DITRA - A NEW METHOD OF HORIZONTAL ROAD ALIGNMENT DESIGN (ABSTRACT ONLY)

DITRA (contraction of the German word Dialogtrassierung, meaning design process) is a new computer aided design method for roads. Based on a preliminary graphical design, the alignment computation for the road axis is carried out using a mixture of fixed, dialog and coupling elements. The highway engineer can influence the road alignment and important design parameters directly during the design process by parameter variation. The verification of the three-dimensional road alignment takes place with the help of cockpit perspective simulations. For the pilot project Bypass Road Elterlein (S 258), a virtual ride of a single vehicle has been simulated with the help of the computer. The perspectives computed with DITRA have been serving for correcting the alignment in critical parts of the projected road.