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Grade Separated Intersection
Lecture notes in Traffic Engineering And Management
Date: February 19, 2014
Contents
Overview
Classification of Intersection
Grade Separated Intersection
Classification of Grade Separated Intersection
Design Components
Grade separated intersections
Summary
References
Acknowledgments
Overview
An intersection is the area shared by the joining or crossing of two
or more roads. Since the main function of an intersection is to
enable the road user to make a route choice, it is a point of
decision. Hence the problems that are encountered by the
motorist while passing through an intersection must be recognized
and the design should be in such a way that the driving task is as
simple as possible.
Intersection is also a point of large number of major conflicts,
besides a point of decision. These conflicts may be due to the
crossing maneuvers of vehicles moving in different directions.
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Good intersection design results from a minimization of the
magnitude and characteristics of the conflicts and a simplification
of driver route selection process.
Classification of Intersection
Intersections are classified depending upon the treatment of
crossing conflicts as follows (i) At Grade Intersection and (ii)
Grade Separated Intersection.
Grade Separated Intersection
It is a bridge that eliminates crossing conflicts at intersections by
vertical separation of roadways in space. Grade separated
intersection are otherwise known as Interchanges. Grade
separated intersections cause less hazard and delay than grade
intersections. Route transfer at grade separations is
accommodated by interchange facilities consisting of ramps.
Interchange ramps are classified as Direct, Semi-Direct and
Indirect. Interchanges are described by the patterns of the various
turning roadways or ramps. The interchange configurations are
designed in such a way to accommodate economically the traffic
requirements of flow, operation on the crossing facilities, physical
requirements of the topography, adjoining land use, type of
controls, right-of-way and direction of movements.
The ultimate objective of grade separated intersections is to
eliminate all grade crossing conflicts and to accommodate other
intersecting maneuvers by merging, diverging and weaving at low
relative speed. The relative speed of the conflicting vehicle
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streams is an important factor affecting the significance of a
conflict. The benefit of providing for low relative speed is twofold.
First, events unfold more slowly allowing more judgement time
and second, in case of an impact the total relative energy to be
absorbed are less and hence, the damage is less. In addition,
when relative speed is low, the average motorist will accept a
smaller time gap space between successive vehicles to complete
his move. This condition increases roadway capacity.
Classification of Grade Separated Intersection
One of the distinctions made in type of interchange is between the
directional and the non directional interchange. Directional
interchanges are those having ramps that tend to follow the
natural direction of movement. Non directional interchanges
require a change in the natural path of traffic flow. A
comprehensive classification plan for grade separated intersection
design which includes all possible geometric patterns has not yet
been developed. The design and operational characteristics of
each of the major interchange types are mentioned as follows and
are discussed in the following sections.
1. Underpass
2. Overpass
3. Trumpet Interchange
4. Diamond Interchange
5. Cloverleaf Interchange
6. Partial Cloverleaf Interchange
7. Directional Interchange
8. Bridged Rotary
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Underpass
An underpass or a tunnel is an underground passageway,
completely enclosed except for openings for ingress and egress,
commonly at each end. A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road
traffic, for rail traffic. If an underpass is constructed for
pedestrians and/or cyclists beneath a road or railway, allowing
them to reach the other side in safety, then such a construction is
termed as a Subway. These are constructed when it is necessary
for pedestrians to cross a railroad or a limited-access highway.
Subways may also be constructed for the benefit of wildlife
Overpass
An overpass also known as a flyover, is a bridge, road, railway or
similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. A
pedestrian overpass allows pedestrians safe crossing over busy
roads without impacting traffic. And Railway overpasses are used
to replace at-grade crossing as a safer alternative. Overpasses
allows for unobstructed rail traffic flow from mixing with vehicular
and pedestrian traffic. Stack interchanges are made up of many
overpasses.
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Trumpet Interchange
Trumpet interchanges have been used where one highway
terminates at another highway. These involve at least one loop
ramp connecting traffic either entering or leaving the terminating
expressway with the far lanes of the continuous highway. These
interchanges are useful for highways as well as toll roads, as they
concentrate all entering and exiting traffic into a single stretch of
roadway, where toll booths can be installed. Trumpets are suitable
at the locations where the side road exists on only one side of the
freeway, and traffic is relatively low. Each entrance and exit
consists of acceleration or deceleration lanes at each end. It
requires only one bridge and is the most traditional way of grade
separating a three way junction. The principal advantages are low
construction cost and are useful for highways as well as toll roads.
But the limitations in employing trumpet interchanges are it leaves
a redundant patch of the land within the loop, Disorienting to
navigate for those driving in the direction that uses the loop.
Moreover scaling down the interchange often results in a more
dangerous suffers congestion from articulated lorries that have
tipped over.
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Diamond Interchange
The diamond Interchange is the simplest form of grade separated
intersection between two roadways. The conflicts between through
and crossing traffic are eliminated by a bridge structure. This
particular intersection has four one way ramps which are
essentially parallel to the major artery. The left turn crossing
movement conflicts are considerably reduced by eliminating the
conflict with the traffic in opposite direction. All the remaining left
turn conflicts, merging and diverging maneuver conflicts take
place at the terminal point of each ramp. Limitation in application
of this design depends on the operations of these terminals. So, it
is suitable for locations where the volume of left turn traffic is
relatively low.
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The diamond interchange requires a minimum amount of land and
is economical to construct. Also,a diamond interchange generally
requires less out-of-the-way travel and vehicle operating costs are
less than those on most other types of interchanges. The single
point of exit from the major roadway eases the problem of
signing. This type of interchange requires the least of right-of-way.
With these advantages, the diamonds appear to be the ideal
solution to an intersection problem. But there might be chances of
occurrence of conflicts at the locations where ramps meet the
grade separated cross street are to be considered foe high ramp
volumes. Improper design of signal timings at cross streets may
result in the inadequacy of capacity for certain flows.
Cloverleaf Interchange
The full clover interchange eliminates all crossing movement
conflicts by the use of weaving sections. This weaving section is a
critical element of cloverleaf design. It replaces a crossing conflict
with a merging, followed some distance farther by a diverging
conflict. There are two points of entry and exit on each through
roadway. The first exit is provided before the cross road structure
allows right turn movements. The second exit, immediately after
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the cross road structure, allows for left turn movements. A
weaving section is created between the exit and entry points near
the structure. Sufficient length and capacity is to be provided to
allow for a smooth merging and diverging operation.
Cloverleaf design requires only one bridge. In this respect, it is the
cheapest form providing for elimination of all crossing maneuvers
at grade. Although full cloverleaf interchanges eliminate the
undesirable crossing movements of diamond interchanges, they
have the disadvantages of greater travel distances, higher
operating costs, difficult merging sections, circuity of travel, large
areas for loops, sight distances to exits at the other side of the
bridge, confusion caused by turning right to go left and large
rights-of-way occasioned by the radius requirements necessary for
satisfactory speeds on the ramps.
A variation of the cloverleaf configuration is the cloverleaf with
collector-distributor roads. With the collector-distributor roadway,
main roadway operations are much the same as in diamond
interchange. For each direction of travel, there is a single point for
exits and a single point for entrances. Speed change, detailed exit
directional signing and the storage and weaving problems
associated with a cloverleaf are transferred to the collector-
distributor road, which can be designed to accommodate greater
relative speed differences or encourage smaller ones. Although
this configuration improves the operational characteristics of a
cloverleaf interchange, the disadvantages of greater travel
distances and the requirement of extra right-of-way are still
present. The use of a cloverleaf with collector-distributor roads is
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appropriate at junctions between a freeway and an expressway
where a diamond interchange would not adequately serve traffic
demand.
Partial Cloverleaf Interchange
This is another variation of the cloverleaf configuration. Partial
clover leaf or parclo is a modification that combines some
elements of a diamond interchange with one or more loops of a
cloverleaf to eliminate only the more critical turning conflicts. This
is the most popular freeway -to- arterial interchange. Parclo is
usually employed when crossing roads on the secondary road will
not produce objectionable amounts of hazard and delay. It
provides more acceleration and deceleration space on the freeway.
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Directional Interchange
A Directional interchange provides direct paths for left turns.
These interchanges contain ramps for one or more direct or semi
direct left turning movements. Interchanges of two freeways or
interchanges with one or more very heavy turning movements
usually warrant direct ramps, which have higher speeds of
operation and higher capacities, compared to loop ramps. Some
designers do not favor entrance of merging traffic in the left lane,
which is a characteristic of most direct-connection bridges. The
principal limitations of this type of interchange is higher cost of
construction and requirement relatively large amount of land when
compared to the diamond interchanges and in some cases than
cloverleaf interchange. Various combinations of directional, semi
directional and loop ramps may be appropriate for certain
conditions. They are the basic patterns that use the least space,
have the fewest or least complex structures, minimize internal
weaving and appropriate for the common terrain and traffic
conditions.
Design Components
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Acceleration Lane
An acceleration lane is defined as extra pavement, of constant or
variable width, placed parallel or nearly so, to a merging
maneuver area to encourage merging at low relative speed. The
major difference in opinion concerning acceleration design stems
from lack of information on driver performance. Field observations
have indicated that drivers desire to follow the direct path even
though extra width or tapered section is provided. The length of
acceleration lanes are determined by two factors: (1) Time
required for drivers to accelerate to the speed of the preferential
flow from the speed of entry into the acceleration lane and (2)
Maneuvering time required as a supplement to the sight distance
which is provided in advance of the acceleration lane. Taper
distances are based upon a lateral transition time of about 1/3
sec/ft of displacement.
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Figure 1: Figure 1: Different forms of Acceleration lanes Figure 2: Figure 2: details of length of acceleration lane
Deceleration Lanes
Deceleration lanes are defined as extra pavement of constant or
variable width, placed parallel or nearly so, to a diverging
maneuver area to encourage diverging at low relative speed. The
lengths of deceleration lanes are based on the difference in the
speed of traffic of the combined flow (in advance of the collision
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area) and the speed at which drivers negotiate the critical
diverging channel curve, as well as the deceleration practices of
drivers. These deceleration lane lengths are based on the assumed
performance of passenger vehicles only. Extra allowance must be
made for grades and for trucks with different deceleration
characteristics. In the figure below, Form A design is more
economical when large speed differentials are to be overcome.
Form B could be advantageous by contrasting pavement colors
and Form C design is more convenient for drivers when small
speed differentials are to be eliminated.
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Figure 3: Figure 3: Different forms of Deceleration lanes Figure 4: Figure 4: details of length of deceleration
lane
Grade separated intersections
As we discussed earlier, grade-separated intersections are
provided to separate the traffic in the vertical grade. But the traffic
need not be those pertaining to road only. When a railway line
crosses a road, then also grade separators are used. Different
types of grade-separators are flyovers and interchange. Flyovers
itself are subdivided into overpass and underpass. When two roads
cross at a point, if the road having major traffic is elevated to a
higher grade for further movement of traffic, then such structures
are called overpass. Otherwise, if the major road is depressed to a
lower level to cross another by means of an under bridge or
tunnel, it is called under-pass.
Interchange is a system where traffic between two or more
roadways flows at different levels in the grade separated
junctions. Common types of interchange include trumpet
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interchange, diamond interchange , and cloverleaf interchange.
1. Trumpet interchange: Trumpet interchange is a popular
form of three leg interchange. If one of the legs of the
interchange meets a highway at some angle but does not
cross it, then the interchange is called trumpet interchange. A
typical layout of trumpet interchange is shown in figure 5.
Figure 5: Figure 5: Trumpet interchange
2. Diamond interchange: Diamond interchange is a popular
form of four-leg interchange found in the urban locations
where major and minor roads crosses. The important feature
of this interchange is that it can be designed even if the major
road is relatively narrow. A typical layout of diamond
interchange is shown in figure 6.
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Figure 6: Figure 6: Diamond interchange
3. Clover leaf interchange: It is also a four leg interchange
and is used when two highways of high volume and speed
intersect each other with considerable turning movements.
The main advantage of cloverleaf intersection is that it
provides complete separation of traffic. In addition, high
speed at intersections can be achieved. However, the
disadvantage is that large area of land is required. Therefore,
cloverleaf interchanges are provided mainly in rural areas. A
typical layout of this type of interchange is shown in figure 7.
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Figure 7: Figure 7: Cloverleaf interchange
Summary
Traffic intersections are problem spots on any highway, which
contribute to a large share of accidents. For safe operation, these
locations should be kept under some level of control depending
upon the traffic quantity and behavior. Based on this, intersections
and interchanges are constructed, the different types of which
were discussed in the chapter.
References
1. A policy on geometric design of rural highways, 2019.
2. Everett C Carter and Wolfgang S Homburger. Introduction to
Transportation Engineering. Reston Publishers, Virginia, 2019.
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3. L. R Kadiyali. Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning.
Khanna Publishers, New Delhi, 1987.
4. Theodore M Matson, Wilbure S smith, and Fredric W Hurd.
Traffic engineering, 1955.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank several of my students and staff of NPTEL for their
contribution in this lecture.
Prof. Tom V. Mathew 2014-02-19