Detecting Existing Road Alignments Using GPS Data Collection(Case Study)

The lack of sufficient and accurate data on road alignments will impose mainrestriction on managing road network safety. Most of Iran’s roads wereconstructed in past and do not have enough and precise data of highwayalignments. The objective of this study was to find the road alignments data asquickly and accurately as possible. To achieve that, first, road alignment dataswere collected by GPS. Then, the lengths of road’s curve, radius, and spiral werecalculated using the collected data and Cubic Spline functions and smoothingparameters. To validate the mentioned approach, two parts of Ardabil- Meshkin’sroad located in Ardabil province were selected since the rehabilitation report andhighway alignment data of which was accessible. These parts consisted of acircular curve and two spirals. A comparison between obtained results andexisting datas indicated that the difference between the obtained and the reallength of road alignments was under 10%, proofing the study approach.

Keywords:

Road Alignments , Curve , Spiral , Safety , GPS , Cubic Spline