Route Location

Principles

General
The basic principle is
Highway components/elements should blend each
other
The roadway should meet design criteria and safety
standards
Roadway should cause minimal disruption to
historic and archaeological sites

Therefore environmental impact studies are

necessary

Phases of highway location

process
Office study of existing information
Reconnaissance survey
Preliminary location survey
Final Location survey

Office Study
Involves examination of all available data in areas
like:
Engineering: topography, geology, climate, and traffic
volumes
Social and demographics, land use and zoning
patterns
Environmental: wildlife, location of recreational,
historic, archaeological sites, and possible effects of
air, noise and water pollution
Economic: Unit costs of construction, trend of
agricultural, commercial and industrial activities

It is done prior to any site visit

This decides whether any site should be excluded
from further considerations.

Reconnaissance Survey
In this phase, several feasible routes are
identified
For each route a band of few hundred meters
is proposed where a route can pass
Done through stereoscopic examination of
aerial photographs considering the following:
Terrain and soil condition
Serviceability of route
Crossing of other transportation facilities like rivers,
railroads and other highways
Directness of route

Reconnaissance survey
At this stage control points are established
along the feasible route
Some immovable unique features are taken
eg. A unique bridge site
The feasible routes are then plotted on
photographic base map

Preliminary Location Survey

Positions of feasible routes are set at closer
interval
All the control points are established
Preliminary horizontal and vertical alignment
are determined for each
Economic and environmental feasibility are
evaluated from the preliminary alignments

Preliminary- Economic
evaluation
Cost benefit analysis is carried out
Factors involves:

Road user costs

Construction costs
Maintenance osts
Road user benefits
Disbenefits involved like families and business
dislocation, etc

Such information can help the decision maker

on determining whether or not to build the
highway and what type should be built?

Preliminary- Environmental
evaluation
Environmental impact assessment should be carried
out to evaluate the project.
The environmental impact assessment statement
should include:

Detailed description of the project

Probable positive and negative impacts
Short-term impact Vs Long term impact
Any secondary effect eg. Change in patterns of social and
economic activities
Probable adverse environmental effects that cannot be
avoided if constructed

Public hearings may be involved at this level

The best alternative based on the above factors is then
selected

Final Location Survey

Detailed layout of the selected route is then
prepared.
Horizontal and vertical alignments are determined
Location of structures and drainage channels is
determined
The preferred process is usually:
Setting out point of intersections (PI) of straight
portions of the highways
Fit suitable horizontal curves
Detailed design of horizontal and vertical alignment is
then carried out.