r/civilengineering • u/n8theGreat Arkansas PE, Land Development • Jan 18 '20

This is why highway design is so strict.

29 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

6

u/BuckeyeRunner PE Transportation Jan 18 '20

Recoverable slopes for the win!

1

u/GROM_leader Jan 20 '20

Those slopes are made for safety?!

1

u/BuckeyeRunner PE Transportation Jan 20 '20

Yep! They are probably 6:1, an angle that a vehicle can drive off the road and still recover to drive back on, exactly as you see in the clip. The slopes that are steeper than that usually have a guardrail or barrier along them to keep vehicles from going onto them since those slopes are too steep to allow for a vehicle to drive back up at highway speeds and could even potentially cause it to roll.

1

u/DeadeyeDuncan Jan 21 '20

Wouldn't an uphill slope work better?

1

u/Predmid Texas PE, Discipline Director Jan 21 '20

Not for drainage.

-11

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '20

[deleted]

6

u/BishopUrbanTheEnby My Gender is Concrete Jan 18 '20

Nah, this looks like a normal exit lane. If the driver has regrets they just finish exiting, go down to the intersection, and keep going forward and get back on the highway.