Earthwork usually represents a huge fraction of the total construction cost for roads, highways, and other corridor projects. Good engineering can significantly reduce these costs. That is why Softree has developed software tools to help designers in this area. Design-Time costing is one of these tools.
What does Design-Time Costing Do?
Design-Time costing provides earthwork costing data associated with a design in real-time as a user makes design changes. For example, an engineer can change the length of a curve, or move the horizontal alignment or vertical alignment, and see the associated change in cost.
Design-Time costing also has a Smart Pits function, which determines the most efficient and cost-effective location for a borrow or waste pit.
How does Design-Time Costing Allow me to Design Smarter?
With Design-Time costing, engineers have access to detailed costing data early in the design process. Having this costing available allows designers to make educated design decisions based on cost. For example, a designer can compare two different horizontal alignments, or road locations, based on cost.
Design-Time costing also provides haulage cost data graphically in an Opti-Haul Graph. This graph augments the mass haul graph and visually represents volumes, location of material, location of pits, and direction of material movement. Having a graphical representation of this data allows users to visualize how to change the alignment of a road to reduce haulage cost.
Which Softree Products Contain Design-Time Costing Functionality?
Softree’s Design-Time costing was officially released in 2015 and is integrated into Softree Optimal, and into RoadEng Version 7 (and later versions), in the Alignment Properties Panel.