AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF THE HIGHWAY VERTICAL ALIGNMENT: PROGRAM VENUS

As part of the development of the highway optimization program system, a method has been produced for the automatic design of the vertical alignment of a highway, and a computer program (venus) has been written to implement this. The method smooths the ground along the centre line of the road to produce a longitudinal profile similar to the required vertical alignment, and then fits the profile with tangent lines and parabolic curves. The alignment is then modified to obey geometric design standards and constraints on level by adjusting the position of the curves. When all the constraints are obeyed, the alignment is refined further to improve its fit to the ground. Venus can be used to produce alignments as a preliminary to optimization or as the basis for conventional design. It has been tested on several hundred kilometres of road and has also been used successfully in the design of a railway. The vertical alignments generated automatically tend to contain more vertical curves than those designed manually to the same geometric standards. This should reduce the earthworks quantities and hence the construction cost of the road scheme. The program venus is written in FORTRAN and is available from the department of the environment. It is used routinely by road construction units of the department.(a) /TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)

  Wokingham, Berkshire  United Kingdom 
• Authors:
  • Robinson, R
• Publication Date: 1976

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 21 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alignment; Automatic control; Automation; Computer programs; Costs; Design; Earthwork; Geometric design; Highway design; Railroads
• Identifier Terms: FORTRAN (Computer program language)
• Uncontrolled Terms: Longitudinal profile; Vertical; Vertical alignment
• Old TRIS Terms: Railway
• ITRD Terms: 2894: Alignment; 3882: Automatic; 224: Cost; 9011: Design (overall design); 2804: Earthwork balance; 2825: Longitudinal profile; 8645: Software; 9087: Vertical
• Subject Areas: Design; Finance; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00147932
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRRL Lab Rpt LR 700 Monograph
• Files: ITRD, TRIS, ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 4 1977 12:00AM