User:Tmull92/sandbox

Highway Design
Taylor Mullins. January 23,2017

Highways are an important part of everyday lives in modern society. They span across states and even whole countries. The highways allow for much faster traveling times which is helpful for the economy of a nation. Highways have a long and strenuous process of planning, designing, and finding funding. In the United States, each state has their own governing body concerning highways that report to a larger federal agency. These agencies make the guidelines that the highway engineers must abide by. The majority of the current highway system in the United States was built during the 1980’s and much of the work done by engineers today is mending the diminishing roads.2

Planning
There are many parts that have to come together before the building of a highway can begin. Planning is the first step of designing and building a highway and is comprised of many smaller steps that are necessary to further the project. Many people are involved in the planning of a new highway development, not just the engineers. Politicians are involved and the community gets involved. The stakeholders are involved here and are the people that will allocate the funding for the project. If there is not enough to fund the project then the highway design process will likely stop in the planning phase, as they cannot continue.

Research
Much research must be completed before building of the highway can begin. Data of traffic and traffic flow must be collected. This will allow the engineers to accommodate for the correct amount of suspected traffic.1 This can change the number of lanes on the highway, width of the lanes, places of intersections; stop light times, and many others. Numerous studies about the environmental and economic impact must be done. Environmental specialists are brought in to ensure that the highway being designed does not negatively impact the surrounding environment. These processes are usually required by law before moving on with the process and are tightly monitored by the governing agency in that state or country.

Design
This is the part of the process where the engineers will use all of the data and information they have collected throughout the other steps to design the most efficient, cost effective, and environmentally conscious highway they can. This step is far too important for just one engineer to take on. This step typically requires many moving parts and will have several different people designing different things so they can be brought together to form one cohesive highway design. There are different types of curves that must be accounted for in the design of the highway; horizontal and vertical. A vertical curve is a transition of two roads with a slope. If the curve is too sharp it could cause dangerous driving conditions. A horizontal curve is a turn in the road. These turns must be gradual otherwise they will also create a driving hazard. Safety is a top priority when entering the design phase. Types of materials to be used in construction will be chosen during the design process. Certain types of pavement will be better suited for different areas. Some highways require bridges and these will require totally different materials to construct and must be accounted for. Lighting and road sign placement are also an important step to keep the road as safe as possible for the drivers.

Construction
The construction of a highway is no small task. The construction crews begin work by following the engineer’s plans exactly. The plans may need to be altered at certain times to fix problems they may not have accounted for in their original design. If an existing road is being transformed into the newly designed highway, then during this process they must find a way to keep the traffic that uses the road flowing.