CE 453:  Highway Design (4 Credits)

Place:  Town 280 (Town 196 on Th)

Time:  MWF 9:00 – 9:50 AM, Th 2:10 - 4:00 PM or 4:10 – 6:00 PM

Class web page www.ctre.iastate.edu/educweb/ce453/453.htm

 

Please read carefully

 

Instructor in Charge:

Dr. Thomas B. Stout                          

stouttom@iastate.edu

384 Town Engineering, or

Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE)

ISU Research Park

2711 S. Loop Drive, Suite 4700

Phone:  515-294-2330 (Town) or 515-294-7188 (CTRE)

 

Availability outside class hours: I have two offices (Town and CTRE).  Some students will prefer to meet in teams when they have the best chance of catching me in my Town office. 

To facilitate that, I provide the following tentative schedule when you might best expect to be able to find me at Town (subject to change):

 

Monday: 8 - 9, 10 – 11, 12:30 – 2:30

Tuesday: I will be off-campus most Tuesdays

Wednesday: before or after class

Thursday: 8 – 11, or during labs (2-6)

Friday: 8 - 9, 10 – 11

 

Please make an appointment via email if these times do not work for you.

 

Required Text:

 

Garber and Hoel, Traffic and Highway Engineering, 3rd Edition, 2002.

 

Other References (available at library):

 

·         A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (The Green Book). Washington, DC. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2001 4th Ed.

·         Mannering and Kilareski, Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysis, 2nd Edition, 1998

·         Clarkson, Oglesby, and Hicks.  Highway Engineering.  4th Edition, Wiley and Sons, 1982.

·         Wright, Paul.  Highway Engineering, 6th Edition, Wiley and Sons, 1996.

 

 

 

Grading and Grading Policies:

 

Grading Percentages: (note: Class Participation and professional behavior may be factored in at up to 10% at discretion of instructors.)  Quizzes will be administered at the end of most classes, covering the reading material and the lecture. 

 

Exam Average…….........................50%

Lab Average……………………...30%

Presentations (1@4%)......................4%

Quizzes and Homework Average…16%

 

Scale:

 

³ 93.3% = A

83.3% – 86.6% = B

73.3% – 76.6% = C

63.3% – 66.6% = D

90.0% – 93.2% = A-

80.0% – 83.2% = B-

70.0% – 73.2% = C-

60.0% – 63.2% = D-

86.7% – 89.9% = B+

76.7% – 79.9% = C+

66.7% – 69.9% = D+

£ 59.9% = F

 

 

Suggested study method:

 

At beginning of semester, and as changes occur (as noted by instructor):

·         Become familiar with website and related materials.  Stay on top of changes, especially syllabus.   There will be a quiz over the web site contents early in the semester.

Before class:

·         Read relevant portion of text – there may be a quiz

·         Print Power Point lectures, 3 to a page to leave room for notes or 6 to a page if you don’t need much room to write.  Look at the power points before printing; you may not need all the pages, especially if there are a lot of pictures.  Bring the printouts to class with you.

·         Before Lab – read the lab instructions

During class:

·         Listen to and interact with lecturer, taking notes.  Ask questions.

·         Take closed book/notes quiz at end of class.  May cover assigned reading material and/or material covered in class.

After class:

·         Please call attention to instructor of errors or omissions in notes, suggest improvements

·         Use notes and references to do lab work

·         Use notes and references to study for exams

·         Do homework if assigned

 

Policies:

1.      Attendance: Each student will be allowed up to 3 excused absences per semester (illness, job interview, funeral, etc. where instructor is notified PRIOR to the absence via email) If excused, the student will receive a grade of n.a. for that day’s quiz, which will not figure into the quiz average. On certain days, no quiz will be given and all students present will be given n.a. Unexcused students not present on those days will receive a zero that figures into their quiz average.  Students who miss lab periods must coordinate with their team to make up missed work and must understand that their absence may negatively affect their peer evaluation. 

 

2.      Peer evaluation: Each student will evaluate their design team peers’ performance on weekly lab assignments.  Each team is allocated 5 points per person.  Teammates who make the average contribution (quality and quantity) should receive a score of 5.  For students who make above average contribution, peers may rate them higher than 5, but must penalize another group member such that the average is 5 within the group. All peer evaluations are due the Friday (11 PM) after the Lab is due. Please see the course website for information on how to perform peer evaluations. 

 

IMPORTANT: You need to seriously evaluate the contribution of your peers.  Labs are a big portion of the grade.  Members who make greater than average contributions will receive higher lab scores than the raw score, and vice-versa. Generally no adjustment will be made if your average score is within 10% of the average.

 

Teams will rotate leadership (project managers - PM) amongst the members.  The PM will be evaluated each week.  The PM is responsible for calling team meetings, making assignments, pulling together parts of the lab, making sure the lab report reads like one person wrote or prepared it, and providing quality control.  As this takes extra effort, other members should be assigned work accordingly.

 

3.      Grammar and Style: All work will be evaluated for organization, content, neatness, grammar, and for how well it meets the assignment objectives (poor spelling, grammar and style may be penalized up to 30% of assignment grade).  Every student in the group earns the same grade for each lab.  However, individual grades can be changed at the instructor’s discretion to reflect participation.

 

4.      Presentations: will be evaluated for organization, content, flow, and the ability to clearly communicate material in the specified time frame. Peer evaluations may be used in determining part of the student’s oral presentation grade.

 

5.      Late projects and homework: (lab assignments) will be graded, but penalized 10% (one letter grade) for every day past the due date.  (5 points off if not submitted prior to beginning of lab instruction on the due day, the week after assigned)

 

6.      Any conflicts: between the policies described in this syllabus and the lab manual should be brought to the attention of the instructor for resolution.

 

 


Course Description:

 

C E 453. Highway Design. (3-3) Cr. 4. F.S. Prereq: 304, 355, 372, 382. Introduction to traffic engineering and highway planning. Design, construction, and maintenance of highway facilities; earthwork, drainage structures; pavements. Preparation of environmental impact statement. A complete design project is required. Computer applications. Non-major graduate credit.

 

Course Objectives (please read before class begins and as you go along – it is your time and money – are these reasonable objectives?  Are you meeting the objectives?):

·         Describe and/or define roadway classification systems, the governmental role in transportation, transportation administration, and financing

·         Understand transportation planning purpose/process/results, assess and apply results or appropriate equivalent to a design project

·         Identify and recognize important driver and vehicle characteristics, and apply to design project

·         Identify factors to be considered in location and route selection process, estimate impacts, systematically compare alternatives, and justify recommended solution

·         Distinguish and explain the various controls, criteria, and design methodologies for a number of roadway plan components (e.g., cross section, horizontal and vertical alignment, intersections/interchanges, drainage, pavement, and traffic and erosion control)

·         Design, calculate, and communicate the physical characteristics and/or impacts of a roadway cross section, horizontal and vertical alignment, intersections/interchanges, drainage, traffic and erosion control during construction, and pavement

·         Consider and explain the design impacts of maintenance, rehabilitation, pedestrians/bikes, HOV lanes, lighting, parking lots, and some recent transportation topics (e.g., flexibility, animal/vehicle interaction, traffic calming, and roundabouts),

·         Interpret and effectively communicate (written and orally) design project tasks and decisions to the interested public and practicing engineers

 

 

Department of Civil and Construction Engineering Policy Regarding Language Skills

"Language skills shall be considered, to the extent appropriate, in assigning grades to all problems, examinations, and reports in Civil Engineering courses.  It is considered appropriate, for example, that the grade assigned to two reports of equal technical quality could differ by two letter grades between one that is superior in terms of organization, composition, grammatical usage, and spelling, and one that is unsatisfactory in this regard.  This policy shall be made known to all students enrolled in Civil Engineering courses by an announcement at the first class meeting and as frequently as necessary thereafter."

 

 

Course Relationship to CE Education

 

CE 453 serves as a capstone course that applies various individual civil engineering components/areas to a single design solution.  The course evaluates the student’s ability to recall a significant amount of the information and methods taught in a number of prerequisite courses to achieve an appropriate design solution.  The students will discover that the combined application of the information and skills they have learned will allow them to develop an overall understanding of the proposed problem, and the methods necessary to achieve a safe and economical solution.

 

Contribution to CE Program Goals and Objectives:

1.      Design, coordinate, and execute an integrated undergraduate civil engineering program that produces graduates who:

a.       Have a fundamental understanding of mathematics, statistics, and physical sciences and where appropriate, life sciences.

b.      Have a broad base of knowledge in civil engineering technical areas, represented by the transportation/surveying, structural, environmental/water resources, and geotechnical/materials discipline areas.

c.       Have a basic understanding of cost estimating, planning, and scheduling for civil engineering projects.

d.      Utilize critical thinking to identify, define, and develop alternative solutions, and to implement feasible design to solve an open-ended or ill-defined problem while considering constructability, sustainability, and maintainability of the design.

e.       Are effective in oral, written, and graphical communication of ideas to engineers and non-engineers.

f.       Recognize and understand the importance of timely and effective communication during the design and construction processes.

2.      Provide opportunities for student interaction with practicing professionals.

3.      Provide opportunities for students to develop their leadership skills.

4.      Develop and maintain a faculty that serves as a model of professional excellence for our student

 

Special Needs:

Please address any special needs or special accommodations with me at the beginning of the semester or as soon as you become aware of your needs. Those seeking accommodations based on disabilities should obtain a Student Academic Accommodation Request (SAAR) form from the Disability Resources (DR) office (phone 515-294-7220).  DR is located on the main floor of the Student Services Building, Room 1076.  If you have an identified need, DO NOT WAIT to advise me of your need.  In the past students have waited until after doing poorly on a test to ask for assistance.