- WWW Resources
- Catalog Description
- 573 Geometric Design of Transport Facilities. I or II; 3cr. Problems in ground transportation facility design; generation, capacity, location and design; rural and urban at-grade intersection design; grade separations; interchanges; parking lots and terminals. P:Civ Engr 370. Smith.
- Course Prerequisite(s)
- See catalog description above.
- Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills
-
Understanding of the basic principles of horizontal and vertical alignment.
-
Understanding of the basic principles of vehicle dynamics
- Textbook(s) and/or other required material
-
Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2004.
Roadside Design Guide, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2002.
- Course objectives
-
To identify and characterize the key attributes of the vehicles, operators and highway systems that affect geometric design.
-
Explore human behavior and accommodation of driver attributes in design.
-
To describe highway design objectives, constraints and controlling factors.
-
To identify the basic parameters and constraints for the design of rural and urban alignment, cross section and intersections and apply them in an actual design project.
-
Explore how design decisions affect roadway safety.
-
Develop and understanding of design theory.
- Topics covered
-
System components including functional classification, vehicle characteristics and human factors.
-
Highway design objectives, constraints and controls.
-
Design principles for rural and urban alignment, cross section and intersections.
-
Application of design principles to a comprehensive design project.
-
Computer applications in design.
-
Interactive Highway Safety Design Module (IHSDM) procedure.
-
Issues in design theory.
- Class/laboratory schedule
-
2 75 minute lecture/project sessions each week
- Contribution of course to meeting the professional component
- This course contributes primarily to the students' knowledge of engineering topics, and does provide design experience.
The following statement indicates which of the following considerations are included in this course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, societal, health and safety, manufacturability, sustainability.
-
-
Economic factors in highway design are considered in terms of the impact of design parameters on construction cost.
-
Environemtnal impacts of roadway design are considered including environmental impacts statements in project development and content sensitive design practices.
-
Political impacts on design practice and theory.
-
Safety of highways is considered as a primary objective of geometric design.
-
The sustaninability of our transportation system.
- Relationship of course to undergraduate degree program objectives and outcomes
- This course primarily serves students in the department. The information below describes how the course contributes to the undergraduate program objectives.
-
-
Students evaluate the need for a highway improvement and develop design objectives to meet the identified need. They then apply appropriate design principles and methodologies to develop a highway design that best meets the design objectives.
-
Students participate in multi-disciplinary teams in completing the open-ended highway design project. Students define a problem, conduct experiments, analyze and interpret data, and apply statistical methods. At the end of the project the students present the results orally and in a written report.
-
Students apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering to design practices.
-
Students develop an understanding of civil engineering decisions on society and professional and ethical responsibility.
-
Students develop knowledge of codes, contract documents, standards and contemporary issues.
-
Students develop and understanding of the role of life-long learning and research in solving engineering problems.
- Assessment of student progress toward course objectives
-
Homework problem sets are used to illustrate the key concepts and design principles. Immediate feedback is provided to ensure that the students are able to develop appropriate design elements for well defined conditions.
Two one-hour exams and a final exam are used to evaluate the level of understanding of key concepts and principles as well as the ability to develop appropriate designs.
The open-ended team design projects provide direct evidence of studens' ability to produce well-formulated solutions to a real world problem as well as the ability to communicate the results.
Students are required to attend outside presentation, pubic meetings, and professional society meetings and report on their design applicability.
- Person(s) who prepared this description
