NOAH is a computer program to carry out simultaneously the optimisation of both horizontal and vertical alignments of a new road. During development it has been tested on three widely differing schemes; this report describes results obtained on one of them, a major motorway in the united kingdom. The results showed that the program can be used to obtain an alignment which minimises the total cost of construction or alternatively one which maximises the economic return on the capital investment. Data to limit adverse environmental side-effects can also be included. The tests have shown that NOAH can be of value to highway engineers at various stages of the design of a scheme. Use of the program can lead to reductions in overall cost, improved benefits from a scheme, and reduced design effort. also, a far more detailed study of alternative alignments is possible than with manual methods. (Author/publisher)
Abstract