# Highway standards around the world



## grykaerugoves (Jun 25, 2013)

sotonsteve said:


> Actually, British Standards are increasingly allowing for motorways to be built to much lower standards than specified there. Increasing numbers of motorways have narrower lanes, narrower central reservations and no shoulders, as motorways are "widened" by redesignating the shoulder as an extra lane, narrowing the central reservation and reallocating the carriageway widths. Typically now, there will be a 1 metre shoulder, two lanes at 3.65 metre width, and two lanes at 3.25 metre width.


Yes this applies to some parts on the M25. M1 for example has been widened to 4/5 lanes but still has the hard shoulder.


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## Kanadzie (Jan 3, 2014)

ukraroad said:


> Well, in Ukraine on M10 near Yavoriv I had stood for 1.5 hours an the same place because... a pretty poor farmer was herding his cows:bash::llama:. Well, one of them had rammed my companion's poor Zhyguli(Soviet car). )



At least it was Zhiguli. If it was Zaporozhets the cow would have pushed the car sideways into the ditch :lol: That is to say, the machine would have lost the argument against the animal :lol:


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## acela (Jun 24, 2004)

Highway89 said:


> Spain:
> 
> According to the 1964 and 1976 design manuals for Spanish Autopistas (valid until 2000):
> Design speeds: 140 - 120 - 100 - 80 km/h
> ...


Why the standards of the Spanish highway becomes lower/narrower than previous? Is it to save cost?


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## ukraroad (Jul 18, 2015)

^^ They pretend they have no money at all.
Here are the full Polish standards(level: Polish engineer) only in Polish
https://www.polskaszerokopasmowa.pl/g2/oryginal/2012_05/d315ec38147283836bb945401d38a91c.pdf


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## Highway89 (Feb 19, 2015)

acela said:


> Why the standards of the Spanish highway becomes lower/narrower than previous? Is it to save cost?


But you have to take into account that I posted the standards for the highest design speed possible, i.e. *140 km/h* in 1976 and *120 km/h* in 2000.

Let's compare both 1976 and 2000 standards for the same design speed (*120 km/h*):

* Max grade: 
1976: 4% uphill, 5% downhill
2000: 4% uphill, 5% downhill

* Min median width: 
1976: 9 to 6 m (30 to 20 ft) 
2000: 10 to 1 m (33 to 3.3 ft)

* Min shoulder width: 
1976: 1 m inside, 2.5 m outside (3.3 - 8 ft) 
2000: 1 m inside, 2.5 m outside

* Min lane width: 
1976: 3.75 m (12 ft)
2000: 3.5 m (11.5 ft)

As you see, they're basically the same. The lanes are a bit narrower but the median is wider. That means that the width of the whole motorway stays the same (4 lanes * 0.25 m/lane = 1 m, which equals to the width the median increases).

So, was made to save cost? I don't think so, since Spain has always been one of the European countries with the lowest cost per km of motorway. 

And, anyway, when engineers wanted to save cost, they could simply choose a lower design speed - as it was actually done for the stretches of the AP-66 or the AP-8 that go through very rough a terrain and are therefore designed for 100 or even 80 km/h.


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## Highway89 (Feb 19, 2015)

Highway89 said:


> Spain:
> 
> According to the 1964 and 1976 design manuals for Spanish Autopistas (valid until 2000):
> Design speeds: 140 - 120 - 100 - 80 km/h
> ...


A new design manual has been released recently (4th of March): http://boe.es/boe/dias/2016/03/04/pdfs/BOE-A-2016-2217.pdf

It includes new design speeds for motorways: 140, 130, 110 and 90 km/h, apart from the existing 120, 100 and 80 km/h. Not much else has changed, though. Some things have been simplified, e.g. max grades are now 4% both up- and downhill for 140-100 and 5% for 90-80 km/h. Median, shoulder and lane widths are the same for any design speed, so the typical section would be 1+3.5+3.5+2.5 m plus a 10 m wide median.


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## Gsus (Oct 27, 2009)

In Norway, this is the current minimum dimentions for motorways:

For a design speed of 110 km/h (68,8 mph):
* Max grade: 5%
* Min median width: 2 m (6.6 ft)
* Min shoulder width: 0.5 m inside, 1.5 m outside (AADT<20 000)/3.0 m outside (AADT>20 000) (1.65 - 4.95/9.9 ft)
* Min lane width: 3.5 m (11.5 ft)
* Min horizontal curve: 800 m (2640 ft)
* Min vertical convex-curve: 3800 m (12 540 ft) 
* Min vertical concave-curve: 14100 m (46 530 ft)


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## Gsus (Oct 27, 2009)

strandeed said:


> UK stats:Horizontal Curve Radius @ 120km/hr: *2880 metres* (9,449ft)M62 Pictured


Sure thats not the number in feet? Seems unececary stiff, and an odd number. Compared to the Norwegian standards I´ve presentet over, it falls quite similar with the minimum horizontal curve in feet.


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## TrojaA (Dec 4, 2014)

In Germany there are new applicable regulations since 2009. So there are many motorways which have an older design (like no shoulders for example)

There are the following road categories:








For these categories there are some basic design guidelines:








+


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## Haljackey (Feb 14, 2008)

In a nutshell:










Via https://www.london.ca/residents/Roa...ng/Documents/Access Management Guidelines.pdf


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

*Expressway-Hraðbraut*

Iceland:

A motorway or expressway is a highway designed for safe highspeed driving of motor vehicles by removing all contiguous intersections. There are therefore no intersections on the motorway, only entries and exits. Expressways are usually at least two lanes in both directions and they have a continuous barrier.









Icelandic expressway with wire-barrier


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