Optimization of Vertical Road Alignment Design

In the road construction process, a civil engineer commonly uses software to outline the horizontal and vertical road alignment on a topographical map. The software then calculates the amount of earth that needs to be excavated, or filled, at certain points of the alignment as well as pavement costs, land costs and other expenses. Softree, the partner company, provides such software. There is currently no commercial software that offers the user an automated optimization of the alignment based on the total cost. The few studies that investigate the optimization of both alignments simultaneously, do not guarantee optimal solutions. We will study a new model to optimize the vertical alignments with algorithms that will provide better results than existing solutions and provide a guaranteed optimal solution. The resulting implementation will interface with our industry partner road design software to accurately compute volumes and provide an accurate cost of building a vertical alignment.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Yves Lucet

Student:

Md. Faisal Rahman

Partner:

Softree Technical Systems Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of British Columbia Okanagan