Road Design Standards
The following design standards should be applied to Euroroutes unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as mountain passes etc.):
- Built-up areas shall be by-passed if they constitute a hindrance or a danger.
- The roads should preferably be motorways or express roads (unless traffic density is low so that there is no congestion on an ordinary road).
- They should be homogeneous and be designed for at least 80 km/h (very exceptionally 60 km/h). Motorways for at least 100 km/h.
- Gradients should not exceed 8% on roads designed for 60 km/h, decreasing to 4% on roads designed for 120 km/h traffic.
- The radius of curved sections of road should be a minimum of 120 m on roads designed for 60 km/h rising to 1000 m on roads designed for 140 km/h.
- "Stopping distance visibility" should be at least 70 m on roads designed for 60 km/h, rising to 300 m on roads designed for 140 km/h.
- Lane width should be at least 3.5 m on straight sections of road. This guarantees adequate clearance for any vehicle having a superstructure of width 2.55 m which is the maximum specified in EU directive 96/53/EC., and 2.6 m specified by some countries.
- The shoulder is recommended to be at least 2.5 m on ordinary roads and 3.25 m on motorways.
- Central reservations should be at least 3 m unless there is a barrier between the two carriageways.
- Overhead clearance should be not less than 4.5 m.
- Railway intersections should be at different levels.
These requirements are meant to be followed for road construction. When new E-roads have been added these requirements have not been followed stringently. For example the E 45 in Sweden, added in 2006, has long parts with 6 m (20 ft) width or the E 22 in eastern Europe forcing drivers to slow down to 30 km/h by taking the route through villages. In Norway, parts of the E 10 are 5 m (16 ft) wide and in Central Asia some gravel roads have even been included.
Read more about this topic: International E-road Network
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