TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

Chapter: Four
Hill Road

By:
Raju Bhele

10/31/2023
TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING CIEG 401 1
 Unit 4 : Hill Roads:
• Definition, importance of hill roads in Nepal
• Design and construction problems in hill roads
• Special consideration of hill road geometric design
• Typical cross sections of hill roads
• Special structures in hill roads like retaining walls, revetment
walls, tow wall, slope protection works

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2
 Lecture 4 : Introduction to Hill Road

1. Terrain??? 2. Cross slope?? 3. Route type/Alignment types??

4. Factors affecting hill road alignment 5. Typical cross section of hill road
10/31/2023 6. Design and construction problem?? 3
As per Nepal Road Standard (NRS-2070) terrain is classified as
below:

steeps slopes

differing elevation

deep gorges
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 1. Definition and importance of hill road.
• A hill road can be defined as one which passes through area with a cross slope of
25 % or more.
• A hilly or mountainous area is characterized by a highly broken relief with wide
differing elevation, steeps slopes, deep gorges and a great number of water
courses.

deep gorges
steeps slopes

10/31/2023 number of water courses. number of water courses. 5

• It is objective of engineer to establish the shortest, easy, the most
economical and safe route between the obligatory points.
• This should be done considering the expenditure of transportation,
the wear and tear of the vehicles and the annual maintenance cost
of the hill road.

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 2. Importance of hill road.
• Area= 1,47,181 km2
• 90% of people is based on agro-industries.
• 15% of total land mountain, 68% of total land is hilly terrain, 17% of the total land
is plain.

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 Mid Hill Roads

East West Highway

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 Lack of adequate road network in Himalayan region

Road network more concentrated at terai region

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 2. Design and construction problems of hill road.
• A hilly or mountainous area is characterized by widely varying elevations, steep slopes
which may causes unnecessary increase in length of road.
• Geological condition varies from one place to another place. This will make difficult to
assess the foundation and find suitable one for the road embankment and other
structure.

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• Cross slopes which are highly stable before construction may turn into
unstable after road construction.
• Hydrological condition also varies from one place to another place. It
is very difficult to understand this phenomenon and is easily overlooked
or under estimated or ignored which causes various damage of roads after
construction.

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Continue….

• Because of presence of high cross slope a careful arrangement for erosion

protection work is needed.
• Due to presence of high cross slope surface water reaches quickly to road side
with high speed. During this process it may bring a lot of debris which has higher
damage strength.
• The filling material may overload relatively weak under lying soil layer.

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Contd……….

• Variation in climate condition should be considered in design and HAIR PIN

BEND
construction period such as
• Temperature increase as altitude decreases.
• Pressure decrease as altitude increase.
• Velocity of wind varies from place to place.
• Design of hair pin bends to gain height.
• Frequent blasting are required due to presence of hard rocks.
• Safety precaution during construction of
retaining structure and bridge construction.

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Continue….

Hair pin Bend

Drilling

Blasting

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3. Factors affecting hill road alignment

The different factors affecting hill road alignment are listed below
• Temperature
• Rainfall
• Atmospheric pressure
• Geological conditions

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 Geological conditions
• The degree of stability of slope depends
upon types of rock, inclination of strata
and presence of ground water
• The inclination of strata should be as small
as possible.
• Stratified sedimentary rock often occurs as
folds which may have various faults.
• Therefore, we should follow the stable
slope with no ground water and
alignment should passed through area
with minimum angle of inclination od
strata

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 Rainfall
• The amount of rainfall in hilly region grows with the elevation above sea
level.
• The maximum rainfall is in
The zone of intensive cloud formation (1500-2500 m above sea level)
after which it decreases substantially
In general the increase of rainfall for every 100 m of elevation averages
40 to 60 mm
• In summer time very heavy storms may occur in the hills and about 15 to 20
% of the annual rainfall may occurs.

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 Atmospheric pressure and winds
• Atmospheric pressure decreases with the elevations.
• At high altitudes (3000 to 4000 m)
There are frequent winds with velocities 25 to 30 m/s.
At such altitudes the temperature is below freezing point for several
point for several months of the year.
• The appreciable difference of atmospheric pressure in valleys and on
mountain passes and the sharp temperature fluctuations often cause very
high winds in hills. This leads to intensive weathering of the rock
• For this reason it is very important for the designer to be familiar with
the local climatic conditions.

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 Temperature

• The temperature of the air in the hills is lower than in valley, the
temperature drop being approximately 0.5o per 100 m of rise.
• The amount of solar heat received by hill slopes varies enormously with
their orientations in relation to the exposure to sun.
• On slope facing south and south west snow disappears rapidly and rain
water evaporates quickly.
• On slope facing north and north east rain water of snow may remain
for longer periods.
• Variation in moisture conditions accordingly may vary in a wide range
depending upon the solar orientations.

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 4. Special consideration in geometric design of hill roads

• Route location and alignment survey.

• Geometric design of hill roads
• Typical cross section of hill roads.

River Route
Route location
Ridge Route

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Continue…

• Special structure in hill roads

• Retaining structure.
• Drainage structure.
• Slope protection structure.

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 A. ROUTE LOCATION
1. River Route.
• The location of a route along river valley is called
river route.
Advantages.
• Gentle gradient.
• Serves rural settlement situated next to the water
course.
• Availability of water and other construction material
in the vicinity.
Disadvantages.
• Numbers of bridge construction over tributaries.
• Construction of retaining and protection wall on hill
side10/31/2023
for safe guarding of road. 22
2. Ridge route.
• A ridge route is characterized by very steep gradient, hair pin bends and extensive
rock work.
• The ridge route climbs continuously up from the valley floor till it reaches a
mountain pass and then descends down to catch another hill.
b. Alignment survey.
• Reconnaissance
• Trace cut.
• Detailed survey.
Procedure.
• Topographical, geological, meteorological maps of area and aerial photographs are
studies.
• Route selected during reconnaissance is translated on the ground during trace cut.
• Bench mark are fixed, longitudinal and cross-sections are obtained
• Centerline is obtained.
• Hydrological and soil investigation are carried out.
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c. Special structure in hill roads

i. Retaining wall
• Retaining walls are needed to retain the fill portion of highway cross section.
• It is constructed on the valley side of the roadway and also on the cut hill side to
prevent landslide towards the roadway.
• Usually, dry stone masonry is preferred as it permits easy drainage of seeping
water.
• The vertical face is constructed towards filling side and inclined face is
constructed toward the valley side
• To facilitate underground water drainage weep
holes are provided on retaining wall at
certain spacing.

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 ii. Breast wall
• A wall which is constructed on either on inner side of the road or on hill side to
give support to loose soil is called breast wall.
• Weep holes are also provided in breast wall to permit easy drainage of seeping
water.
• It should be strong enough to withstand the earth pressure.
• This types of wall have its back face vertical and front face battered or inclined.
• It prevent landslide which may otherwise causes accidents to traffic and also block
the road.

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 iii. Revetment wall.

• When cutting slope is steep and contain loose soils in such condition
revetments wall of dry stone masonry are constructed to retain soil in
cutting slope.
• Thus, by constructing revetment wall we can control slipping actions
of the soils on slopes.

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 iv. Toe wall.

• The embankment slopes are generally protected from the stone

pitching about 30 cm thick to avoid erosion due to flow of water.
• If this sloping length is very large in such condition we construct wall
at toe to support embankment and slope. Such wall is called toe wall.

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d. Typical components of cross section of hill roads.
• Cut and fill
• Bench type
• Box cutting
• Embankment with retaining wall
• Semi-bridge.
• Semi tunnel
• Platform.

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 a. Cut and fill.
• A cut and fill road bed is cheapest and environment friendly.
• The fill mass is obtained from cut material at the same location.
• The settlement of the fill portion of road bed sometimes causes the appearance of
longitudinal cracks in the pavement.
• So, road is located on stable hill slope.
• Low cost surface e.g. WBM, gravel. Earthen are made with cut and fill road.

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 b. Bench type.
• The road with hard and costly pavement structure is located in full bench.
• Bench type cross section ensures the complete stability of the road bed if the hill
side itself is stable.

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c. Box cutting.

• When road bed along hill side is unstable or unsuitable road is

designed as trench types.
• It increases earthwork.
• It is preferred to meet geometric standard for given category of road.

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 d. Embankment with retaining wall.
• On steep slopes over 30o to 33o the earth work involves the
construction of embankment.
• In order to support the fill material in embankment at edge of the road
itself the retaining walls are constructed.
• An embankment with a retaining wall has a greater stability. Retaining
walls are also provided on less steep slopes to increase stability.

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e. Semi-bridge.
• If road is located at a steep slope a retaining wall with sufficiently large height
is required.
• To reduce this quantity of work, road bed with a semi-bridge is constructed.
• A part of road is rested on bench cut and part of it is rested on semi bridge.

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f. Semi-tunnel
• When cutting into hills is stable rock, in such condition rock faces are left
overhanging. Such cross section is called semi-tunnel.
• It may be accommodated with road way only and some time with retaining
and breast wall both.

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g. Platform.
• When shifting of the route into hill side increases enormous rock work in such
condition we do not prefer semi-tunnel.
• In such geological condition platform is cantilevered out of the rock on which
road way is partially located.

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 Hairpin bend
• When developing a route in hilly area, it
is frequently necessary to insert sharp
angle but it is very difficult and
sometimes impossible to layout curves
following normal geometric standard of
design.
• In such cases, it is preferable to round
off the route by circumscribing the
curve around the turning point.
• Such compound curve is known as hair
pin bend.

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 r
X

𝜶
O 𝜸
Y
r

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From figure,
BX = AY = T = Tangent length
r
XF = YE = m
BF = AE = T + m
𝜶 O

• Numerically
r

T = r tan
2
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• In triangle AOE or BOF,
OE R R
tan     ...............(1)
AE T  m 
r tan m
2
From trigonometry r


2 tan 𝜶
2 ..................(2) O
tan  

1  tan 2
r
2
Equating equation 1 and 2 
2 tan
R 2

 
r tan m 1  tan 2
2 2
  
R  R tan 2  2 tan 2 .r  2m tan
2 2 2
 
( R  2r ) tan 2  2m tan R0
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 
• Which is quadratic form of tan
2

  m  m 2  ( 2r  R ) R
tan 
2 2r  R
Now
Central angle =  = 360    2(90   )
R T m
𝜶 O
• AO = OB 
= sin  cos 

R
Length of main curve (C) =
180
R
Length of reverse curve (Cr) =
180
Total length of hair pin bend = 2Cr + C + 2m
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R, r, m are assume as per norms specified and find  ,  and other parameters 40
Design criteria for design of hair pin bend as per NRS 2070
Minimum design speed 20 kmph
Minimum radius of curvature 15 m
Minimum length of transition curve 15 m
Maximum longitudinal gradient 4%
Maximum super elevation 10 %

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