Highway Engineering &

Transportation
 What is transportation?
• Transportation
– The movement of people or goods (freight)
from one place to another
– Begins at an origin and ends at a
destination
– There are at least four known modes of
transportation (Papacostas &
Prevedorous):
1. Land Transportation
2. Air Transportation
3. Water Transportation
Which Mode Has
The Most
Problems?
 ROAD
TRANSPORT…
 Which Mode Has The Most
Problems?
• Impact of Road Transport
– Urbanization and growth are increasing the
number of vehicles on the road
everyday so that the design capacity
of roads are slowly being reached or
exceeded causing severe traffic
congestion problems
– In the U.S. alone, around 35,000 to 40,000
people die each year due to road
vehicle accidents (safer to travel in an
airplane)
 What Have You Heard in
the News Lately?
• Daily newspapers or television news will
inevitably produce one or more articles on
transportation:
– Traffic fatality
– Road construction project
– Price of gasoline
– Trends in purchases of motor vehicles
– Traffic enforcement and road conditions
– New laws
– Motor vehicle license requirements
 What Have You Heard in
the News Lately?
– Proposal to increase road user fees or
gasoline taxes to pay for maintenance and
construction projects
– Need for public transit services
What Have You Heard in
the News Lately?
What Have You Heard in
the News Lately?
Characteristics of Road Transport
• Among all the modes of transport, road
transport is the nearest to the people
– Low capital investment
– Flexible service
– More freedom to users while traveling
– Ability to accommodate various types of
vehicles at a time
– Quick and assured door to door service
– Faster and cheaper service particularly for
short distance travel
 Roads and Highways
• Importance
– Road transport is the most common mode of
transport
– Good highways are so interwoven with every
phase of our daily activities that it is
almost impossible to imagine what life
would be like without them
– We depend on highways for the following:
• Movement of goods
• Travel to and from work
• Services
• Social and recreational purposes
Movement of Goods
Travel to Work or School
 Exotic Transport (Work)
• Segway
Services
Social and Recreation
 Brief History of Roads/HW’s
• Important Periods
– Invention of the wheel was supposed to have
occurred 10,000 years ago
– Earliest travel: Foot, later pack animals
were utilized, crude sleds were developed, and
simple wheeled vehicles evolved.
– Streets of the city of Babylon – 2000 B.C.
– Great Pyramids of Egypt Construction – 3000
B.C.
– Traces of early roads
• Island of Crete
• Chinese
• Carthaginians
• Incas
 Brief History of Roads/HW’s
• Terms and Derivations
– Road: from ‘ride’ then ‘rode’, civil
wars
– Street: from ‘via straeta’; after
dropping
‘via’, just ‘straeta’ then street
– Pavement: from ‘pavimentum’ which
was referred by the Romans as thick stone
slabs
– Way: originated in the Dark Ages;
can be prefixed by almost anything
 Brief History of Roads/HW’s
• Road Construction Through Time
– The Roman era was undoubtedly the greatest
road building age not only in Britain but
throughout Europe
– After the decline and fall of the Roman Empire,
road building, along with virtually all other forms
of scientific activity, practically ceased for a period
of 1, 000 years
– Interest in the art of road building was revived
in Europe in the late 18th century
• The regime of Napoleon of France (1800 – 1814) gave
a great impetus to road construction
 Brief History of Roads/HW’s
• Important Names
– Pierre Tresaguet
– John Metcalf
– Thomas Telford
– John Macadam
• Advent of the Motor Vehicle
– In America, 1904 marked the year of
considerable increase in motor vehicles
• Henry Ford found Ford Motor
Company in 1903
– By 1917 every state participated in highway
construction in some fashion
DEVELOPMENT OF
PHILIPPINE ROADWAYS
IN 1900
DEVELOPMENT OF ROADWAYS
IN THE PHILIPPINES
• Department of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH)
- the Infrastructure arm of the
Philippines
• It started during the Spanish
Colonial Era.
• It was 1900’s when transportation
depended on roads
• Roadways were developed during the
American period in the Philippines.
DEVELOPMENT OF ROADWAYS
IN THE PHILIPPINES
• Rehabilitation and construction of roads
occurred after World War II since lots of
roads were destroyed due to bombs
thrown in different areas.
• Funded by Japanese Government
• Also received a grant from US
government
• Maximo Paterno – who was first the
Minister of the Ministry of Public
Works and Communication (1899)
DEVELOPMENT OF ROADWAYS
IN THE PHILIPPINES
• The country construct and repair roads
through International bank loans and aid
from other countries.
• JICA- Japan International Cooperation
Agency
• During this era, it serves as a Golden Age of
Infrastructure because the government aims
to build a lot of road networks and
improvement of transportation service to the
public.
• Roads and Highways must be used by
public.
 Modern Roads
• Designed Based On:

 Safety
 Cost
 Efficiency
 Behaviour of users
 Impact on the environment
MODERN

ROADS/HW’s
Functional Classification
of Highways
 Functional Classification
• What is Functional Classification?
– A way of grouping roadways together by the
character of service they provide
– Initial division is between urban and rural
roadways
• Defined differently in various countries
• One definition is by population
 Functional Classification
• Why Classify?
– HW’s are classified according to function:
1. To facilitate orderly HW development
2. To facilitate efficient fiscal planning
3. Ensure logical assignment of jurisdictional
responsibility
– Procedure involves grouping streets and HW’s
into classes or systems according to the
character of service they are intended for
– Establish the design controls
– Mobility vs. Access (Hierarchical System)
 Functional Classification
• Urban Roads • Rural Roads
o Interstate o National Highway
o Expressway o State Highway
o Freeway o District Roads
o Arterial Street o Village Roads
Sub-arterial Street
o Collector Street
o Local Street
 Functional Classification
• Interstate
– Roadways with the highest design speeds and
the highest design standards
• Expressway
– Divided arterial highway with full or partial
control of access and generally having
grade separations at major
intersections
• Freeway
– An expressway with full access control and no
at-grade intersections
 Functional Classification
• Arterial
– Facility primarily used for through traffic,
usually on a continuous route
• Collector
– Intermediate roadway system which connects
arterials with the local road or street
systems
• Local road or street
– Provides access to residences, businesses, or
other abutting properties
 Functional Classification
• National Highway
– High order of road for long distances, most
are two-lanes in each direction
• State Highway
– Slightly of lower order, a broad highway
designed for high speeds
• District Roads
– Categorized as major or minor roads
• Village Roads
– Connects villages, low volume road that gives
access to rural roads
Source:
A Policy on
Geometric Design
of Highways and
Streets
 Functional Classification
• Sometimes, there is a mismatch or
confusion on road classification,
why?
• All roadways will need upgrades and
improvements over time
• Common trend: Operating
environments have not improved despite
increase in demand and volume of traffic
 Road Transport Mode
• Different Components
1. Human
• Driver of vehicle
• Pedestrian
Independent interactions
2. Vehicle between the various
3. Road/Highway components create a
complex system
4. Environment
• Weather
• Time of Day
• Angle of Sun, etc.
HUMAN ELEMENT
DRIVER CHARACTERISTICS
 Human Element
• Driver Characteristics
– Challenge faced by the transportation
engineer:
• Drivers have varying skills and
perceptual abilities
• Different abilities in hearing, seeing,
evaluating,
and reacting to a traffic situation
• Driver age, old drivers
• Affected by fatigue, alcohol, time of day
– Use an average value: 85th or
90th percentile
 Sensing
• Sensing
– Feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling:
Driver
receives useful information regarding safe
control of the vehicle
– Ex: Pieces of information:
• Temperature and humidity
• Forces, rate of change, vibration and oscillations
– Received through the eyes, ears and sensory
nerve endings
 Feeling
• Feeling
– Drivers experience forces acting on a vehicle
• Force of gravity
• Acceleration
• Braking deceleration
• Cornering acceleration
– “G-Force, g” – acceleration of an object relative
to free-fall (9.81 m/s2, 32.2 ft/s2)
– Ex:
• 0.30g of lateral acceleration: 24KPH at 90⁰
turn
• 0.10g of lat’l accel.: long horizontal curve at 97 KPH
 Feeling
• Feeling
– Derived by movement and equiliribrium
– ‘Kinesthesia’ or Kinesthetic:
Sensation of bodily
position; muscles, tendons, joints
• Lateral/Longitudinal Accel. – seats, steering wheel,
brake pedal, arm rest, seat belts, head
rest, etc.
• Proprioceptors – stimulated by moving/shifting of
the body
• Provides feedback for the driver to take some
other action
 Feeling
• Feeling
– Derived by movement and equiliribrium
– Vestibular: messages received
through the vestibular nerve (inner
ear)
• Three fluid-filled semicircular canals – direction
of
movement and balance
– Kinesthetic/Vestibular
• Change of direction
• Steering
• Braking, vibrations
• Vehicle Stability
ASSIGNMENT NO. 01
RESEARCH WORK (DUE: JANUARY 20, 2024)
1. PROVIDE FIVE (5) ILLUSTRATIONS/FIGURES
OF NOTABLE ROADWORKS IN THE
PHILIPPINES.
- DATE OF CONSTRUCTION
- MATERIALS USED IN CONSTRUCTION
- PURPOSE
- BUILDER

2. KINDLY LOOK FOR FIVE (5) MISHAPS OF

HIGHWAY AND RAILROAD CONSTRUCTIONS, AND
GIVE AN EXPLANATION HOW DOES IT AFFECT ITS
USERS.
Questions?