You are not logged in You are not logged in to this journal. Log In

Journal of Transportation Engineering / Volume 136 / Issue 4 / TECHNICAL PAPERS / Transportation Systems

LOG IN or SELECT A PURCHASE OPTION:

Practical Solution Concepts for Planning and Designing Roadways

J. Transp. Eng. 136, 291 (2010); http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000089 (7 pages)

Nikiforos Stamatiadis, P.E.1, Adam Kirk, AICP, P.E.2, Don Hartman3, and Jerry Pigman, P.E.4

1Professor, Univ. of Kentucky, 265 Raymond Bldg., Lexington, KY 40506-0281 (corresponding author). E-mail: nstamat@engr.uky.edu
2Research Engineer, Kentucky Transportation Center, 269 Raymond Bldg., Lexington, KY 40506-0281. E-mail: akirk@engr.uky.edu
3Deputy Director, Kentucky Transportation Center, 269 Raymond Bldg., Lexington, KY 40506-0281. E-mail: dhartman@engr.uky.edu
4Research Engineer, Kentucky Transportation Center, 269 Raymond Bldg., Lexington, KY 40506-0281. E-mail: jpigman@engr.uky.edu

View MapView Map

(Submitted 4 September 2008; accepted 29 July 2009; posted ahead of print 31 July 2009)

Developing a procedure that yields up to the maximum margin of return for the investment requires an approach that takes into account specific safety issues and the commensurate design elements for each roadway. Kentucky’s highway agency has embarked upon an initiative tagged “practical solutions” which sets its goal toward reducing costs throughout the project development process extended into operations and maintenance of all highway facilities. This operationally defines a design procedure within the context of practical solutions and sets up the guiding principles of the approach. The most critical component of practical solutions in planning and design is the definition and clarification of the initial project concept (its specific goals and objectives) since it is the corner stone of the project and used to significantly contain the cost and impact of a project. Traditional design tends to seek as high a design speed as reasonable with the aim to reduce travel time. Practical design requires that levels of service should not be taken as absolutes but rather be viewed as starting points. Each project should be viewed as an investment and as such requires an understanding of the marginal returns to be realized. As in any financial situation, there is always a point of diminishing returns, i.e., greater investment will have no or little effect on increasing the return. The system-based evaluation of practical design in this study examined the safety and operational performance of various cross-section alternatives, based on highway capacity and highway safety manual procedures. The various alternative cross sections ranged from an improved two-lane section representing a practical solution approach to a four-lane-divided highway. A case study of a Kentucky intersection improvement project is presented that exemplifies a practical solution in practice.

© 2010 ASCE

Article Outline

  1. Introduction
  2. Practical Solutions Concept
  3. System-Based Evaluation of Practical Solutions
    1. Roadway Designs
    2. Mobility
    3. Capacity
    4. Safety
  4. Principles of Practical Solutions for Planning and Design
    1. Target the Goals/Objectives of the Purpose and Need Statement
    2. Meet Anticipated Capacity Needs
    3. Evaluate Safety Compared to the Existing Conditions
    4. Develop and Evaluate Design Options and Alternatives
    5. Maximize Design to the Point of Diminishing Return
  5. Practical Solutions Example
    1. Background
    2. Traditional Design Approach
    3. Practical Solutions Approach
  6. Conclusions and Recommendations

KEYWORDS

ASCE SUBJECT HEADINGS

Highways and roads, Design, Safety, Kentucky

RELATED DATABASES

To view database links for this article, you need to log in.

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000089

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0733-947X (print)  
1943-5436 (online)

Publisher

ASCE

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.

Figures (3) Tables (2)

Access to article objects (figures, tables, multimedia) requires a subscription; log in to view available files.
(Access to supplementary files, where available, is free for this journal.)

Access to article objects (figures, tables, multimedia) requires a subscription; log in to view available files.
(Access to supplementary files, where available, is free for this journal.)


Close

Your Recent History Recent History Help

Recently Viewed

  1. Practical Solution Concepts for Planning and Designing Roadways
  2. Single-Stage Integer Programming Model for Long-Term Transit Fleet Resource Allocation
  3. Estimating Highway Capacity Considering Two-Regime Models
  4. Analytical Procedures for Estimating Capacity of Freeway Weaving, Merge, and Diverge Sections
  5. Optimization of Ground-Penetrating Radar Data to Predict Layer Thicknesses in Flexible Pavements
close