Civil Engineer

URBAN HIGHWAY PLANNING

Highway:- A main road or thoroughfare, such as a street, boulevard, or parkway, available to the public for use for travel or transportation.

IMPORTANCE OF HIGHWAY:

It is the main source of transportation of people or goods from one place to another. By construction of highway access fromone place to another has become very easy even movement of people from one corner of the country to another is a matter of few hours only. Goods can be transported from industries to various parts of the country using the highways. A good network of roads is very mandatory for the economic progress of the country .Highly developed countries have excellent road networks along with other features while those countries who have not good road networks and road qualities faces a lot of problems in terms of transportation

SOCIAL EFFECTS: Reducing travel times relative to city or town streets, modern highways with limited access and grade separation create increased opportunities for people to travel for business, trade or pleasure and also provide trade routes for goods. Modern highways reduce commute and other travel time but additional road capacity can also create new induced traffic demand. If not accurately predicted at the planning stage, this extra traffic may lead to the new road becoming congested sooner than anticipated. More roads add onto car-dependence, which can mean that a new road brings only short-term mitigation of traffic congestion.

Where highways are created through existing communities, there can be reduced community coseion and more difficult local access. Consequently property values have decreased in many cutoff neighborhoods, leading to decreased housing quality over time.

URBAN HIGHWAY PLANNING STAGES:

Although the names may vary by State, the five basic stages in the highway development process are: planning, project development (preliminary design), final design, rightofway, and construction. After construction is completed,...