1.

INTRODUCTION
TO HIGHWAY
ENGINEERING

ASST. PROF. DR. DEPRIZON SYAMSUNUR

UCSI KUALA LUMPUR
deprizon@yahoo.com
+60146468479

INTRODUCTION
General Objective

To understand the development and transportation system in

Malaysia.
Specific Objectives
At the end of the unit you should be able to :1. State the construction structure used in transportation system.
2. Identify the related profession in the road construction
development.
3. Describe the history of road development.
4. Describe the road category.
5. Identify the related agencies involved in road construction.

What is highway
engineering?

What is highway
engineering ?...
Highway engineering is a branch
of civil engineering that includes
planning, design, construction,
operation and maintenance of
roads, bridges and related
infrastructure to ensure effective
movement of people and goods.

Why are highways so

important?

Why are highways so

important?
Highways are vitally important to a
countrys economic development.
The construction of a high quality
road network directly increases a
nations economic output by
reducing journey times and costs,
making a region more attractive
economically

ROAD TRANSPORT CHARACTERISTICS

Characteristics of road transport are given as follows :
1. Roads can be used by all sorts of vehicles like bullock carts, carriages,
bicycles, scooters, cars, buses and lorries, etc. They are equally useful for
pedestrians also.
2. Roads can lead to any remote place.
3. Investment on road transport by government is comparatively small.
Maintenance of roads is also cheaper than rail-track, docks, harbours and
airports.
4. There is complete freedom to road users to transfer the vehicles from one
lane to another, or from one road to another according to the
requirements.
5. Local communication among villages, villages and towns is only possible
through roads.
6. Movements on roads are not time bound, as in case of railways or airways.
7. Road transport is the only mode of transport that offers itself for the
service of whole community alike.

History of highway
engineering
The history of highway engineering gives
us an idea about the roads of ancient
times. Roads in Rome were constructed
in a large scale and it radiated in many
directions helping them in military
operations. Thus they are considered to
be pioneers in road construction. In this
section we will see in detail about
Ancient roads, Roman roads, British
roads, French roads etc.

History of Highway Construction

History of road construction can be divided into three
ages;
1. Roman Road Construction
. Ancient Times
. Age of Ancient Roman
2.
.
.
.
.

The period after the Roman

Tresequet roads construction
Metcalfs roads construction
Telfords roads construction
Macadam roads construction

Ancient Roads
The first mode of transport was
by foots.
These human pathways would
have been developed for specific
purposes leading to camp sites,
food, streams for drinking water
etc.
The
next
major
mode
of
transport was the use of animals

Roman roads
The earliest large scale road construction is
attributed to Romans who constructed an
extensive system of roads radiating in many
directions from Rome.

The main characteristics of Roman roads were as follows:

1. They weary very thick. Total thickness of the road varied from about 0.7 m to as much
as 1.2 m.
2. They were straight, without any regard for gradient. Probable reason for straightness
may be their main use for army.
3. Roads were not built on soft soil formations but on hard stratum reached after
excavation.

Tresaquets roads/French
roads
Mr. Pierre Tresaquet was inspector general
of roads in France from 1775 to 1785. The
next major development in the road
construction occurred during the regime of
Napoleon.

25-30
cm

Continue
The pavement used 200 mm pieces of
quarried stone of a more compact form and
shaped such that they had at least one at
side which was placed on a compact
formation.
Smaller pieces of broken stones were then
compacted into the spaces between larger
stones to provide a level surface.
Finally the running layer was made with a
layer of 25 mm sized broken stone.

British roads
The British engineer John Macadam
introduced what can be considered as the
first scientific road construction method.
Stone size was an important element of
Macadam recipe.
that 250 mm layers of well compacted
broken angular stone would provide the
same strength and stifness and a better
running surface than an expensive
pavement founded on large stone blocks

Important characteristic of Macadam

concept are as follows:
1.

2.

3.

It was he who for the first time recognized the importance

of sub-grade compaction and drainage. To affect speedy
surface drainage he recommended suitable cross slope for
the sub-grade.
It was he who realized for the first time that heavy
foundation stones are not at all necessary. If sub-grade is
prepared properly and kept well drained it can be very
well bear the traffic load transmitted to it through
foundation layer, having smaller compacted thickness of
small size broken stones. He was of the opinion that a
broken stone layer of few centimeter thickness can sustain
mush heavier load than a thick layer of big size stones.
Size of the aggregate to be used in wearing course was
decided according to requirements of stability under the
effect of vehicles.

Modern roads
The modern roads by and large follow
Macadam's construction method.
Use of bituminous concrete and cement
concrete are the most important
developments.
Various advanced and cost-effective
construction technologies are used.
Development of new equipments help
in the faster construction of roads

History of Road in Malaysia

Modern road system in this country begin during
the British colonial at the end of the 18th century.

Trading needs and to centralize the

colonial administration had accelerate
construction of roads in Peninsular Malaysia in
order to connect the administrative center,
commercial, industrial areas, farming areas and
the port.
Before independence, all the roads in this country
was built by British.

 In 1986 there were 4 million vehicles over 24

000 km length of roads and this number will
increase with the rapid rate at each year.
Road construction have been given priority
in an allocation
About 6 billion dollars for the construction of
the North South Highway Authority.
Other - other road projects is Ring road
Malacca, Temerloh - Mentakab Bypass and
road to Highway Timur branches - the West.