Application Of Technical Standards And Indicators For The Upgrading Of Second-Grade Highway To First-Grade

With the rapid economic development in China,the national highway network has been improved after undergoing a large-scale construction,and quantitative accumulation is gradually switching to a qualitative transformation.Thus,the highway system is now undergoing the reconstruction and expansion to adapt to this trend.Especially for some areas with poor or complex terrain conditions in China,a considerable numbers of Second-Grade Highways are facing the problems of lower standards,quality,and technical conditions.And they are going to be upgraded for higher technical levels and standards to meet the rapid growth of traffic volume.The Second-Grade Highway upgraded to the First-Grade ones is different from a brand new project.Some couple technical problems are needed to a further investigation: First,to standardize and evaluate the conditions of existing SecondGrade Highways;Second,to justify the key technological standards of the speed,number of lanes,and service level for the First-Grade Highways;Third,to compare with the alternative routes with maximizing the utility of existing Second-Grade Highways.This article takes a project Second-Grade Highway for example to demostrate the upgrading process.First,to evaluate the condition and identify the deficiencies of the existing Second-Grade Highway based on the service level,technical indicators and technical status.Second,to establish an evaluation index system to design the speed,number of lanes and service levels in the future.Finally,to select a better route plan based on the method of AHP-TOPSIS.The highlight of this article is to integrate an actual project to illustrate the practical issue.And the relevant methods and conclusions could be referred in the future study.