HIGHWAYS, Attainment of Superelevation

Attainment of Superelevation
The transition from a tangent, normal crown

section to a curved superelevation section must
be accomplished without any appreciable
reduction in speed and in such a manner as to
ensure safety and comfort to the occupants of the
traveling vehicle.
In order to effect this change, the normal crown
road section will have to be tilted or banked as a
whole to provide the superelevation cross section
required for a given design speed.
This tilting usually is accomplished by the
following methods:
1) Rotating the roadway section about the
centerline axis.
• The effect of this rotation is to lower the inside
edge of pavement and, at the same time, to
raise the outside edge without changing the
centerline grade. Rotation about the centerline
is most widely used because the change in
elevation of edge of the pavement is made with
less distortion than other methods.
•Half of the required elevation change is made
at each edge. However for flat grades too much
sag is created in the ditch grades by this
method.
•Used for highways with narrow medians and
moderate superelevation rates, Since large
difference in elevation can occur between
extreme pavement edges if median is wide.
2) Rotation about the inner edge of the pavement
•Rotate about the inner edge of the pavement as
an axis so that the inner edge retains its normal
grade but the centerline grade is varied.
•Half of the required change in cross slope is
made by raising center line profile w.r.t inner
edge and other half by raising outside pavement
edge w.r.t to the actual center line profile.
•On grades below 2 percent, rotation about
the inside edge is preferred.
•Used for pavements with median width
30 ft. or less.
3) Rotation about the outside edge
•Same geometry as rotation about the inner
edge of the pavement except that the elevation
change is accomplished below the outside edge
profile instead of about the inside edge profile.
•Used for pavements with median width 40 ft.
or greater.
4) Straight Cross Slope
•Revolves the traveled way about the outside
edge profile. In this case section is not crowned.
This method is often used for two-lane one way
roadways .
Axis of Rotation for Undivided Highways
Axis of Rotation for Multilane highways
Regardless of which method is utilized, care
should be exercised to provide for drainage in
ditch sections and along adjacent gutters in
superelevated areas. The roadway on full
superelevated sections should be a uniform
inclined section perpendicular to the direction
of travel. When a crowned surface is rotated
to the desired superelevation, the change
from a crowned section to a uniformly
inclined section would be accomplished
gradually at a consistent rate along a length
measured along the centerline.
Superelevation Transitions
Superelevation transitions involve modification
of the roadway cross section from normal
crown to full superelevation, at which point the
entire roadway width has a cross-slope of e.
The manner in which this transition is
accomplished is expressed by a superelevation
diagram, which is a graph of superelevation
(cross-slope) versus distance measured in
stations. As an alternative, the diagram may
show the ‘difference in elevation between the
profile grade and the edge’ versus ‘distance’.
Figure “a” on next slide is an example of
superelevation diagram, showing the
transition from normal crown with 2 percent
cross-slopes to 6 percent superelevation for a
roadway with a spiral transition curve.
Figure “b” on next slide is the alternative
form of the diagram, assuming a two-lane
highway with 3.6 m lanes.
Figure “c” on next slide presents an
interpretation of the superelevation
diagram, showing the appearance of
the cross section at intervals through
the transition.
As shown in Figure “a”, the superelevation
transition is normally linear; that is, the rate
of rotation of the cross section is constant
with respect to distance through the
transition. The distance marked L, which
runs from the point at which the outside half
of the roadway is at zero cross-slope to the
full superelevation (i.e., from the tangent-to-
spiral point ‘TS’ to the spiral-to-curve point
‘SC’), is called superelevation runoff.
Superelevation Runoff is the general term
denoting the length of highway needed to
accomplish the change in cross slope from a
section with zero cross slope to a fully
superelevated section or vice versa.
The distance from the point at which the
outside half of the roadway first begins to
rotate to the TS is referred to as tangent
runoff.
The superelevation transition section consists
of the superelevation runoff and tangent
runout sections.
The superelevation runoff section consists of
the length of roadway needed to accomplish a
change in outside-lane cross slope from zero
(flat) to full superelevation, or vice versa.
The tangent runout section consists of the
length of roadway needed to accomplish a
change in outside-lane cross slope from the
normal cross slope rate to zero (flat), or vice
versa.
For reasons of safety and comfort, the
pavement rotation in the superelevation
transition section should be effected over a
length that is sufficient to make such
rotation imperceptible to drivers. To be
pleasing in appearance, the pavement edges
should not appear distorted to the driver.
EXAMPLE
A two-lane highway goes from 2% normal
crown to 6% superelevation. Sketch
Superelevation diagram for the following data:
e = 6%
L = 60 m
B = 7 m (two lane)
Cross slopes = 2% (Normal Crown)
SOLUTION
Elevation difference between C/L and edge at TS = 0
Elevation difference between C/L and edge at SC = De
= (width of lane x e) = 3.5 x 0.06
= 0.21 m
= 210 mm
e
A number of agencies have established one or
more control runoff lengths within a range of
about 30 to 200 m [100 to 650 ft], but there is
no universally accepted empirical basis for
determining runoff length, considering all
likely traveled way widths. In one widely used
empirical expression, the runoff length is
determined as a function of the slope of the
outside edge of the traveled way relative to
the centerline profile.
Typical minimum superelevation runoff
lengths are presented in Exhibit 3-29. The
lengths shown represent cases where one or
two lanes are rotated about a pavement edge.
DETERMINATION OF LENGTH OF
SUPERELEVATION RUNOFF
The length of the superelevation runoff L is
determined by either vehicle dynamics or
appearance criteria.
More commonly, superelevation transition
lengths for highways are based on appearance
or comfort criteria. One such criterion is a
rule that the difference in longitudinal slope
(grade) between the centerline and edge of
traveled way of a two-lane highway should not
exceed 1/200.
Figure on next slide illustrates the
application of this rule. L is measured from
the TS to the SC, as in the superelevation
diagram. At the TS the difference in
elevation between the centerline and edge is
zero. At the SC it is the superelevation rate e
times the distance D from the centerline to
the edge.
Thus the difference in grade between the
centerline and the edge is
Since the criterion that the difference

in grade not exceed 1/200 implies that
De 1

L 200
L is given by
L  200 De
L is normally rounded up to some convenient
length.

HIGHWAYS, Attainment of Superelevation

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Attainment of Superelevation

The transition from a tangent, normal crown

Since the criterion that the difference

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