Highway and Pavement Engineering

Course ID: ENGI 7745 Highway Engineering, Class hours: 3hr/wk

Course ID: CIVE 5303 Pavements and Materials, Class hours: 3hr/wk

Major Topics

Highway Foundation Materials 

  • Importance of Surface Texture of Sub-grade Materials, Basic Engineering Properties of Sub-grade Materials including Porosity, Void Ratio, Moisture Content, Degree of Saturation, Density of Soil, Atterberg Limits
  • Concept of Permeability, Shear Strength, AASHTO Classification of Soils/USCS, Optimum Moisture Content, Review of Soil Compaction Equipment; Special Soil Tests for Pavement Design; CBR, Hbeem Stabilometer, Aspects of Sub-grade Design in Cold Region (Frost Action), Sub-grade/Soil Stabilization Techniques

Asphalt: Asphalt Properties, Mix Designs, Asphalt and Mixture Testing (Classical and SuperPave Tests)

  • Asphaltic Materials; Sources, Types and Usages
  • Fundamental and Engineering Properties of Asphalt: Viscosity/Consistency, Aging and Temperature Susceptibility, Shear Modulus, Phase Angle, Creep Stiffness
  • Asphalt Curing for Cutback and Emulsified Asphalt
  • Review of Classical Tests of Asphalt; Penetration Test (ASTM D5), Ring-and-Ball Softening Point Test (ASTM D36), Ductility Test (ASTM D113), Density Test (ASTM D3289), Flash Point Test, Water Content Test
  • An Overview of Advanced Tests (SuperpaveTM) for Asphalt; RTFOT, PAV, DSR, BBR, Adhesion Test, Surface Free Energy Test
  • Review of Classical Tests of Aggregate Physical Properties; Percentage of Fractured Particles (ASTM D5821), Soundness of Aggregates (ASTM C88), Resistance to Degradation (ASTM C131), Flat and Elongated Particles (ASTM D4791),
  • Asphalt Mixture; Definitions of Hot-Mix Hot Laid, Hot-Mix Cold Laid, Cold Mix Cold Laid Mixtures, Concept of Aggregate Structure Design/Aggregate Gradation
  • Review of Marshal Mix Design Method, Asphalt Mixture Volumetrics; Bulk Specific Gravity, Apparent Specific Gravity, Effective Specific Gravity, Maximum Theoretical Specific Gravity, Effective Asphalt Content, VMA, Va, VFA
  • Various Seal Coating; Fog Seal, Slurry Seal, Chip Seal, Prime Coat, Tack Coat, Surface Treatments
  • An Overview of Superpave Asphalt and Testing System; Asphalt Performance Grading (PG), Superpave Aggregate Testing- Consensus and Source Standards, Superpave Volumetric Mixture Design, Design of Aggregate Structure

Flexible and Rigid Pavement: Structural Design 

  • Inspection of Structural Components of Flexible Pavement
  • Factors Affect Pavement Design; Pavement Performance, Traffic, Roadbed Soils, Materials, Environment, Design, Reliability
  • Design of Flexible Pavement using AASHTO Design Method; An Overview of Mechanistic-Empirical Deign Guide (MEPDG) Method
  • Rigid Pavement; Materials, Types of Rigid Pavement, Pumping and Stress in Rigid Pavement
  • An Overview of Rigid Pavement Design using AASTHO Method

Highway Drainage Design

  • Concepts/Definitions of Surface Drainage System including Transverse Slope, Longitudinal Slope, Longitudinal Channels, Curbs and Gutters, Review of Minor Drainage Structures, Importance of Subsurface Drainage
  • Types of Subsurface Drainage including Longitudinal, Transverse and Horizontal Drains and Drainage Blanket

Transportation Asset Management

  • Definition of Asset Management, Highway Maintenance and Rehabilitation, Approaches to Highway and Pavement Management, Levels of Management
  • Importance of Highway and Pavement Performance Data, Methods of Collecting Pavement Condition Data (Pavement Roughness, Pavement Distress, PCI, Pavement Structural Condition, Skid Resistance, ITS in Pavement Condition Monitoring
  • Models for Pavement Condition Prediction; Deterministic – Family Based and Multiple Regression
  • Different Rehabilitation Techniques and Strategies

Highway Geometric Design 

  • Principles of Highway Location, Steps or Process in Highway Location, Methods of Highway Survey, Factors Affect Highway Design, Concepts/Definitions of Highway Functional Classification, Design Hour Volume, Design Speed, Design Vehicle
  • Inspection and Review of Cross-Section Elements of Highway
  • Design of Vertical and Horizonal Alignments and Highway Curves

Highway Safety

  • Importance of Highway Safety, Crashes or Accidents, Factors Causes Highway Crashes, Processes of Highway Safety Management
  • Definitions; Crash, Crash Frequency, Crash Rate, Performance Measure, SPF, Prediction Method, Expected Crash Frequency, Crash Severity, EPDO, Crash Evaluation, Countermeasure, Regression to the Mean
  • Review of Crash Type Related to Highway Design and Associated Contributing Factors
  • Review of Safety Effectiveness of Commonly Used Highway Design Features; Access Control, Alignment, Land Width, Median, Shoulder, Passing Lane, Climbing Lane, Rumble Strip, Intersection Sight Distance
  • Safety Effects of Traffic Calming Strategies; Speed Hump, Speed Table, Raised Crosswalk, Raised Intersection, Textured Pavement, Neighborhood Traffic Circle, Roundabout, Chicane, Neckdown, Center-island Narrowing, Choker