1. CVEN 635 STREET & HIGHWAY DESIGN
Instructor: Dominique Lord
Room 301A (CE/TTI Tower)
Phone: (979)
Fall 2017

2. TEXTBOOK
Required Text: Texas Roadway Design Manual, Revised October 2014, als/rdw/rdw.pdf
Recommended Texts:
A Policy on Geometric Design of Highway and Streets, 6th Ed., American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), 2011.
Schoon, J.G. Geometric Design Projects for Highways: An Introduction, 2nd Edition, ASCE, Reston, Va., 1999.

3. TEXTBOOK Other relevant material:
Wright, P.H., and Dixon, K. Highway Engineering. 7th Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, N.J., 2004.
Lamm, R., Psarianos, B., and Mailaender, T., Highway Design and Traffic Safety Engineering Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, New York, 1999.
Staplin, L., Lococo, K., Byington, S., and Harkey, D. Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians. U.S.DOT/FHWA Publication No. FHWA- RD Washington, D.C., 2001.

4. TEXTBOOK Other relevant material:
Fitzpatrick, and Wooldridge, M. NCHRP Synthesis 299, Recent Geometric Design Research for Improved Safety and Operations, Transportation Research Board, pdf
The Access Board, ADA Standards for Transportation Facilities, and-standards/transportation/facilities/ada-standards-for- transportation-facilities
FHWA, Flexibility in Highway Design, Washington, D.C., m

5. ACCESS TO MATERIAL
urse_Material.htm

6. GRADING Assignments: 25% (5-6) Laboratories: 35% (5-6)
Term Paper: 30% (due Dec. 5th, 2017; presentation on Dec. 1st)
Class Participation: 10%
Grading Scheme:
A = 90% and above, B = 80 to 89%, C = 70 to 79%, D = 60 to 69%, F = below 60%

7. TOPICS COVERED
Basic Design: Highway Design Classification, Design Controls and Criteria & Alignments (1 lecture)
Design and Operational Speeds (1 lecture)
Design Consistency (1 lecture)
Flexibility in Highway Design and Design Exceptions (1 lecture)
Three-Dimensional Alignment (1 lecture)
Interchange Design (2 lectures)
HOV and Managed Lanes (1 lecture)
Roadside Design (1 lecture)
Designing for Older Drivers (1-lecture)
Designing for Pedestrians & Cyclists, include accessibility (ADA) issues (1 lecture)
Environmental Impacts and Highway Design (1 lecture)

8. Examples of highway design problems
5 Terrible U.S. Road and Highway Designs: Lessons Learned
ineering/infrastructure/5-terrible-us-road-and- highway-designs
Liability (big business)
Ex: HighwayDesignLiability.pdf

9. Examples of highway design problems

10. Examples of highway design problems

11. Examples of highway design problems

12. Examples of highway design problems

13. Examples of highway design problems

14. Examples of highway design problems

15. Examples of highway design problems

16. Examples of highway design problems

17. Examples of new design tools
dGtQ

18. Examples of new design tools

19. Important Issues in Highway Design
Automobile Oriented Society
More cars than drivers (BTS Survey 03)
Shift from construction of new facilities to maintenance of existing facilities (e.g., lane widening, paving, intelligent transportation systems, etc.)
Resurgence in highway funding
Concern for conditions of infrastructure
Renewed public willingness for public expenditures (e.g., recent bill in Texas to increase funding for highways)
Reauthorization of transportation funds ($286.5B)
2012 Bill signed on July 6th ( _Summary_and_Funding_Chart.pdf)

20. Important Issues in Highway Design
Fleet of vehicles
Larger trucks/smaller vehicles
Better vehicles performance and design (e.g., lower center of gravity, improved acceleration, lighter vehicle components, etc.)
Age of population
Baby boomers are getting older (20% 65+ in 2003)
Safety issues with older (i.e., visual search, reaction time, more fragile health, etc.)

21. Important Issues in Highway Design
Value Engineering
New area that aims to find ways to save money in design
Has been applied in highway design
Can compromise safety (e.g., Highway 407 in Ontario, Canada)
Liability
Increasing number of lawsuits (DOTs, Cities, MPOs, etc.)
Usually always based on (un)safety (after crashes occur)

22. Important Issues in Design
Safety Audits
Becoming increasingly popular (liability is a factor)
Explicitly look at all safety components of a project (from initial concept to construction)
Goes beyond design guidelines
Partial truth: good design may avoid many problems
New design criteria under development
Less focused on vehicle speed
Sensitive context design
Transportation Security
Terrorist threats against transportation infrastructures
See, e.g., pdf

23. Important Issues in Design
Strategic Research
Operational effects
Safety effects
Design tools
Non-motorized vehicles or users (pedestrians, bicyclists)
Unusual design (large intersections)
Innovative design (pedestrian crosswalks)
Technology (influences the design process)
Low volume roads
Environmental impacts
Toll and HOV lanes