CIVN3027A – Transportation Engineering

Assignment 1
This Assignment is 10% of your course mark.
Due date: Thur 25 March 2021, 11.55PM. All submissions to be scanned and uploaded on Ulwazi.
Do NOT send submissions via email.

Question 1 (6 Marks)
In order to allow for passage of trucks through an underpass of a railway bridge (shown below), it is required
to adjust the underpass road alignment such that the clearance height C to the bottom of the bridge is
increased from the existing 3.65m to a new clearance of 4.6m. The existing condition is shown below:

Where;
1. Entering grade
2. Point of vertical curve PVC
3. Point of vertical tangent PVT
4. Exiting grade
A further representation of the condition (not to scale) is shown below:

140m

PVT
PVC

PVI
On the existing road, an entry grade G1 of minus 3% leads into the curve, and an exit grade G2 of plus 2%
follows. Elevation of bridge = 125m above mean sea level. The entrance of underpass at bridge location is
140m from the position of the PVI (as shown above). Stake value of the PVI = 2500m, and the elevation
at PVI = 116m above mean sea level
a) Determine the length of the existing sag vertical curve and establish the stake values and
elevations of the PVC, PVT & lowest point of the curve based on the given information.
b) Design a new sag vertical curve for the underpass that will allow for the new clearance height of
4.6m (while keeping the grades unchanged). Establish the length of the new curve as well as the
stake values and elevations of its PVC, PVT and lowest point.
c) Comment on how the new curve has changed compared to the existing curve, based on the
computed values in (a) and (b) above.

Question 2 (4 Marks)
In the year 2005, an equal-tangent vertical curve was designed for a speed of 110km/h to connect an initial
grade of +1.0% to a final grade of -2.0%. Design deceleration rate and the perception-reaction time was
considered to be 3.4m/s2 and 2.5seconds respectively. 15 years later (2020), the curve is to be redesigned
to accommodate a speed of 110km/h. Vehicle performance characteristics such as braking efficiency have
increased over the period, such that the new recommended design deceleration rate is now 25% greater than
the value utilised in the 2005 design. Meanwhile, the population of older drivers have now increased such
that the design perception-reaction times is now 20% higher than the value for 2005. Also, vehicles have
now become smaller, so that the driver’s eye height is now taken to be 900mm above the road surface
(compared to 1.10m in 2005), while the roadway objects (such as vehicle tail-lights) are now assumed to
be 300mm above the surface (compared to 600mm in 2005).
a) Compute the curve lengths for the 2005 and 2020 designs.
b) Comment on how the changing design parameters have impacted on the new length of curve.