The Environment and Landscape in Motorway Design

The construction and operation of highways has a significant impact on the environment. While such impact is impossible to avoid, modern highways are constructed and landscaped to minimise these impacts as far as possible.  Good landscaping minimises the impact on those living or working close to the highway, while at the same time regenerating the natural landscape disturbed during construction.         

Using as its background the successful landscape design of the Nanjing-Hangzhou Expressway in Jiangsu Province, China, which opened to traffic in 2007, Highway Landscape Design includes reference to all aspects of the landscaping of highways, including interchanges, embankments, central reservations, bridges, service and toll station areas, and drainage systems. Appropriate consideration is given to the negative impact on the surrounding environment during the process of construction and it discusses the ecological evaluation and conservation strategy for the highway route. China is in some respects at the forefront of highway landscape design as a result of rapid growth and development coupled with the financial resources to implement major infrastructure works, and the concepts, technologies and methods developed for this Expressway provide valuable experience for sustainable development strategies for such infrastructure. 

Qian Guochao is a Senior Engineer and Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transportation.

Tang Shuyu is a Researcher in the Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chief Engineer of Nanjing Botanical Gardens.

Zhao Min is a Senior Engineer and Project Department Director in the Jiangsu Provincial Expressway Construction Headquarters.

Jing Chun is a Senior Engineer in the Jiangsu Provincial Expressway Construction Headquarters.

About the Authors vii

Introduction 1

1 Impact of Motorway Construction on the Environmental Landscape and Protection Countermeasures 11

1.1 Impact on the natural environment 11

1.2 Impact on history, culture and scenery 18

1.3 Pollution of the surrounding environment 19

1.4 Impact on public activities and production 21

1.5 Landscape protection countermeasures and measures 22

2 Environmental Landscape Design of Filled and Excavated Sections 32

2.1 Concept 32

2.2 Classification of the side slope 34

2.3 Functions of planting vegetation on the slope 34

2.4 Habitat conditions on the slope 40

2.5 Slope landscape design 40

2.6 Landscape design types 41

2.7 Selection of green plants for the slope 59

2.8 Remaking of the rocky cut slope 60

2.9 Slope greening and construction technologies 66

3 Interchange Environmental Landscape Design 82

3.1 Concept 82

3.2 Landscape design objectives 82

3.3 Creative landscape design 86

3.4 Main types of landscapes 87

3.5 Design features of interchanges on the Nanjing-Hangzhou motorway 94

4 Environmental Landscape Design of the Central Reservation 121

4.1 Definition 121

4.2 Functions 121

4.3 Landscape design 126

4.4 Design pattern 141

4.5 Landscape design and analysis of the central reservation of the Nanjing-Hangzhou motorway 149

5 Environmental Landscape Design of Service Areas and Toll Stations 159

5.1 General 159

5.2 Building works and the ‘Pearl Necklace’ concept of the Nanjing-Hangzhou motorway 163

6 Environmental Landscape Design of Bridges and Structures 191

6.1 Essential characteristics of bridges 191

6.2 Coordination between bridges and the environment 192

6.3 Analysis of examples of bridges along the Nanjing-Hangzhou motorway 220

7 Environmental Landscape Design along the Nanjing–HangzhouMotorway 236

7.1 Design techniques 236

7.2 Hotspot sections along the Nanjing-Hangzhou motorway 236

8 Environmental Landscape Design of Drainage Systems 245

8.1 General requirements of motorway drainage systems 245

8.2 Consistency of design concepts and drainage system 246

8.3 Innovation in the drainage system of the Nanjing-Hangzhou motorway 246

9 Ecological Evaluation of Motorway Green Space Systems 264

9.1 Green space system of the Luojiabian Interchange Area 264

9.2 Analysis of characteristics of green plant communities on typical sections 275

9.3 Green space system of slopes of typical sections 290

10 Vegetation Types and Available Plant Resources along the Nanjing-HangzhouMotorway 297

10.1 Vegetation in Lishui and Nanjing 297

10.2 Vegetation in Liyang and Yixing 299

10.3 Exploitable plant resources 302

Appendix 10.A Plant Species Adapted to Motorways in Jiangsu Province 321

11 Green Landscape Design of the Nanjing-HangzhouMotorway (Phase II) 326

11.1 Project overview 326

11.2 Design principles 326

11.3 The details of green landscape design of the Nanjing-Hangzhou motorway (phase II) 328

11.4 Conclusion 349

References 351

Further Reading 353

Index 361

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