Urban planning and traffic

General

The existence of a highly developed human civilization is unthinkable without technical infrastructure. It is the basis for the transportation of people and goods. Pipeline networks for all media are one of the most essential prerequisites for industrial production as well as for securing the supply of the population and thus ensuring a decent existence for every individual. Roads and railroads for modern and reliable means of transportation are the lifelines of society and guarantee mobility, a basic human need. The design and further development of this technical infrastructure with reliable functionality at the highest safety standards while taking economic aspects into account is one of the most difficult challenges of our age. In particular, environmental protection and resource conservation are of paramount importance.

The planning, construction and maintenance of technical infrastructure is a very complex task. In this respect, detailed coordination between all those involved - the construction companies carrying out the work, the operators and the planners - is an absolute prerequisite. Engineers working in this field must have solid knowledge in all areas as well as specialized knowledge in detail. This requires application-oriented skills as well as the ability to solve challenging, complicated and interesting tasks. Due to the multifaceted nature of the tasks, the cooperation of all those involved at a high level is often a prerequisite for success.

The Urban Planning and Transport specialization offers four specializations: urban and transport planning, road construction, railroad construction and urban engineering.

What all students of the Urban Planning and Transport specialization should hear

In all four specializations, students first acquire fundamental and detailed basic knowledge of traffic engineering (BIW3-07) and hydraulic engineering (BIW3-08). In the transportation engineering module, students learn about the construction and design of road and rail networks. The content of the Urban Water Engineering module is the design of water supply and wastewater disposal networks. Furthermore, all students of the specialization are recommended to acquire special skills in the field of urban engineering (BIW4- 34, construction and design of pipeline networks and grid-bound energy supply), traffic engineering (BIW4-39, laws of traffic flow, dimensioning of traffic facilities) as well as optimization of road pavements for new construction and maintenance (BIW4-42, road construction technology, dimensioning of the superstructure and maintenance management).

Specializations

Specialization in urban and traffic planning

The subject of the specialization in urban and traffic planning is the planning and design of traffic infrastructure and traffic of all kinds, with particular attention to the interrelationships between space, city, environment, economy and society. One specialization of the subject area (BIW4-38) is dedicated to the basic questions of integrated transport planning, i.e. spatial planning, location planning as well as urban and urban land use planning from a transport perspective, taking into account socio-demographic and socio-economic structures and other determinants of transport development. Furthermore, the focus is on integrated transport development planning (BIW4-36) for regions, metropolitan areas, cities and municipalities. In this context, the focus is on the planning of road networks and road traffic facilities, public transport networks and facilities, non-motorized transport and the links between passenger and freight transport systems. Another important field of work (BIW4-38) is traffic empirics, in which mobility research is carried out on the basis of continuous surveys of behavior-related traffic data using the system of representative traffic surveys for cities and regions in the Federal Republic of Germany. The specialization ranges from transport and infrastructure planning in emerging countries to special issues of urban transport such as forms of cooperation and participation, transport marketing and special tasks of conceptual and project-related transport planning. Employers for students specializing in urban and transport planning are engineering offices, local authorities and research institutions.

Road construction specialization

The road construction specialization deals with the planning, design, construction and maintenance of roads and road networks. The main contents are design and construction engineering as well as technologies for the construction and maintenance of these (BIW4-41 and BIW4-42). Students acquire special skills in the design of roads using CAD systems as well as the computational dimensioning and prediction of the behavior of road structures under traffic load. The basics of modeling and designing road structures, recording the behavior of road construction materials and layers using modern testing methods, modeling behavior and calculation using numerical methods are offered. Environmental and safety-related content is also taught (BIW4-43). The intention is to deal intensively with safety and environmental aspects during the entire process of planning, design, construction and maintenance of roads. In combination with other course content such as geotechnical verifications, rock mechanics, tunnel construction and construction materials technology (BIW3-04) and urban engineering, students will be able to view and solve current tasks in practice in a complex manner. The modules Urban Traffic (BIW4-38), Traffic Engineering (BIW4-39) and Traffic Safety (BIW4-40) are useful additions. Employers for students specializing in road construction are construction companies, engineering offices, road construction administrations and research institutions.

Specialization in railroad construction

The specialization in railroad construction deals with the planning and construction of railroad systems as the basis of an efficient and sustainable mode of transport (Transport Construction / Design and Construction of Railway Systems, BIW3-07; Railway Systems, BIW4-44; Railway Construction, BIW4-45). First, basic knowledge of the essential components and structural elements of railroads and their interaction in the railroad system is acquired (BIW3-07). Based on this, the track of the railroad as the "backbone" of the railroad is dealt with in depth, which is exposed to ever-increasing loads due to higher speeds and axle loads and must withstand these. The dynamic modeling of the track and the consideration of life cycle costs play an important role here (BIW4-45). The second specialization includes the planning and design of lines and stations in a holistic understanding of railroad infrastructure as a production facility for the provision of transport and operational services. Special aspects of high-performance railroads (high-speed railroads, heavy-load railroads) are also considered (BIW4-44). Employers for students specializing in railroad construction are railroad and local transport companies, construction companies, engineering offices, consulting offices, technical administrations and research institutions.

Urban engineering specialization

The urban engineering specialization deals in detail with the planning, design and operational aspects of the construction and maintenance of urban infrastructure facilities. The specialization focuses on the pipeline networks for water supply and wastewater disposal as well as grid-bound energy supply (BIW4-34 Urban Engineering). In addition, special knowledge for engineering tasks in dealing with existing networks is taught (BIW4-35 Rehabilitation Management). As a rule, the construction area for urban technical infrastructure is the public street space. Therefore, in-depth knowledge of structural road construction is an important building block for fulfilling a planning task (BIW4-42 Optimization of road pavements for new construction and maintenance). The overarching relationships and interactions with other areas of urban planning are also covered in detail (BIW4-36 Urban Planning). Further modules on road design, hydromechanics and construction operations (see table) are a useful addition to a complex education as a civil engineer. Students specializing in urban engineering are characterized by their universal applicability in all areas of urban civil engineering and can be found in planning offices, civil engineering offices and supply and disposal companies as well as in the operational management of construction sites.

Modules

Schematic overview

© Fakultät BIW

Responsible university lecturer

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Alexander Zeißler