THE INTEGRATION OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT FOR HIGHWAY DESIGN
Frederick J. Doyle
Director, Intelligence Systems Division
Broadview Research Corporation
When the Federal Aid Highway Act was passed in 1956 it was
estimated that about $88 billion would be spent for highway
construction in the next thirteen years. The magnitude of the
planning effort required for such a program is so large that it
became obvious that the usual design procedures based on
extensive field surveys, laborious hand plotting, and desk
computation would be totally incapable of meeting the challenge.
As a consequence, even those engineers who had previously
avoided photogrammetry began to investigate its possibilities.
It has been estimated that about $200 million would be spent on
photogrammetry in order to complete this construction program.
STANDARD PHOTOGRAMMETRIC PROCEDURE
As a result of these investigations a reasonably
standardized procedure was developed in which photogrammetry
played an important role in developing highway designs. The
details vary from one organization to the next because of
variations in the aerial cameras and plotting instruments
employed. But the general plan is about as follows:
Step I -- Area Study
Small scale photographs and maps are studied during
the period of basic route investigation. On the basis of
this study the general area of the proposed highway is
selected. Only rarely is new photography obtained for
this phase.
Step II -- Location Study
a. A field traverse is run through the area selected
and stations at about 2000 ft. intervals are
signalized in order to be visible on subsequent
aerial photography. Modern electronic instruments
like the Tellurometer are now employed extensively
for traversing.
b. Aerial photography is flown at a scale of 800 ft.
per inch for 8 1/4 inch cameras, or 1000 ft. per