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MULTIPLE OBJECTIVE CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF HYDROLOGY STANDARDS FOR ROAD PROJECTS IN DIFFERENT TERRAIN TYPES

Standards for the levels of road pavements and for waterway areas through culverts and under bridges are sometimes expressed in terms of arbitrarily chosen tolerable frequencies of flooding, e.g., once in 100 years or once in 50 years, perhaps with arbitrarily chosen freeboards, e.g., half a metre. This is the case in the consolidated set of design standards for national highways in Australia of September, 1976. An approach is explored which chooses a standard flood frequency from economic considerations and from the consideration of objectives other than economic ones. It is shown that, on any criterion or set of criteria other than arbitrary selection, "standards" in terms of flood frequency will not necessarily be uniform but may vary from place to place even along a stretch of highway carrying the same traffic. Arbitrarily chosen standards, uniform in terms of flood frequency and freeboard, will lead mostly either to excessive adverse effects due to highway flooding or to over-investment in culverts and bridges and seldom to the best design decisions. The effects of uncertainty in flood frequency estimation and of other uncertainties on setting standards are discussed briefly (a). (TRRL)

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Workshop on the Economics of Road Design Standards, Canberra 18-20 May 1980 Papers.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Bureau of Transport Economics, Australia

    Allara Street
    Canberra City, A.C.T. 2601,   Australia 
  • Authors:
    • Howell, D T
  • Publication Date: 1980-5

Media Info

  • Features: References;
  • Pagination: 12 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00329689
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt)
  • Files: ITRD, TRIS
  • Created Date: May 21 1981 12:00AM