Geotechnical and environmental considerations in highway layouts: an integrated GIS assessment approach

Abstract

Highway route layout design typically relies on aerial photographs, topographic maps and geologic maps. In this paper, a GIS platform, which incorporates the main digital data needed for evaluating route layouts, is used in a computer-based approach for highway layout assessment. Possible layouts are evaluated based on two sets of criteria. First, traditional evaluation criteria focussing on geometric design factors and impact on man-made features are considered. Next, the developed assessment framework builds on the GIS platform to generate specific environmental and geotechnical criteria for route layout evaluation. The developed approach integrates highway design, slope stability, and traffic noise modeling packages and specifically written codes with the GIS packages ARC/INFO and ArcView. A prototypical application of the assessment framework for a proposed highway south of the city of Beirut, Lebanon is presented. The results demonstrate the potential of the developed approach in incorporating new evaluation criteria at the route layout design stage and in automating the route layout assessment procedure.