Highway Engineering: Highway Drainage and Surveys

Good highways are so interwoven with every phase of our daily activities that it is almost impossible to imagine what life would be like without them. One of the most important considerations in locating and designing rural highways and city streets is providing adequate drainage. Adequate and economic drainage is absolutely essential for the protection of the investment made in a highway structure and for safeguarding the lives of the persons who use it.

This 4-hour interactive online course discusses some of the fundamental concepts of highway and street drainage. Surface drainage in essentially rural areas is discussed in considerable detail; accompanying this is a discussion of measures for the prevention of erosion of shoulders, sideslopes, and side ditches. Considerable space is devoted to the location, design, and construction of culverts. Material is also presented relative to subdrainage, and the course concludes with a brief discussion of drainage in municipal areas. This is the sixth course in a series on highway engineering.