Highway engineering
Highway engineering applies civil engineering to the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of roads and highways.
Geometric design of roads: The design of a road’s alignment, cross-section, sight distance, and gradients. It sets the road’s shape and visibility to support safe, efficient movement.
Road alignment: The horizontal and vertical path followed by a road across the landscape. Alignment balances travel distance and speed with terrain, visibility, and environmental constraints.
Highway capacity: The maximum sustainable rate of traffic flow through a roadway or traffic facility under specified conditions. Capacity analysis tests whether a design can serve forecast traffic demand.
Rail transport: The movement of passengers or freight on vehicles running along railway tracks. Rail can carry high volumes between places without adding traffic to highway lanes.
Pavement engineering: The design and analysis of road surfaces and the layered structures beneath them. Pavement design determines how the highway carries traffic loads over time.
Road cross section: A road’s transverse arrangement of lanes, shoulders, medians, slopes, and drainage features. Its dimensions allocate space for traffic, recovery, separation, and water removal.
Interchange: A grade-separated road junction that enables traffic to move between routes using ramps. Interchanges connect highways while separating crossing traffic streams.
Public transport: Shared passenger transport services, such as buses and trains, available to the public. Public transport offers an alternative to expanding roads for moving people.
Traffic engineering: The study and design of systems that enable safe, efficient movement of road users. Traffic flow and control shape highway capacity, intersections, and operating conditions.
Pavement design: The process of selecting pavement materials and layer thicknesses for expected loads and conditions. Design translates traffic forecasts and ground conditions into a durable pavement structure.