Transportation Engineering

Mobility is a basic human need. Transportation fulfills these basic needs of humanity. Transportation
plays a major role in the development of the human civilization.

Transportation system is a system for moving persons or goods consisting of three components:

1. Fixed facilities-roadway, railway ,pipelines, water

2. Flow entities-Vehicles, Airplane, Ships
3. Control System-Traffic signal

Transportation is the movement of goods and persons from place to place and the
various means by which such movement is accomplished. The growth of the ability—
and the need—to transport large quantities of goods or numbers of people over long
distances at high speeds in comfort and safety has been an index of civilization and in
particular of technological progress.

Major disciplines of transportation engineering can be broadly consisting of the four major parts:

1. Transportation Planning

2. Geometric Design

3. Pavement Design

4. Traffic Engineering
 Mode of Transportation

The most common five modes of transport are: railways, roadways, airways, waterways and
pipelines.

Highway is a main road or access road, such as a street, avenue, or parkway, available to the public for
use for travel or transportation. Alternatively, it is a major road designed for automobile travel that
connects cities, places, other highways, or other significant points of interest.

Highway engineering- is the process of design and construction of efficient and safe highways and
roads. It became prominent in the 20th century and has its roots in the discipline of civil engineering. It
deals with both the geometric and structural design of roads and highways.

A road is an identifiable route or path between two or more places. Roads are typically smoothed, paved,
or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel; though they need not be.

Road Transport

Road Transport It is the main mode of transport out of all modes, internationally and locally. There are
many reasons for the popularity of road transport. The following are the most important ones.

1. Wide geographical coverage

2. Low capital investment
3. Quick and assured delivery
4. Flexibility
5. Personalized travel

What is a roadway design?

Road design concerns the outline and design for a road construction project. It includes 2D and 3D
schematic drawings and renderings, recommendations for construction materials, a detailed survey of the
project site, and a plan for the road construction process.
 Road Design Process

1. Route Selection
2. Site Investigation
3. Geotechnical Design-
 PAVEMENT SUBGRADE- strength and stiffness, drainage properties, ease of
compaction, and low compressibility and swelling of Pavement Subgrade.
 ROAD EMBANKMENTS
 ROADSIDE SLOPES

4. Geometric Design
 Cross section elements like camber, super elevation etc.
 Sight distance characteristics like, stopping sight distance, overtaking sight distance etc.
 Horizontal & vertical alignments-Rmin and Gradient
5. Pavement Design
 Traffic Volume and Axle Load
 Design Period determination
 Traffic Class-Accurate estimates of cumulative traffic
 Design Subgrade Strength-From Geotechnical Investigation
 EARTHWORKS- Embankment Material selection,Embankment Settlement analysis,
embankment stability,Slope stability and Protection.
6. Drainage Design

Drainage Design
The term drainage is defined as the interception and removal of water from, over, and under
an area. Hence, the highway drainage is the process of removal of excess water from the
road surface and also from the road subgrade.

REQUIREMENTS OF GOOD HIGHWAY DRAINAGE

SYSTEM
Following are the essential requirements of a good highway drainage system:

(1) Adjoining land: The surface water from the adjoining land should be prevented from entering
the roadway.

(2) Camber: The road surface should be provided with suitable camber so as to drain off quickly the
water that falls on it without allowing the water to percolate.

(3) Cross-drainage works: The design of cross-drainage works should be such that the overflowing
of water on the road surface does not occur at the time of the highest flood.

(4) Gradient: The roads passing through zones of heavy rainfall should be provided with minimum
gradient even if it is not theoretically required.

(5) Highest flood level: The carriageway should be provided least 600 mm higher than the highest
flood level (H.F.L.) of the surrounding area.

(6) Intercepting drains: Where the topography of the area is such that the water flows towards the
roadway itself, it becomes essential to construct intercepting drains parallel to the ad, but outside the
road limit, to intercept water before it reaches the road.

(7) Side drains: it is necessary to construct sufficiently wide and deep side drains with suitable
longitudinal slope to carry away all the water that accumulates to some drainage structure The water
level in these drains should remain at all times below the subgrade level

(8) Underground sources of water: All springs and underground sources of water should be tapped
and the water should be drained off by the sub-surface drainage system.

(9) Water-logged areas: It is necessary to take special precautions in case of water-logged

areas especially if detrimental salts are present or if flooding is likely to occur.

(10) Water table: The sub-surface drainage system should aim at keeping the highest level of
ground water table well below the level of subgrade preferably by at least 1.20 m.

Highway or road project constituted by a number of drainage facilities:

 1. Surface Drainage facilities-Camber and Gradient
 The main object of surface drainage is to remove rain water from the carriageway as
rapidly as possible so that traffic may move more safely and efficiently.
2. Longitudinal drainage facility -Side drainage-Ditch
 For the purpose of collecting the surface water, the longitudinal side drains or ditches
are laid and the water is then disposed-off to the nearest stream, valley or water
course. The side drains are usually V-shaped or trapezoidal, the capacity of
trapezoidal shape being greater.
3. Cross drainage Facilities/structures-Causeways, Culvert and Bridge

Design of Highway drainage structures

1. Hydraulic Design
2. Structural Design
1. Hydraulic Design
Hydraulic design of drainage structures is based on the sciences of

 Hydrology – Hydrology is the study of the properties, distribution, and effects of water on the
earth's surface, and in the soils, underlying rocks, and atmosphere(ERA,DDM2013)
It deals with the occurrence and form of water in the natural environment
(precipitation, stream flow, soil moisture, etc.)-

 Hydrology is concerned with how water moves across a landscape

 Hydraulics- deals with the engineering properties of fluids in motion.

 Hydraulics is concerned with how water moves through pipes and

open channels such as rivers

Design of Highway Drainage structures involves

 A. Hydrologic Study/Analysis
B. Hydraulic Design
 The input data for Hydraulic Design is Hydrologic analysis.
Hydrologic Analysis

Hydrologic analyses are performed to quantify the volumetric flow rate of water draining from a
watershed (i.e., drainage area) over time.

 Hydrologic Analysis involves

Hydrological analysis is based on a digital elevation model (DEM) raster data to
establish a water system model, which is used to study the hydrological characteristics
and simulation of surface hydrological process, and make a forecast for the surface
hydrological situation in the future

a. On line Data Extraction using global mapper

Export extracted data with required data format (DEM in case of terrain model) to specific
project folder for later use

To generate drainage network (stream network features) from extracted DEM and identify cross
drainage positions of the alignment and Catchment area coverage.

b. Scanned data or hard copy digitization/Regionalization using global

mapper

c. Climate Characterization=Design rain fall and Rain fall intensity

Determination
Methode1

 Design Rain fall is a function of Rain fall region and Frequency(Return

period)
 Rain Fall Region is determined by Scanned data or hard copy
digitization using global mapper
  ERA DDM Table 5-19

Methode 2-Using HYFRAN SOFTWARE

 The Final Output of HYFRAN Analysis is Design Rain Fall i.e Design Rain fall=Max of the XT
value in HYFRAN Analysis.
 Input data- annual maximum rainfall data series for recorded periods
  Finally Compare the HYFRAN Analysis result with Digitization Result and take the maximum of
the two in Discharge Computation or for the coming hydrological analysis.

 Develop design rainfall values for different return periods

employing HYFRAN
 Compare the computed design rainfall values with ERA
produced regional design rainfall values

 Rain fall intensity= Rainfall intensity is defined as the ratio of the total amount of rain (rainfall
depth) falling during a given period to the duration of the period It is expressed in depth units per
unit time, usually as mm per hour (mm/h).

 It is a function of time of concentration and Frequency.

NB:-IDF Curves are Important to Find Intensity of rainfall.

Tc=Time of Concentration is Obtained from WMS software and This Tc Value is Used to Pick
Intensity Value from this Curve.
  we use IDF Curve from ERA Drainage Design Manual, IDF Curve Can also be developed using
Design Rain fall from Hyfran Analysis.

d. Watershed Geometric Characterization=Basin area, slope and Length

determination by using WMS modeling Software. It is the input data for
Physiographic characterization

e. Physiographic characterization= Land use/land cove and Hydrologic soil

group determination. As a result runoff coefficient and Curve number is
determined for use rational method and SCS unit hydrograph method for the
determination of Peak Discharge.

Hydrologic Analysis Method

The following are some of the most widely used flow estimation methods:

a. Rational Method;

b. NRCS Runoff Curve Number Methods;

c. Statistical analysis of stream data; and
d. Regional regression equations.

Of these possible hydrologic methods based on the available data, it should be

noted that, at the present time, only the Rational and SCS methods are
applicable to the whole country. Regression equations and derivations from
stream gauging (Gumbel, Log Pearson, and General Extreme Value) are often
preferred but rely on data not available. For this reason, only the Rational
Method and the SCS method are used for our case.
Rational Method: The Rational Method provides estimates of peak runoff rates for small urban
and rural watersheds of less than 50 hectares (0.5 square km) and in which natural or man-
made storage is small.

ERA DDM, 2013

 Runoff coefficient =C is calculated by ArcMap(Physiographic

characterization)
 Rainfall Intensity=I ,is calculated from ERA developed IDF curve
for Tc calculated by WMS
 Catchment Area(A) is calculated from WMS

NRCS Runoff Curve Number Methods: The Natural Resources Conservation Service
(formerly Soil Conservation Service) developed the runoff curve number method as a means of
estimating the amount of rainfall appearing as runoff.

The SCS method is most suited for computing flood peaks and run of volumes
for catchments smaller than 65km2, with slopes of less than 30% and a time of
concentration (Tc) less than 10 hours.
ERA DDM, 2013

 Curve Number=CN is calculated by ArcMap(Physiographic characterization)

Computer models for Hydrological Analysis

 WMS-Watershed Modeling System=Geometric characterization
 Arc Map=Physiographic Characterization

 HEC-1
 HEC-HMS- used for peak discharge estimation on larger watersheds.

About HEC-HMS

The Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is

software used to perform rainfall-runoff simulations, generate hydrographs, and route flow
through reservoirs.

HEC-HMS requires the user to input data such as

 Watershed characteristics (e.g., curve number, drainage area, etc.)

 Precipitation data, and
 Simulation information ([Link] step, simulation start time, and simulation end time)
 Output data includes hydrographs (flow over time) and runoff volume.

Peak discharge estimation and hydrograph development is the final output of

hydrological study or analysis.
  Having Determined the Peak Discharge and developed
Hydrograph, the next step is Hydraulic Design

Hydraulic Design of Cross Drainage Structures

Hydraulic analyses are performed to determine the depth of flow, flow velocity, and forces
from flowing water on a surface or at hydraulic structures.

 It is related to Design of Sub-Structures i.e Height and Span of Abutment

HEC-HMS is often used to generate hydrographs that serve as boundary conditions

in hydraulic models such as HEC-RAS.

The Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) is a

software program used to model open-channel flow systems.
HEC-RAS allows the user to generate water surface profiles using one-
dimensional (1D) steady and unsteady flow computational methods.

As basic model input the program needs

 River geometric data –Bank, Cross sections

 Hydrological /flow data -Q
 Site specific physical data-logs, debris, etc-??

Based on energy equation or momentum equation, the program compute

water surface profiles at different cross sections (associating loses).

Culvert Hydraulic modeling Tools

 Hy 8
 Civil 3D –Launch express tool
 HEC RAS –Culvert hydraulic modelling
Computer model for Bridge Hydraulic Design

 HEC-RAS

Software for ditch or channel Hydraulic design

 Hydraulic tool box

 Civil 3d Launch express-optional
 Carlson Civil Suite /Hydrology

2-Structural design of cross drainage structures

Purpose of the structural design is to ensure that the bridge remains

serviceable and safe during its lifetime.

Successful Cross drainage design must address three areas of consideration:

(1) Creative and aesthetic,

(2) Analytical, and

(3) Technical and practical considerations.

Given that most structural designs today are performed by multidisciplinary teams,
addressing the first two considerations is fairly easy to achieve. The last is often
the most challenging.

Software For structural Design of Bridge

1. Csi Bridge

2. Midas Civil

3. Leap Bridge

Highway road and bridge Modeling Software

1. Autodesk Infrawork
2. Autodesk 3DS Max