Module 3: Geometric design of highways

Lecture 17 Vertical alignment I

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Creeper lane

When the uphill climb is extremely long, it may be desirable to introduce an additional lane so as to allow slow ascending vehicles to be removed from the main stream so that the fast moving vehicles are not affected. Such a newly introduced lane is called creeper lane. There are no hard and fast rules as when to introduce a creeper lane. But generally, it can be said that it is desirable to provide a creeper lane when the speed of the vehicle gets reduced to half the design speed. When there is no restrictive sight distance to reduce the speed of the approaching vehicle, the additional lane may be initiated at some distance uphill from the beginning of the slope. But when the restrictions are responsible for the lowering of speeds, obviously the lane should be initiated at a point closer to the bottom of the hill. Also the creeper lane should end at a point well beyond the hill crest, so that the slow moving vehicles can return back to the normal lane without any danger. In addition, the creeper lane should not end suddenly, but only in a tapered manner for efficient as well as safer transition of vehicles to the normal lane.

Grade compensation

While a vehicle is negotiating a horizontal curve, if there is a gradient also, then there will be increased resistance to traction due to both curve and the gradient. In such cases, the total resistance should not exceed the resistance due to gradient specified. For the design, in some cases this maximum value is limited to the ruling gradient and in some cases as limiting gradient. So if a curve need to be introduced in a portion which has got the maximum permissible gradient, then some compensation should be provided so as to decrease the gradient for overcoming the tractive loss due to curve. Thus grade compensation can be defined as the reduction in gradient at the horizontal curve because of the additional tractive force required due to curve resistance ($T-Tcos\alpha$), which is intended to offset the extra tractive force involved at the curve. IRC gave the following specification for the grade compensation.

1. Grade compensation is not required for grades flatter than 4% because the loss of tractive force is negligible.
2. Grade compensation is $\frac{30+R}{R}$%, where $R$ is the radius of the horizontal curve in meters.
3. The maximum grade compensation is limited to $\frac{75}{R}$%.