SPECIAL TRANSPORTATION STRUCTURE (Notes for Guidance ) The profession of transportation engineering

1
SPECIAL TRANSPORTATION STRUCTURE (Notes for
Guidance )The profession of transportation
engineering
Lecture One
Radu ANDREI, PhD, P.E., Professor of Civil
Engineering Technical University Gh. Asachi
IASI
2
The Profession of Transportation Engineering

• Importance of Transportation
• Transportation and economic growth.
• Transportation history. Significant events
• Employment and specialties in Transportation
  Engineering
• Problems
• Additional Readings

3
Importance of Transportation

• Transportation is essential for a nations
  development and growth.The transportation system
  includes highway, rail, airport and mass transit
  systems .
• These systems are permanently planned, designed,
  built, operated and maintained by specific
  organizations and agencies
• New techniques are being applied for operating
  and maintaining these systems , safely and
  economically.

4
Transportation and Economic Growth (1)

• Transportation is a necessary condition for human
  interaction and economic survival. If a country
  wishes to develop and grow it must have a strong
  internal transportation system as well as
  excellent linkages to the rest of the world.
• Availability of transportation facilities may
  strongly influence the growth and development of
  a region or of a country. Good transportation
  permits the development of industry and
  commerce, reduce costs for raw materials or
  manufactured goods, encourages competition
  between regions, resulting in lower costs and
  better choices for the consumer.

5
Transportation and Economic Growth (2)

• Transportation is also a necessary element of
  governing services such delivering mail,
  defending a nation and retaining control of its
  territories.
• Building or improvement of vast transportation
  systems, involves significant social costs ,
  risks and some change of the natural
  environment. A major task for the modern
  transportation engineer is to balance societys
  needs for fast and efficient transportation with
  the costs and the risks involved , so that the
  most efficient and cost-effective
  transportation system to be created.

6
Transportation History. Significant Events (1)

• Transportation history involves the development
  of many separate modes of transportation such
  as travel by foot and horseback , the automobile
  and track travel, the development of roads and
  highways, the construction of railroads, the the
  building of canals and inland waterways, the
  creation and use of public transportation like
  bus and metro systems in the cities, the
  development of air transportation including the
  aircraft, airports, and air navigation
  facilities.

7
Transportation History. Significant Events (2)

• 1794 First toll road in England
• 1807 Robert Fulton demonstrates a steamboat on
  the Hudson River
• 1830 Construction of first railroad in USA (
  Ohio and Baltimore )
• 1838 Steamships service on the Atlantic ocean
  begins
• 1866 Bicycles are introduced in United States
• 1903 The Wright brothers fly the first airplane

8
Transportation History. Significant Events (3)

• 1914 Panama Canal opens for traffic
• 1927 Charles Linbergh flies from New York to
  Paris
• 1961 Space flight begins
• 1960 The American Association for State Highway
  officials (ASHTO) research program
• 1969 Men land on the Moon and return
• 1981 Space shuttle Columbia orbits and lands
  safely (it fails returning from its last
  mission, when entered into the Earths
  atmosphere in 2003)

9
Transportation History. Significant Events (4)

• 1987 The strategic highway Research Program
  (SHRP) in USA followed by similar Strategic
  European Highway Research Programs ( SEHRP)
• 1992 Intelligent Transport Systems open a new
  era of research and development in
  transportation
• 1993 The initiation of the huge road
  rehabilitation program in Romania
• 1998Electric vehicles are introduced in the
  world, as an alternative to internal combustion
  engines

10
Employment and Specialties in Transportation
Engineering(1)

• The professional skills required to plan, build,
  and operate the extensive transportation system
  require a variety of disciplines , including
  engineering, planning, law, economic management
  and social sciences.
• Thus, transportation offers one of the broadest
  opportunities for employment, because it
  involves so many disciplines and modes.
• Transportation services are provided within and
  between cities by rail, air, bus, truck and
  private automobile.The service sector provides
  jobs for vehicle drivers,maintenance
  people,flight attendants, train conductors, and
  other necessary support personnel.

11
Employment and Specialties in Transportation
Engineering(2)

• The service sector provides also jobs for other
  professionals such as lawyers, economists,
  social scientists and ecologists , when their
  skills are required to draft legislation, to
  facilitate right -of-way acquisition, or to
  study and measure the impacts of transportation
  on the economy, society and environment
• Vehicle design and manufacture involves the
  application of the professional skills of
  mechanical, electrical and aerospace engineers
  and also those of technical trained mechanics
  and workers

12
Employment and Specialties in Transportation
Engineering(3)

• Civil engineers are involved primarily for the
  planning, design, construction, operation and
  maintenance of the transportation system
• Transportation planning deals with the selection
  of projects for design and construction.
• A transportation planner investigates the
  physical feasibility of a project and makes
  comparisons between various alternatives , to
  determine which one will accomplish the task, at
  the lowest cost, consistent with other criteria
  and constraints.

13
Employment and Specialties in Transportation
Engineering(4)

• Transportation design involves the technical
  specification of all features of the
  transportation system so that it will function
  smoothly, efficiently, and in accord with
  physical laws. The design process results in a
  set of detailed plans that can be used for
  estimating the facility costs and for carrying
  out its construction.
• For a highway, the design process involves the
  following
• - the selection of dimensions for all geometric
  features ( longitudinal profile, vertical curves
  and elevations, highway cross sections, etc),

14
Employment and Specialties in Transportation
Engineering(5)

• -the design of the pavement itself, including
  the structural requirements for every layer of
  the pavement structure,
• -the design of bridges and drainage structures
  as well the provision for traffic control
  devices, roadside rest areas and landscaping.
• The most important aspect of the highway
  designers work is to produce a balanced design
  in which all elements of the geometry of a
  highway- its curve radii, sight distance,
  superelevation, grade and vertical curvature- are
  consistent with a chosen design speed, so that if
  a motorist travels at that speed, can proceed
  safely and comfortably his journey.

15
Employment and Specialties in Transportation
Engineering(6)

• Transportation construction involves all
  aspects of the building process, beginning with
  clearing of native soil, preparation of the
  surface, placement of the pavement material, and
  preparation of the final roadway for use by
  traffic.
• Traffic engineers are responsible for operation
  of the transportation system, by the harmonious
  integration of vehicle, driver and pedestrian
  characteristics to improve the safety and
  capacities of streets and highways.

16
Employment and Specialties in Transportation
Engineering(7)

• Highway maintenance involves all the works ,
  such as pavement patching and repair, and any
  other actions necessary to maintain the
  roadway pavement at a desired level of
  serviceability.
• Maintenance also involves record keeping and
  data management for work activities and project
  needs, as well as analyses of work activities ,
  to determine that they are carried out in the
  most economical manner.
• Maintenance involves maintaining an inventory of
  traffic signs and markings, redesign of existing
  highway sections, economic evaluation of
  maintenance programs, testing of new products and
  prioritization of works.

17
Problems (1)

• To illustrate the importance of transportation
  in our life, for one-week period, clip out
  several transportation-related articles that
  appear in local or national newspapers. Consider
  the issues involved, discuss them and formulate
  your own comments and views.
• Arrange an interview with a transportation
  professional in your city, and attempt to learn
  about the job he or she performs, why he or she
  entered the profession, and what he or she sees
  as future challenges in his field.
• Review the classified section of the
  telephone directory of your city and identify at
  least ten different jobs or industries, that are
  related with transportation

18
Problems (2)

• Keep a diary of all trips you make for a period
  of one week, recording the the purpose of each
  trip, how you traveled, the approximate distance
  traveled , and the trip time. From this estimate
  the proportion of your monthly budget is spent
  for transportation and try to extrapolate these
  data to the trip-making characteristics for all
  students of your group
• Most departments or agencies for transportation
  incorporate at least five major transportation
  engineering subspecialties within their
  organizations. List and indicate at least three
  tasks falling under each subspecialty.

19
Problems (3)

• In the hypothesis that a country has a
  population of 23 million people and a average
  ownership of 0,5 cars per person, each driven an
  average of 10,000 Km per year, at 100Km per 7
  liter of gasoline. Officials estimate that an
  additional EUR 75 million per year in revenue
  will be necessary to improve the highway system
  and they proposed an increase in the gasoline
  tax, to meet this need. Determine the required
  in cents per liter.
• List at least three major detrimental effects
  that are directly related to the construction
  and use of our highway transportation system.
  Do the same exercise for our rail transportation
  system.

20
Problems (4)

• For the city of Iasi, describe briefly the
  actual transportation system, including its
  transportation modes. Try to formulate your own
  opinion about how this transportation system
  meet the needs and expectations of the citizens
  of Iasi. Which improvements or corrections are
  necessary to by applied ?
• Estimate the number of motor vehicles in the
  city of Iasi, and the total number of km driven
  each year. What is the total revenue raised for
  each 1cent/ liter tax? Assume that the average
  vehicle achieves 36 Km per 3.785 liter of
  gasoline.

21
Additional Readings

• Andrei R. Land Transportation Engineering,
  Technical Publishers, Chisinau, 2002
• Garber j.N., Hoel A.,L, Traffic and Highway
  Engineering, revised second edition, PWS
  Publishing,1999
• American Highways
• www.trb.org/trb newsletter
• www.andnet.ro