How can you ensure your highway design is safe?

1 Assess the site conditions

Before you start designing your highway, you need to conduct a thorough site investigation to understand the existing features, constraints, and opportunities of the location. You should collect and analyze data on the topography, geology, hydrology, soil, vegetation, wildlife, climate, traffic, and utilities of the site. This will help you identify the potential risks, challenges, and solutions for your highway design. You should also consult with the relevant authorities, agencies, and communities to obtain the necessary permits, approvals, and feedback for your project.

2 Follow the design guidelines

To ensure that your highway design is safe, you need to follow the design guidelines and standards that are applicable to your project. These may vary depending on the jurisdiction, type, and purpose of your highway. However, some common elements that you should consider are the alignment, grade, width, curvature, sight distance, cross slope, drainage, pavement, shoulders, median, barriers, signs, markings, lighting, and landscaping of your highway. You should also check the design criteria and specifications for the materials, equipment, and methods that you will use for your highway construction.

4 Incorporate safety features and measures

To ensure that your highway design is safe, you need to incorporate safety features and measures that can prevent or reduce the occurrence and severity of accidents and incidents. Some examples of safety features and measures are rumble strips, guardrails, crash cushions, speed limit signs, traffic signals, cameras, sensors, and emergency lanes. You should also consider the safety of the pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-motorized users of your highway, and provide them with adequate facilities and protection.

5 Review and test your design

Before you finalize and submit your highway design, you need to review and test your design to ensure that it meets the objectives, requirements, and expectations of your project. You should conduct a quality assurance and quality control process to check the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of your design. You should also perform a safety audit and a risk assessment to identify and mitigate any potential hazards or issues that may affect your design. You should also solicit feedback and input from your project team and stakeholders, and incorporate any necessary changes or improvements to your design.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?