Rural highway route corridor selection

The selection of a rural highway corridor between designated termini is approached as the simultaneous selection of line and grade of a particular alignment in the corridor. The selection is facilitated by the successive application of linear programming and shortest path techniques. A model is presented in which the inputs are terrain elevations, design constraints on overall grade, terminal grades and elevations, and restricted areas of passage. The output consists of a user‐specified number of alternative corridors, selected on the basis of minimum sum of the deviations of their representative profiles from the original ground. The model is applicable to situations where route selection is dominated by construction considerations. A hypothetical example and an actual application demonstrate the utility of the methodology.