DETERMINE CRITICAL POINTS
The operations order will usually identify where or in what document
critical points will be specified.
A critical point i any roadway
structure or feature that limits road width, overhead clearance, or
vehicle load class. It is also any feature that interferes with the
meeting or crossing of two or more streams of traffic.
Critical
points include every bridge, overpass, underpass, ferry, ford,
constriction, and sharp turn under a 30-meter (100-foot) radius.
Railroad
are
critical
points,
whether
the
highway
overpasses, underpasses, or crosses at grade level. The start point
of a convoy is a critical point for other convoys.
Crossroads and
road junctions are special kinds of critical points.
You must
designate such areas as possible ambush sites or critical points for
control purposes.
Usually a schedule for road movement does not list every critical
point, only the most important ones and those at convenient
checkpoints such as highway regulation points.
The highway traffic
division (HTD) assigns numbers to the critical points on the road net
it regulates unless a name of a place, such as a town at the same
point, can be used to indicate it clearly.
The HTD may use any
numbering system; however, once critical points are numbered or named
on the reconnaissance map and overlays are issued to the highway
regulation points and traffic control posts, the designations are not
usually changed.
However, you can add new numbers or names at any
time for new routes or features.
Crossroads are critical points that normally require the most
attention; schedule conflicts may result where two military routes
cross one another at grade level.
You can understand their
importance by picturing a convoy approaching an intersection where
another convoy is just entering the crossing route; one convoy must
wait while the other clears the crossing.
The HTD determines in
advance which convoy has priority.
It tells regulating and control
personnel so that they can keep the other convoy out of its way. You
may use names of places to identify crossroads.
For a rural
crossroad without a name or for one of several close together,
numbers may be desirable.
Mark overpasses and underpasses as such;
do not mark them as crossroads. Use the mark "CR" only to identify a
grade crossing of two roads where traffic on each road occupies the
crossing portion of both roads when passing through the intersection.
Road junctions are the joining of two roads at grade level without
crossing one another (as when a side road forms a Y or T with a main
road).
They are critical points if traffic on the side road is
frequent enough to interfere with that on the main road.
Do not
designate roads that join by overpass or underpass
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TR1009
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