What Is the Gradient of Road?
It is defined as the rate of rising or falls along the length of the road with
respect to the horizontal is known as Gradient of Road.
In another word, it is the longitudinal slope provided to the formation level of
the road along its alignment. It is generally expressed in 1 in n ( where 1 is
a vertical unit to n is a horizontal unit)
It is also expressed in percentage.
Gradient = (Vertical distance / Horizontal distance) x 100
Purpose of Providing Gradient to the
Roads
1. To connect the two stations or points with each other, which are located
at different levels.
2. To provide effective drainage of rainwater, especially when
the pavement is provided with the curbs.
3. To construct the side drains economically.
4. To make the earthwork required for the road construction economic by
balancing cutting and filling.
Importance of Gradient in Roads
1. The gradient is the most important part of the construction of roads.
It is essential to give properly required gradient to the road along the
length of its alignment with respect to horizontal.
2. Gradient allows movement of the vehicle on the vertical curves smoothly.
3. The gradient also helps to drain off rainwater from the surface of the
roads.
4. Gradients are very helpful on curved roads in flat terrain where drainage
problem arises.
5. Before finalizing the gradient of the road, it is important that the
construction cost, vehicular operation cost, and the practical problems
that may arise on the site also have to be considered.
Effect of Gradient on Roads
1. The effect of gradient on the vehicular speed is considerable. This is
particularly important in roads where the proportion of heavy vehicles is
significant.
2. Due to less sight distance at uphill gradients, the speed of traffic is
generally controlled by these heavy vehicles. Due to which the operating
costs of the vehicles are increased, and the capacity of the roads will
have to be reduced.
3. Due to high speed between heavy and light vehicles, and between uphill
and downhill gradient accidents abound in the gradients.
Factors Affecting Gradient
1. Nature of the ground.
2. Drainage required.
3. Nature of the traffic.
4. The type of road surface.
5. The total height to be covered.
6. Road and railway interaction.
7. Safety Required.
8. Bridge Approaches.
9. Sight Distances
The safe and efficient operation of vehicles on the road depends very much
on the visibility of the road ahead of the driver. Thus the geometric design
of the road should be done such that any obstruction on the road length
could be visible to the driver from some distance ahead. This distance is
said to be the sight distance.
Sight distance available from a point is the actual distance along the road
surface, over which a driver from a specified height above the carriage way
has visibility of stationary or moving objects.
The computation of sight distance depends on:
1. Reaction time of the driver
Reaction time of a driver is the time taken from the instant the object
is visible to the driver to the instant when the brakes are applied. The
total reaction time may be split up into four components based on
PIEV theory. In practice, all these times are usually combined into a
total perception-reaction time suitable for design purposes as well as
for easy measurement. Many of the studies shows that drivers
require about 1.5 to 2 secs under normal conditions. However, taking
into consideration the variability of driver characteristics, a higher
value is normally used in design. For example, IRC suggests a
reaction time of 2.5 secs.
2. Speed of the vehicle
The speed of the vehicle very much affects the sight distance. Higher
the speed, more time will be required to stop the vehicle. Hence it is
evident that, as the speed increases, sight distance also increases.
3. Efficiency of brakes
The efficiency of the brakes depends upon the age of the vehicle,
vehicle characteristics etc. If the brake efficiency is 100%, the vehicle
will stop the moment the brakes are applied. But practically, it is not
possible to achieve 100% brake efficiency. Therefore the sight
distance required will be more when the efficiency of brakes are less.
Also for safe geometric design, we assume that the vehicles have
only 50% brake efficiency.
4. Frictional resistance between the tyre and the road
The frictional resistance between the tyre and road plays an
important role to bring the vehicle to stop. When the frictional
resistance is more, the vehicles stop immediately. Thus sight required
will be less. No separate provision for brake efficiency is provided
while computing the sight distance. This is taken into account along
with the factor of longitudinal friction. IRC has specified the value of
longitudinal friction in between 0.35 to 0.4.
5. Gradient of the road.
Gradient of the road also affects the sight distance. While climbing up
a gradient, the vehicle can stop immediately. Therefore sight distance
required is less. While descending a gradient, gravity also comes into
action and more time will be required to stop the vehicle. Sight
distance required will be more in this case.
Stopping Sight Distance
Stopping sight distance (SSD) is the minimum sight distance available on a
highway at any spot having sufficient length to enable the driver to stop a
vehicle traveling at design speed, safely without collision with any other
obstruction.
There is a term called safe stopping distance and is one of the important
measures in traffic engineering. It is the distance a vehicle travels from the
point at which a situation is first perceived to the time the deceleration is
complete. Drivers must have adequate time if they are to suddenly respond
to a situation. Thus in highway design, sight distance atleast equal to the
safe stopping distance should be provided. The stopping sight distance is
the sum of lag distance and the braking distance. Lag distance is the
distance the vehicle traveled during the reaction time t and is given by vt,
where v is the velocity in m∕sec . Braking distance is the distance traveled by
2
the vehicle during braking operation. For a level road this is obtained by
equating the work done in stopping the vehicle and the kinetic energy of the
vehicle. The kinetic energy at the design speed is
Here, f is the coefficient of friction involved. ‘fWl’ represents the work done against the friction
force during the stopping process.
Therefore, the SSD = lag distance + braking distance and given by:
where v is the design speed in m∕sec , t is the reaction time in sec, g is the
2
acceleration due to gravity and f is the coefficient of friction. The coefficient
of friction f is given below for various design speed.
Table 1: Coefficient of longitudinal friction
Speed, kmph <30 40 50 60 >80
f 0.40 0.38 0.37 0.36 0.35
When there is an ascending gradient of say +n%, the component of
gravity adds to braking action and hence braking distance is decreased.
The component of gravity acting parallel to the surface which adds to the
the braking force is equal to W sin α ≈ W tan α = Wn∕100. Equating kinetic
energy and work done:
Similarly the braking distance can be derived for a descending gradient.
Therefore the general equation is given by Equation 2.
Determine SSD.
1 Design speed (V) 50 kmph
2 Coefficient of friction (f) 0.37
3 reaction time of driver as (t) 2.5 secs