The Pennsylvania State University

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Fall 2017

CE 321
Highway Engineering
Lecture: MW 9:05 – 9:55 a.m., 108 Henderson Building
Lab: R 2:30 – 4:25 p.m., F 9:05 – 11:00 a.m., F 12:20 – 2:15 p.m., 228 Sackett Building

Instructor Information:
Dr. Ilgin Guler
Office: 221B Sackett Building
Phone: 814-867-6210
Email: iguler@engr.psu.edu
Office hours: MW 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. in 221B Sackett, other times by appointment

Teaching Assistant Information:

Owen Hitchcock
Office: 406B Sackett Building
Email: omh5029@psu.edu
Office hours: M 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. in 228 Sackett, other times by appointment

Course description:
This course will provide you with an introduction to the field of transportation engineering, including
the significance and role of transportation in society and within the civil engineering profession. The
primary focus will be on highways and surface transportation modes, however other modes will be
briefly discussed throughout the semester. The course will also provide you with the fundamentals
necessary to solve highway engineering problems encountered on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)
and Principles of Engineering (PE) exams in civil engineering.
The specific topics covered in this course will include:
1. Vehicle performance characteristics
2. Geometric design, including horizontal and vertical curve design
3. Pavement design
4. Traffic flow principles and queuing theory
5. Capacity and Level of Service analysis
6. Transportation planning

Course overview:
This course will be split into two components: lectures (Mondays and Wednesdays) and a laboratory
(Thursdays or Fridays). The lecture sessions will introduce the major course material and follow closely
from the course textbook. To facilitate learning, active in-class exercises will be used during the lecture
periods. You should come to lecture prepared with your course notes, textbook, paper, and a calculator
to be able to participate in these exercises. Attendance during lecture will not be monitored; however, it
is expected that you will attend and actively participate during lectures, as this is the best way to learn
the course material. Attendance and participation will be used to adjust borderline grades.
CE 321 – Fall 2017

The laboratory component will consist of a set of exercises that encompasses many phases of the
preliminary design process. More information will be provided during the laboratory session.

Grading:
Your evaluation in this course will be based upon the completion of regular problem sets, two mid-
semester exams, a final exam and a series of laboratory assignments. A breakdown of the grading is as
follows:

Problem sets 25%

Mid-semester exams 30%
Final exam 20%
Laboratory 25%

Problem sets: Practice problem sets based on the lecture material will be assigned during lecture periods.
You will typically be given about one week to complete each problem set. Your problem set submissions
must be turned in at the beginning of the class in which they are due—late problem sets will only be
accepted until the solutions are posted and a 10% per day late penalty will be applied. You may discuss
homework assignments in small groups (no more than two other people). However, all submissions must
reflect your own understanding of the material. If you have discussed the problem sets with anyone else,
please acknowledge that person on your submission. Exact copies of other problem set submissions
without acknowledgement will be considered as a violation of academic integrity. To receive full credit
for any assignment, be sure to write legibly, clearly state all assumptions for given problems, provide
orderly problem calculations, and clearly identify final solutions (including units). An example of a
recommended format for a problem set will be posted on Canvas prior to the first assignment.
Mid-semester exams: Two evening exams will be given during the course of the semester. The course
content covered on each exam will be announced during the lecture periods immediately preceding the
exam date. The lecture period on the exam date will serve as a review period. You will be permitted to
use your course textbook and notes during the exams, and calculators will be required.
Final exam: A final exam will be administered during the regular final exam period. The final exam
will be comprehensive and cover all content included in the course during the semester. You will be
permitted to use your course textbook and notes during the final exam, and calculators will be required.
Laboratory assignments: The laboratory component of this course will contain a set of weekly exercises
and assignments that will teach you how to use AutoCAD Civil 3D to perform various phases of the
preliminary highway design process. The laboratory periods will each contain a lecture that will focus
on the instructions required to complete the assignments and time to perform some of the necessary
activities. The commands required to complete the tasks will also be outlined in weekly course packages.
Many of the design decisions will be left up to you. Failure to make substantial progress each week will
reflect on your final project grade. Habitual absence during the lab periods WILL result in a lower grade
for the laboratory component.

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Important Dates:
No class – Labor Day September 4
Exam #1 October 4
Exam #2 November 1
No class – Thanksgiving November 19-25
Final Exam Week December 11-15

Course Textbook:
Required: Mannering, F.L. and Washburn, S. S. Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic
Analysis, fifth edition. John Wiley and Sons, 2012.

Canvas
General course information will be posted on Canvas (canvas.psu.edu), along with lecture and lab
materials and homework solutions. Please make a habit of checking Canvas every day before coming to
class.

E-mail
Due to the nature of the course content, email is not an efficient or effective means of answering
questions regarding the homework or lab assignments. Questions on these topics are best addressed in
person with the instructor or TA during the specified office hours and will not be answered by email.
Other questions regarding the operation of the course (e.g., missed class, conflicts, etc.) will be answered
during regular hours (i.e., 8 am to 5 pm).

Academic integrity
“Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner.
Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at The Pennsylvania State
University, and all members of the University community are expected to act in accordance with this
principle. Consistent with this expectation, the University's Code of Conduct states that all students
should act with personal integrity, respect other students' dignity, rights and property, and help create
and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts.
Academic integrity includes a commitment not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification,
misrepresentation or deception. Such acts of dishonesty violate the fundamental ethical principles of the
University community and compromise the worth of work completed by others."

From Penn State's University Faculty Senate Policy 49-20

Disability disclaimer
“Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. If you have
a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact the Office for
Disability Services (ODS) at 814-863-1807 (V/TTY). For further information regarding ODS, please
visit the Office for Disability Services Web site at http://equity.psu.edu/ods/.
In order to receive consideration for course accommodations, you must contact ODS and provide
documentation (see the documentation guidelines at
http://equity.psu.edu/ods/guidelines/documentation-guidelines). If the documentation supports the need
for academic adjustments, ODS will provide a letter identifying appropriate academic adjustments.

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Please share this letter and discuss the adjustments with your instructor as early in the course as possible.
You must contact ODS and request academic adjustment letters at the beginning of each semester.

Tentative course schedule

The following is a tentative schedule of the topics that will be covered during the semester. This schedule
and individual topics may change as the semester progresses. You will be updated on the readings related
to the lecture periods. However, this schedule may be used as a general guideline for planning purposes.

Class # Date Reading Topic

1 M 08-21 Chap. 1 Course introduction; highway engineering
2 W 08-23 Chap. 2.1 - 2.5 Vehicle performance and resistance
L1 F 08-25 Laboratory #1
3 M 08-28 Chap. 2.6 - 2.7 Tractive effort and vehicle acceleration
4 W 08-30 Chap. 2.9 Vehicle braking
L2 F 09-01 Laboratory #2
M 09-04 No class - Labor Day
5 W 09-06 Chap. 2.9 Practical stopping distance and stopping sight distance
L3 F 09-08 Laboratory #3
6 M 09-11 Chap. 2.9 Review of vehicle performance and resistance
7 W 09-13 Chap. 3.1 - 3.2 Introduction to geometric design; horizontal alignment
L4 F 09-15 Laboratory #4
8 M 09-18 Chap. 3.4 Horizontal alignment
9 W 09-20 Chap. 3.4 Horizontal alignment
L5 F 09-22 Laboratory #5
10 M 09-25 Chap. 3.3 Vertical alignment
11 W 09-27 Chap. 3.3 Vertical alignment
L6 F 09-29 Laboratory #6
12 M 10-02 Chap. 3.3 Vertical alignment
W 10-04 No class - Exam #1
L7 F 10-06 Laboratory #7
13 M 10-09 Chap. 4.1 - 4.4 Flexible pavement design
14 W 10-11 Chap. 4.1 - 4.4 Flexible pavement design
L8 F 10-13 Laboratory #8
15 M 10-16 Chap. 4.5 - 4.6 Rigid pavement design
16 W 10-18 Chap. 5.1 - 5.3 Traffic stream parameters and models
L9 F 10-20 Laboratory #9
17 M 10-23 Chap. 5.5 Queuing theory
18 W 10-25 Chap. 5.5 Queuing theory
L10 F 10-27 Laboratory #10
19 M 10-30 Chap. 5.5 Queuing theory
W 11-01 No class- Exam #2
L11 F 11-03 Laboratory #11
20 M 11-06 Chap. 6.1 - 6.4 Freeway capacity and LOS
21 W 11-08 Chap. 6.1 - 6.4 Freeway capacity and LOS

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L12 F 11-10 Laboratory #12

22 M 11-13 Chap. 6.5 Multilane highway capacity and LOS
23 W 11-15 Chap 6.6 2-lane highway capacity and LOS
L13 F 11-17 Laboratory #13
M 11-20 No class - Thanksgiving Break
W 11-22 No class - Thanksgiving Break
F 11-24 No class - Thanksgiving Break
24 M 11-27 Chap. 8.1 - 8.4 Introduction to transportation planning
25 W 11-29 Chap. 8.4 Trip generation
L14 F 12-01 Laboratory #14
26 M 12-04 Chap. 8.4 Trip generation
27 W 12-06 Chap. 8.5 Mode choice; route choice
L15 F 12-08 Laboratory #15