Highway Engineering CIVE

4554

Final Project

Project Assignment

Roadway Alignment and Peer Review

Due:                    (see schedule) at the beginning of class

This assignment has two parts: develop routes, and critique a fellow student’s routes. You will develop two route centerlines from your assigned origin to destination, with your assigned design controls.

Your finished report will then be given to a student for their review.  The student listed immediately after you in the file containing project assignments will critique it. The last student in the list, submit to the first student.

The report must be stapled, with pages numbered sequentially (pages maybe numbered by hand). It must be delivered to either your peer critic directly by start of class on the due date.  A checklist (last sheet of this assignment) must be included for the peer reviewer.

When this assignment is complete, the following sections of your final project report will be substantially complete:

Table 1  Written Report Section(s) Substantially Completed with Assignment #2

Section	Section Heading
5	Alignment alternatives

Table 2  Engineering Drawings Substantially Completed with Assignment #2

Sheet	Section Heading
1	Title sheet
2	Proposed Alignments
3-X	Plan and profile  - alignment 1
X+1 – X+C	Plan and profile  - alignment 2

Assignment:  Develop a Roadway Alignment - Two Routes

Using all of your civil  engineering  and transportation  experience (i.e., undergraduate education, cooperative experience, commuting, traveling), identify two routes from your origin to your destination.

Each route should take into consideration the design elements from your first project assignment. If out of necessity, you need to request a design exception, it must be identified and justified. Additionally, you must demonstrate how your design minimizes the violation (this will be done in the screening evaluation).

In addition to your design elements, try to stay at least  100 feet away from any static waterbody (e.g., ponds, lakes) and 200 feet away from any moving water (e.g., rivers, streams).  These are the minimum distances.  If the edge of the roadway is 100 feet away from a wetland, it doesn’t leave a lot of flexibility for off-road grading (e.g., side slopes); therefore, you may want to increase the offset. All wetlands crossings, if unavoidable, should be done at 900.

Deliverable – Drawing Section

Title Page (this is the first sheet of your project (refer to your assignment for information to include)).  In addition to that information, the following must be included:

Control of Access:

ADT (2014)

ADT (2034)

K

DHV

D

T

V

Page 2 – Large scale plan of the area

The plan will include topography (contours, wetlands, and roads), the project’s origin and destination, and the alignments

Page(s) 3 - X - Plan and profile view of alignment 1

Plan View

The plan view will include a centerline and stations (refer to your assignment for other information to include).

The Station of each PC, and PT shall be shown in plan view.

Provide a horizontal curve table. Use Civil3D’s format, with rows alternative for tangents and curves. Keep only the relevant columns: curve number, PC station, PT station, R, L, and T.

Profile View

Vertical alignment showing both ground profile (dashed line) and design profile (solid line) for the centerline with station and elevation axes. Labelgrade on each tangent. The vertical alignment should also show the station range for each horizontal curve (this is a feature that Civil3D supports).

Above each vertical curve, the following information shall be included: Stations and elevation for the PVC, PVI, and PVT.

Length of curve, algebraic difference in grades, and K.

The next XX pages will be for alternative 2 – follow the same format as above.

Deliverable – Written Report

Alignment descriptions

A description of both alignments.  The first section will describe alignment 1, the second section will describe alignment 2.

Each section should be broken down into two subsections. The first section should describe your alignment. Where does it begin? Where does it end? Where are the steeper sections?

The second subsection should provide the methodology behind your route choice.  Why didn’t you just go straight?  Why did you cross the stream where you did?

Avoid the technical jargon and esoteric language – your audience will be people with varying backgrounds, therefore use language on their level.   Be sure to use north, south, east, and west to describe locations, avoid the “left” or “right” .

Page 8 – “Screening Evaluation”

Populate the rows 1-4 and 6,7 the “Screening evaluation” table.  In instances or locations where the design elements are violated, provide a description or reason why.  This will be included in your peer review package.

Screening Evaluation

Criteria	Alternative 1	Alternative 2
Length of route (ft)
Design Exceptions (list each one)
Maximum grade and length
Wetland offset (ft)
Cost ($)
Preferred (check one)

Part 2 – Peer Review

Deliverable 2:  Critique Memo

Review the report given you. Study the proposed alignment and how it performs against the various criteria. Complete the attached checklist, and write comments in blue pen in the report aimed at helping the designer improve their product.

Write a typewritten memo to the designer, in standard memo format, noting any deficiencies you found in the design. If you found none, say so. Whether you found deficiencies or not, suggest four possible ways the alignment might be improved. At least two of those suggestions must relate to horizontal alignment.

To recap, reviewers have three tasks in addition to reading and analyzing:

•   Complete the checklist

•   Write comments in the report (in the body, on the plans, in the tables; use a blue pen)

•   Compose a memo noting deficiencies and suggesting improvements

Turn in the memo, the completed checklist, and the design report with your comments to the instructor in class on the due date. Your instructor will check them and pass them on to the original designer, who will use your comments to improve their design in a later stage of the project.

Students will be graded on:

•   the quality and completeness of their design

•   the quality and completeness of their review

Review Checklist

Check items if they are complete. For those that are not complete, note what is missing.

— Cover sheet, with name, contact information, and a summary of the assignment (origin, destination, original design controls)

— Listing of design controls

— Full topographic map with alignment

— A typed paragraph describing the route in words, and explaining the motivation  behind the chosen alignment (e.g., why didn’t you just go straight? Why did you cross the stream where you did?).

— Plan showing the horizontal alignment (1 and 2) annotated with stations, PC’s, PT’s

— Horizontal curve table, with all the requested columns

— Vertical profile (1 and 2) showing both the centerline’s ground profile and design profile, with station and elevation axes, with grade shown on each tangency.

— Vertical curve table

— Screening evaluation table

— Design complies with cut, fill, and slope limitations, or explains why a violation was necessary.

— Design complies with speed and radius control, or explains why a violation was necessary.