Route / Transportation Surveying

Sr SITI NUR ALIAA ROSLAN KLIUC

Outline of lecture
Introduction Horizontal curves Transition curves Vertical curves Summary

Introduction
Route surveying surveys required to establish horizontal and vertical alignment for transportation facilities Highways, railways, rapid transit systems, canals, pipelines, transmission lines etc Surveying is required for all phase which involves alignment planning, design and construction work

Introduction
Highways have been the most highly developed form of transportation facility Most of the methods developed for highway surveys are applicable to other types of transportation network The emphasis of this topic will be on route surveys for highway alignment

Importance

Surveying data are critical for:

Determining Work

the best locations

design Plans, specification and estimates for construction Prepare maps for appraisal and acquisitions of the necessary rights of way

Functions of the Engineer/Surveyor

Plan and gather all surveying data Execute the design Thus, have to be familiar with:

Geometry

of horizontal and vertical curves and their usage Methods of acquiring terrain data Processing terrain data for earthwork calculations

Introduction

Straight (tangent) sections of transportation routes such as highways, railways and pipelines are connected by curves in horizontal and vertical planes

Horizontal curves

2 types:
Circular

Simple Compound Broken-back Reverse Makes a good transition curve to lessen sudden change in curvature at the junction of a tangent and circular curve

Spiral

Tangent

Circular
Simple curve Compound curve Broken-back curve Reverse curve

Circular curve spiral spiral tangent tangent

tangent spiral

spiral

Circular curve spiral Circular curve Spiral between circular curve

Spiral

tangent Spiral between tangent and circular curve Double spiral

Transition curves
Needed especially for railways & rapidtransit systems To reduce the sudden change in curvature at the junction of a tangent and circular curve Spirals are excellent transition curves

Transition curves
The dynamics of a vehicle traveling in a straight line and then turning into a circular curve, the vehicle changes from a state of zero acceleration into a state of full circular acceleration instantaneously If this happened in reality, the vehicle, especially a rail vehicle, would fall off the tracks

Transition curve

Circular curve Straight

TC is mathematically part of a cubic spiral

Superelevations

To balance the effect of centrifugal force on a vehicle passing around a curve Raises the outer rail track or outer edge of highway Railways: Amount of raising to balance the effect of centrifugal force Roads: raise the outer lane to level before commencing the transition curve spiral

Vertical curves

Vertical curves are required at the intersection of different road/rail gradients

Component of vertical Parabolic Curves

Types of Vertical curves A
sag summit

Grade line and ground profile of a proposed highway section

Ground profile

Tangent 1

Tangent 2 Tangent 3

Curve A

Curve B

Vertical curves

Purposes:
The

rate of change of vertical acceleration is gradual (for safety and comfort) Oncoming vehicles are visible for a safe distance

Curves may be
Convex

(summit) or Concave (valley or sag)

Vertical curves

The requirements to be met by a vertical curve are:

Constant

change of gradient (parabolas) Uniform rate of increase of centrifugal force Adequate sighting distances

Components and Equations of Vertical Curves

g2 g1 L

r = p
PVI or V

g2 r/2 x p2 EVC p g1 x p BVC L

Terminology for Vertical Parabolic Curves

BVC = beginning of vertical curve PVI = point of intersection g1 = slope of back tangent (in %) L = length of curve in stations

EVC = end of vertical curve r = rate of change g2 = slope of forward tangent () t = length of sub-curve in station to point on curve from BVC

Elevp = (0.5)p + g1(p) + ElevBVC

Summary
A route survey, as the name implies, is a survey that deals with the route or course that a highway, road, utility line etc will follow Very important to understand the concept of vertical and horizontal curves for route design and engineering