about

About 

The Saudi Highway code aims to provide a unified technical reference for the roads authorities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia at all levels (such as ministries, regional development entities, city development entities, regional Amanas, municipalities of cities and governorates, etc.), to enable the authorities to access the necessary information to plan, design, construct, operate, maintain and road safety and its environmental aspects and requirements for autonomous vehicles, in addition to guidelines, drawings, procedures and checklists for all road networks in the kingdom in order to achieve the minimum acceptable levels of quality, safety and security, economic efficiency, environment and sustainability

Vision

Mission

Achieve the best levels of Safety, quality and economic efficiency in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia roads.

Providing a unified national technical reference of the roads design, construction, operation and maintenance in accordance with the latest technical specifications, and supporting all the responsible authorities for the roads in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to implement it.

about

Code Library

  • SHC 101
    EN

    General

    This code includes Introduction, Scope, Application, Processes, Glossary of Terms and Referenced Standards and Codes for Saudi Highway Code

  • SHC 201
    EN

    Planning Process

    This code includes fundamental planning aspects and considerations related to the Highway Planning Process, Highway Network Planning, Urban Traffic Organization, Public Transportation, Non-Motorized Users and the Right-of-Way (ROW), and Highway Capacity.

  • SHC 202
    EN

    Surveying and Mapping

    This code includes All survey work or survey-related activity and It defines currently accepted and generally established rules, appropriate surveying methods, and equipment for accurately conducting mapping activities for highway projects.

  • SHC 203
    EN

    Preliminary Studies

    This code is to be utilized as a manual for aspects related to the preliminary traffic studies and the conceptual/reconnaissance design stage of highways and roads along with the relevant supporting studies and analyses, namely: preliminary traffic studies, such as traffic forecasting and Traffic Impact Studies, economic analyses, and preliminary geotechnical, hydrological and environmental considerations.

  • SHC 301
    EN

    Highway Geometric Design

    This code is to be consulted as the key volume for aspects related to highway geometric design in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The scope of the present code is to provide all necessary technical information regarding highway geometric design for all highway categories in rural and urban areas, including Intersections and interchanges. Its content applies to the design of new highways and the reconstruction, and rehabilitation of existing ones.

  • SHC 302
    EN

    Highway Facilities and Utilities Design - Hydrology and Hydraulic Design

    This volume provides requirements and considerations related to hydrology and hydraulics in the design, construction, maintenance and operation of roads

  • SHC 303
    EN

    Highway Facilities and Utilities Design - Rest Areas, Truck Inspection Stations, Parking & Garage Facilities

    This code is to be utilized as a manual for aspects related to the design and operation/management of both parking and enforcement roadside facilities, namely rest areas, truck inspection stations and parking and garage facilities

  • SHC 304
    EN

    Highway Facilities and Utilities Design - Passive Safety Systems Design

    This code includes all the aspects related to the installation, maintenance, controls, technical criteria, quality assurance of vehicle Restrains Systems (VRS)

  • SHC 305
    EN

    Highway Facilities and Utilities Design - Work Zone Design

    The purpose of this code is to provide guidelines for personnel responsible for designing, installing, and operating work zone traffic control on highways. The code summarizes engineering knowledge and practices and provides typical methods of typical traffic control applications.

  • SHC 306
    EN

    Highway Facilities and Utilities Design - Public Utilities, Highway and Street Lighting, Control and Monitoring Devices

    This code contains the design of road facilities and their utilities, including general guidelines for the development of hydraulic utility projects, general and detailed guidelines for the design of public utilities for electricity and communications, current design requirements related to road and street lighting utilities, general requirements and criteria that must be taken into account for the evaluation and design of road and street lighting facilities, Technical specifications applied for the implementation of road and street 10 lighting facilities, current design requirements related to control and monitoring devices, general requirements and standards that must be taken into account for the evaluation and design of monitoring and sensing systems, and standards for video surveillance systems, general requirements and standards that must be taken into account during the evaluation and design process of electronic signage, general requirements The criteria that must be taken into account to evaluate and design traffic signals, whether new or existing, the general requirements and standards that must be taken into account during the process of evaluating and designing communications public goods, whether new or existing systems, the general requirements and considerations related to power supply, availability, measurement, installation, and air conditioning, UPS units, etc

  • SHC 307
    EN

    Highway Facilities and Utilities Design - Landscape Planting, Outdoor Advertising

    This code includes two main topics. The first topic is landscape cultivation, which includes agricultural design guidelines, landscape design considerations, classification of landscape design, landscape design objectives and their main principles, site evaluation, and others.

    In the second topic, Outdoor Advertising, the scope of the present instructions is to establish a framework concerning the demand for outdoor roadside advertising sign installation, which will be applied throughout the entire country. These instructions intend to provide all the necessary information concerning the control and management of outdoor advertising without having to impose difficult conditions on the advertisers during design, installation, maintenance and removal of the advertising signs.

  • SHC 308
    EN

    Pavement Design

    This code contains foundations of pavement design, pavement materials, traffic analysis, structural design of flexible and rigid pavements, design of composite pavements, design of special category pavements, design of pavement rehabilitation, emerging practices, and sustainable pavements.

  • SHC 309
    EN

    Material Specifications and Standardized Testing

    This code is intended to summarize and list the test procedures, sampling requirements, and test equipment as described in the standards that are mentioned in SHC.

  • SHC 310
    EN

    Bridges and Tunnels Design

    The purpose of this code is to document the policy on bridge and tunnel design in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

  • SHC 401
    EN

    Construction of Highways

    This Specification document defines material standards and construction specifications and establishes quality acceptance criteria for items of work to construct new roads or rehabilitate existing roads, and pavement structures. These Specifications shall be an integral part of Contract documents for road structures projects construction and will serve as the basis for review and acceptance of all Contractor supplied materials and Contractor performed work.

  • SHC 402
    EN

    Construction of Bridges and Tunnels

    This code is to be exploited as a manual for aspects related to Construction of Bridges and Tunnels. The scope of this volume is to support and direct the construction of highways, bridges and tunnels structures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This code establishes minimum acceptance requirements and provides uniform technical criteria for items of work in order to construct new facilities or rehabilitate existing transportation infrastructure. This code is supplemented by the Standard Bill of Quantities (BoQ), which includes the measurement and payment descriptions.

  • SHC 403
    EN

    Construction of Highway Facilities

    This code is to be utilized for the construction of highway facilities. Such facilities involve underground, surface, or overhead facilities, individually or in combination. Moreover, construction works related to drainage structures (box culverts, culvert pipes, drainage tiles, curbs, gutter, spillways, inlets, manholes, catch basins), and noise barriers (standalone, continuous) are also included. Aspects referring to control and acceptance of materials and work, measurement and payment are also discussed.

  • SHC 501
    EN

    Pavement Maintenance Management Systems

    The scope of this volume is to provide guidelines and specifications code related to developing a Pavement Maintenance Management system. The guidelines will consider all types of pavements: flexible, rigid, and unpaved roads. It will distinguish between Urban and Rural roads. It will take into account the latest development and technology internationally and in the region. It will also make use of the local manuals, equipment, and practices in different road agencies.

  • SHC 502
    EN

    Bridges and Tunnels Maintenance and Management Systems

    The scope of this code is to provide guidelines to serve as a resource for use in developing specific policy and procedures for the inspection, evaluation, maintenance and management of existing in-service highway bridges, tunnels, and concrete culverts. This Volume also includes the recognized guidance for the load rating of highway bridges.

  • SHC 503
    EN

    Highway Facilities Maintenance and Management Systems

    This code is to be utilized for aspects related to highway facilities monitoring, maintenance, and management. The current Volume shall be used in conjunction with the other relevant SHC codes and specifically with SHC 501 (Pavement Maintenance Management Systems) and SHC 502 (Bridges and Tunnels Maintenance and Management Systems).

  • SHC 601
    EN

    Traffic Engineering

    This code is used as a guide to aspects related to traffic engineering, including comprehensive guidelines related to the implementation of traffic operation studies and for the purpose of traffic management and traffic control on the road and street network in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, general guidelines and requirements; For the unified application of traffic analysis tools related to analyzes of road corridors, switchboards and intersections, a set of management principles and guidelines aimed at improving the movement of goods in both urban and rural areas, provides guidance regarding the traffic operations of smart grids in relation to the road user services provided.

  • SHC 602
    EN

    Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices

    This code is to be utilized as a manual by designers, contractors and authorities involved in the selection, installation, and maintenance of traffic control devices. The criteria related to the traffic control devices selection process in general constitute Standards, reference to which are binding and mandatory, and Guidance which are recommended; however, exceptions in specific cases are allowed with the given conditions which are identified as Options in this code.

  • SHC 603
    EN

    Road Safety

    This code serves as a guide to road safety aspects, covering the types and structure of data that should be collected and used for the purpose of road safety analysis, procedures and tools used for monitoring, comprehensive instructions and guidance on performing and managing road safety audits for road design projects (at various stages) and existing road safety inspections , describes the analytical approaches applicable when investigating potential road safety problems, describes the procedures and measures taken to control speed on urban and rural roads, to calm traffic within urban areas, and tunnel safety measures, and specifies the minimum safety requirements for infrastructure and for operation in tunnels, elements of safety The main requirements for managing the transport of hazardous materials.

  • SHC 701
    EN

    Environmental Aspects of Highways

    The SHC 701 is a suite of environmental codes comprising requirements, and specifications associated with the assessment, mitigation, reporting, and monitoring of the impacts of highway Projects on natural and man-made resources. SHC 701 applies to highways and all-purpose trunk roads and permeates the activities of the entire Project cycle, including conceptual, planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance.

  • SHC 801
    EN

    Autonomous Vehicles Requirements

    This code provides a holistic approach on the requirements of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It gathers significant information on the full cycle of operating Connected Automated Vehicles (CAVs) from a legal, technical, and piloting perspective to be used holistically, given the dynamic changes this sector drastically undergoes. It serves as guidelines for new initiatives on relevant infrastructure, operation, and legal framework for stakeholders. It is intended to be used as a first step in a complex and dynamically changed domain of AVs and as a reference for pilot demonstrations. Hence, it may be used as reference based on AV/CAV analysis.

FAQ

A set of guidelines, regulatory requirements, technical specifications, requirements, standards and national standard requirements for multiple aspects of roads and associated infrastructure, including safety and environmental preservation, from planning, design, construction and operation to maintenance.

The objective of the SHC development project is to update the general standards and technical guides for the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of highways, bridges and tunnels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in order to ultimately create a safe and reliable network that meets the current and future needs of society, industry, and the economy. Thus provide a unified technical reference for the roads authorities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia at all levels.

The scope of application of Saudi Highway Code includes all the roads inside and outside the urban areas.

This code is applied on all works of road life cycle from planning, design, construction and operation to maintenance.

  • Thematic Category (A): Planning and Preliminary Studies.
  • Thematic Category (B): Design of Highways, Bridges and Tunnels.
  • Thematic Category (C): Construction of Highways, Bridges and Tunnels.
  • Thematic Category (D): Highways, Bridges and Tunnels Maintenance and Management Systems.
  • Thematic Category (E): Traffic Engineering and Road Safety.
  • Thematic Category (F): Environmental Aspects of Highways.
  • Thematic Category (G): Autonomous Vehicles Requirements.

You can view and obtain electronic copies of the code (First Edition) on RGA website through rga.gov.sa

Currently, there are no hard copies of the code.

You can send any technical or editorial notes on the Saudi Highway Code through sending email to: roadscode@rga.gov.sa