Geometric modelling of highways using global positioning system (GPS) data and spline approximation

Detailed studies of traffic safety, as highway design consistency evaluation, require having the geometric definition of the alignment. An efficient and reliable procedure has been developed for obtaining this geometric definition for two-lane rural highways. The method is based on getting data of the highway by means of a GPS receiver mounted in a car and the subsequent processing of this information. The data taken in the highway are differentially corrected and points in the roadway centerline are estimated by means of a developed calculation algorithm. Finally, the highway alignment is defined by means of a parametric cubic smoothing spline. In this paper, the developed method and its application to the M-607 highway, located in Madrid (Spain), is exposed.