structure.

The required data’s are:

Surveying data: The data that collected across the route of the road are elevation,
station/chain age, easting and northing of selected route. In addition to this Traffic Surveys:
traffic surveys/investigations used to forecast the traffic volume, Axle Load Survey,
functional classification of the road, Classified Traffic Count and origin-destination survey are
necessary for design.
Topography data: The topography of the entire route corridor of project road is used to know
the terrain type and geometric design elements.
Climate: the Climate of the region is used to select material type like pavement type etc….
Hydrological data: The main purpose of hydrological investigation relates to assess the
design discharge of the proposed road, to design side ditch of the road.
Soil data or Geology of the area: is used to know the performance/soundness of the sub
grade soil or strength of sub grade soil.
Construction materials: is used to know the availability of materials along the selected route
corridor. Like;
 Embankment: Materials for construction of embankment can be obtained from highly
weathered and decomposed basalt or other formations like trachyte and conglomerates.
Such sources need to be identified along the route.
 Gravel Aggregate: Natural gravel aggregate is available in some riverbeds and banks.
Crushed Aggregate, essential for concrete works and for pavement surface layers requires
fresh and hard rock such as basalt.
 And other local available materials are necessary.
Secondary data such as supplementary book, AASHTO, ERA manuals.

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SCHEDULE/ WORK PLAN

The project is progressed according to the following time schedule that leads us to finish our work on time. It can be updated during the work and
may shorten the total time needed for the completion of the project.

Activity December January February March

Week Week Week Week
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Prepare work plans and X X
proposals
Surveying data X X
Material and sub grade X X
soil test
Geometric design X X X X
elements.
Pavement design X X X X
Conclusions & X
recommendations
Presentation X X
Table 1 Work plan
Note: the work plan may be change depend on the data availability, work sequence and holidays but finished before submission date.

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BUDGET
Table 2 Cost Breakdown

Item Cost(birr)
Transport 800
Photocopy and print 400
Flash and hard disc 600
Project paper 300
Pen and other material 400

Total 2500
N.B: The cost is does not include any accidental cost and it may change cost of material.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

In BSC thesis highway project, the student should be identifying the problem of society and
solve the problem. This project used to improve our professional ethics and develop team
work based problem identification of the community. So this project include problem
identification of the specific route, site investigation, route survey, soil investigation,
geometric element design and pavement design according to ERA version 2013 manual
design method.

For our adviser and department we recommended that to arrange and prepare lab instrument,
lab assistant and surveying assistant to work successful project. In addition to this we
recommended for department by preparing campus transportation to our selected site.

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REFERENCES
1. Nicholas J. Garber, Traffic and high way Engineering 4th edition.
2. Roger L.BROCKENBROUGH KENNETH J. BOEDECKER, JR, Highway
engineering Handbook 2nd edition.
3. ERA Design and manual version 2013.
4. Traffic Engineering Design Principles and Practice Second edition by M.Slinn, P.
Matews and P.Guest.

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Table of Contents
HIGH WAY ENGINEERING......................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1
BACKGROUND...................................................................................................................................2
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM.................................................................................................................3
OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT..............................................................................................................3
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE.......................................................................................................................3
SIGNFICANCE OF THE PROJECT..........................................................................................................4
MATERIALS AND METHODS...............................................................................................................4
Materials........................................................................................................................................4
Method of data collection.............................................................................................................4
SCHEDULE/ WORK PLAN....................................................................................................................7
BUDGET.............................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION...........................................................................................9
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................10

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