Optiroads

System Overview

Makor Company has developed OptiRoads - a new method and system for optimizing transportation route design (US patent 6,996,507). Additional patents were granted for Optiroads system in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and several European countries.

Currently, the civil engineer determines the road vertical alignment based on his experience and even intuition.

OptiRoads' unique advantage is in calculating the optimal vertical alignment of a single road or a system of roads.

Based on determination of the vertical alignment, OptiRoads is automatically calculating the minimal cost of entire project in compliance with standard specifications.

Before OptiRoads

Before OptiRoads, the engineer's work was comprised of the following tasks:

• draw vertical alignment for each road;
• calculate the quantity takeoff and iterate in order to obtain balance cut and fill;
• plan the retaining walls and calculate the quantity takeoff for them;
• estimate cost for the project infrastructure.

After completing those tasks, the engineer could not be sure that he obtained the optimal result while OptiRoads assure it.

Problems to be solved

• Road planning decisions based on instinct and experience rather than fact;
• Planning of single road in a vast roads network;
• Providing fast and user-friendly system instead of time-extensive manual project preparation currently;
• Uncertainty about roads’ vertical alignment at various height points.
• Uncertainty about project costs after significant resources have been spent on planning.

Unique Advantages

• OptiRoads is an ideal software for Design and Build Projects.
• OptiRoads calculates automatically and optimally the vertical alignment (redline) according to economic and physical factors.
• OptiRoads calculates quantity takeoff for all roads and subdivision plots in a development project.
• OptiRoads calculates the optimal vertical alignment of a single road or a system of roads.
• OptiRoads estimates minimal cost for the entire project.
• Using OptiRoads is especially money saving in building a system of roads, since the complexity of the engineer task.
• Using OptiRoads is especially beneficial in the mountain terrain projects.

How OptiRoads works:

User interface module: Key Inputs

• DTM for the right of the way;
• Centerline plan;
• Typical cross sections of the roads (or width of road);
• Maximum slope grade allowed;
• Unit prices for different earth work: cut, retaining wall, etc.
• (optionally) Geological layers;
• (optionally) Project's estimated cost.

After receiving this input information, OptiRoads will calculate the optimal vertical alignment of the road or system of roads. Based on optimal vertical alignment, OptiRoads will calculate the minimal cost of entire project.

The user fills the input dialog box:

Cut & Fill Balance: in earthmoving, cut and fill is the process of constructing a road whereby the amount of material from cuts roughly matches the amount of fill needed to make nearby embankments, so minimizing the cost and the amount of construction labor. Cut & fill balance is very important for every road construction project. In OptiRoads, for every layer cut and fill optimal levels are determined, so the builder will be able to perform cut & fill optimally and use the cut ground to fill in necessary places. In the cut input form below the user inputs cut unit prices for different levels of cut for soil types A-E.

In the fill input form below the user inputs cut unit prices for different levels of fill.

Retaining Walls & Fences: retaining walls are used in road construction to bound soils between two different elevations often in areas of terrain possessing undesirable slopes or in areas where the landscape needs to be shaped severely. OptiRoads performs retaining walls & fences optimization, calculating the optimal retaining walls & fences level so that the cost of those road construction features would be minimized.

The following retaining wall input form provides the user with the option to specify price levels for different retaining walls levels. Similar input form exists for the fence levels.

Outputs

And after processing, OptiRoads submits the following output reports:

So, the optimal vertical alignment for every road is determined:

The following parameters are calculated for every road:

Intersections.

Optimal transportation is further determined:

The system final goal output provides an optimal road planning solution for the entire system of roads in the project:

   

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Implementation

OptiRoads is an ideal software for Design and Build Projects.The program allows developers to submit a bid for the entire project and to save time and money in preparing the bid. The goal of Makor company is as mentioned in Partnership.