Road Centerlines

[barrett21]

Is there a standard for how often road centerlines should be broken? Every intersection, every mile? Or what would be the preferred method?

Thanks for any help offered.

Barrett

 

[Exxit]

Barrett,

I would go outside with a tape measure and measure.
In the drawing is the lookout important..., or?

best regards, Lothar

ADT 2004
ACAD 2002

 

[barrett21]

I am just wondering whether you break it at every intersection or if you run one single continuous line from start of road to end (or as far as you need it to go).

 

[buzzp]

Real road centerlines are generally broken at intersections, especially ones with all four directions stopping. If one direction does not have to stop then the line is continuous. This is driven by the DOT in the state your concerned with. Some of them will have requirements on their state web site.
Of course, some centerlines are 'dashed' to indicate passing lanes, etc. As far as CAD dwgs, I would not know what the 'standard' is.

 

[CADSTUDENT]

Hello barett21,

You can put in center lines for road by modifing the multiline setup. The command is MLINE and modification information is listed in ACAD manual. Let ACAD drafting standard be your guide when developing road centerlines.
Hope this helps - John

 

[CarlB]

Well this thread is an example of how a poorly worded question can be interpreted in many ways. Most responders have interpreted "centerline" as the actual paint striping. I would assume you are talking about the centerline linetype which just depicts right-of-way centerline or road construction centerline. By "breaks" you are not (?) referring to the gaps in the linetype, but to the point which separates line or polyline entities. So if you "break" it at an intersection you would have an endpoint of 1 line, startpoint of next line, which will prevent the short skip of a centerline from occuring at the intersection. *If* you are asking this, I would say break the line at intersections where you are showing the centerline for the side street. Break the side street centerline as well.

 

[LHA]

I disagree that the question was poorly worded. Rather, that these words do mean different things. So barrett21, which interpretation is correct?

Like CarlB, I also interpretted the "centerline" to be referring to the horizontal alignment of the profile, not the painted line on the physical road. I interpretted "breaks" as CarlB did also. But I can see how the others read "centerline" and "breaks" as they did.

I believe you want to "break" only the side street "centerline" at the intersection, leave the main throughway as one line. That way, you get one true profile for a stronger, more verifiable design. This is just my preference, I don't think there is a standard, just what gives you the most comfort in your design.

 

[barrett21]

I meant it as CarlB had interpretted it. Not the physical white stripe, but the "center" of roadway. And by "break", I meant where you actaully stop drawing, and start drawing a new centerline. I work for a Fiber Optic/ Coax company and was interested in what benifits could be gained by adding addressing information to road centerlines within our GIS system. It's just something we are looking at for things like 911 addressing and the such.