Quantm is an alignment optimization tool (Web-1) focused on road and rail planning at the feasibility and design stage. This approach has changed the paradigm of alignment planning by taking tasks that were previously difficult, time consuming and therefore potentially very costly, and making them easy, fast and affordable.
It uses state-of-the-art technologies to automatically generate low cost alignments that satisfy defined environmental, community and cultural heritage constraints. The system is unique in its capacity to optimize 3-dimentional routes simultaneously in a larger scale whilst accommodating both broad-based and localised issues during the planning process.
TILOS is a linear project scheduling and management tool for all stages of a project. It provides strategic solutions for linear project scheduling and controlling.
The goal is to have exact quantities and optimize the productivity rates, minimize the total time of crews and avoid clashes, therefore reduce project planning time and cost.
The successful application of such these planning tools around the world has been independently confirmed by users, documenting better engineering and environmental outcomes and significant reductions in project planning time and construction cost.
2- Quantm alignment planning technology
The alignment planning process is a complex balancing task. It has normally relied heavily on planners’ professional experience and judgement; traditionally it is a manual process.
Every project is unique; designers are challenged by different engineering requirements, complex topography, geological conditions, community values, safety and environmental concerns.
Additionally, road alignments are 3-dimensional spline structures; a road project may have infinite alternative alignments between the start and end points, and thus there is no simple solution to the complex problem. In the past, this issue has been simplified by converting 3-dimensional problems to 2-dimensional problems.
When using a manual method, designers must generate a few horizontal alignments based on topographic maps or digital terrain models and other knowing factors, and then attempt to fit the vertical alignment along the profile, before checking the cross sections along the route to ensure horizontal and vertical alignments are properly coordinated, all whilst considering all the factors relating to the project including earthworks and cost.
The process is tedious and time consuming and has a vast amount of constraints to take into consideration, especially for complex terrain. If problems are encountered in horizontal or vertical alignments such as violations of radius of curvature or design grade or inadequate cross sections, this process may require to be repeated all over again which may result in a prolonged process or compromise the final solution.
Even with the extensive use of GIS and CAD packages and some kind of digital terrain model, the initial corridors and alignments are predominantly selected manually by experienced experts. Furthermore, increasing environmental and construction cost concerns have made the alignment selection process more complex than ever before.
The lack of purpose-specific tools has greatly limited the planner’s capacity to consider all the data and constraints, and compromises the ease of the comparison and analysis of all viable alternatives within a limited time period. An intelligent automated alignment optimization model is much needed and it could greatly improve the planning process in terms of productivity, cost savings and better environmental outcomes.
Using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) as base data, together with geometric standards and other constraints such as crossing requirements with existing linear features or no-go zones, the generation of sets of low cost alternatives can be readily achieved by employing one of a number of stochastic optimization techniques. Originally developed to optimize discrete systems by swapping the contents of randomly chosen pairs of locations, the methods can be adapted to working in a continuous space.
The technique is similar to the methods employed by designers working interactively with standard packages, who move an intersection point defining the alignment subject to defined constraints, however the automated technique has an advantage because it is considering the optimal horizontal and vertical alignment simultaneously rather than the traditional two stage process whereby defining horizontal alignment is followed by vertical alignment design.
The cost of the modified alignment is calculated and compared with the cost of the old alignment, and a decision is made to accept or reject the change. Once a decision has been made, another intersection point is selected and the process repeated. The rules governing the acceptance or rejection of a point provide the mechanism by which the alignment can escape from local sub-optima.
The algorithm does not guarantee that the alignment will escape; it merely makes it possible. However, careful selection of the parameters controlling the process can greatly increase the probability of reaching the global optimum.
By locating intersection points in a continuous three dimensional space,
the final alignment can be specified to arbitrary accuracy.
However, in practical situations, continuing the optimization beyond a given accuracy does not contribute significantly to the value of the solution.
Accordingly, optimization can stop when the spatial range of the acceptable moves made by the intersection points declines to a value from which planners and designers can work without having to worry about the macro location of the route.
The Quantm system (Gipps et al. 2001) is specifically designed as a planning tool to address the complex planning problem.
It empowers road planners who need to be able to determine routes that consider numerous relevant variables including terrain, design standards, existing infrastructure, geological cost variances, and community and environmental constraints.
The system considers literally millions of alternatives to enable planners to consistently identify significantly improved alignments that deliver considerable cost savings while protecting environmental and community values.
The system owns a patented optimization engine which is cost driven, but the ‘cost’ of an alignment is multi-dimensional with many costs being unquantifiable social and environmental impacts.
Consequently, the system focuses on objective costs and generates sets of low-cost alternatives that meet the planner defined constraints, rather than a single least cost solution. This enables planners to balance environmental and social impacts against monetary costs for routes using different parts of the study area (Gu 2010).
Objective costs can arise during the construction from the volumes of earthworks, the length and height of structures, and from life-of-project factors such as fuel consumption and maintenance.
Planners currently use CAD packages to attempt to balance earthworks, minimize structures and haulage and generally produce an alignment that should be inexpensive to construct, while meeting the specified geometric standards. However, the results produced by the CAD operators are based on volumes and lengths, not dollars, and are often far from the best that can be achieved for construction.
The impact of particular alignment decisions on the life cycle cost is often not part of the brief held by planners despite the fact that these may be many times larger than the capital cost of construction.On the construction side, unit rates are used to convert the quantities and lengths involved in construction into dollars. Similarly, forecast traffic and alignment geometry can be used to evaluate impact on operating costs.
Road and rail projects face numerous constraints on their alignment that must be satisfied before they are allowed to proceed. There are many factors which can have a major impact on the optimum alignment of a route that need to be considered during planning.
Unless a model can cope with a minimum range of factors, it cannot provide the tools necessary to produce realistic solutions. The Quantm system incorporates all information required to produce 3D alignments that meet all design requirements and other constraints.
Figure 1 shows the application of the Quantm system in the 250km Kyrgyzstan railway Connect Uzbekistan - Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. It shows automatically generated multiple alignments, including the plan, profile and cross section as well as earthwork volumes and associated costs of the alignment identified. Alignments generated in the system can also be visualised in real-time by a 3D visualization engine (Figure 2).
This can be used for technical analysis of the alignment quality and presentation to stakeholders and the public consultation.
Figure 1. Quantm 3D Alignment Optimization for a 250km Kyrgyzstan Railway Project
Figure 2. Quantm 3D Alignment Visualization
2.1 Quantim benefits
When all of the constraints feature and cost data exists, the system is fast, effective and consistent.
The speed depends on the number of constraints and the level of detail in the model, but comprehensive analysis and identification of preferred alignments have been completed within weeks rather than months compared to traditional alignment selection processes.
Planning time and community and environmental consultation benefits are relevant regardless of terrain type.
Users of such a system have also frequently stated that the system has enabled them to deliver unexpected solutions that had not been identified using the conventional planning approach, where investigation is severely limited and guided by the intuitive skill of the planner.
The new alignment optimization technology such as the Quantm System, allows planners and engineers to collaborate with various road project stakeholders and deliver improved outcomes.
The process maintains positive community relations, considers environmental impact, and reduces project construction costs - all while maintaining the momentum of the road project.
Improved productivity - Once a project is initialised the system can generate better, less expensive alignments in minutes, whereas using conventional means could take weeks to produce the same result. Amending constraints and parameters is fast and reruns are completed immediately.
Consequently, it is very easy to consider the impact of variations suggested during consultations on community and environmental issues. In many large projects, the time and cost involved produces natural resistance to considering variations when they are not considered to be viable.
The impact of considering these variations and getting back rapidly with cost effective alternatives will significantly reduce community stress and planning blight that often hampers adoption of proposed alignments.
Improved community relations - Communities globally are increasing the influence they have over where new roads are created. The combination of community input and the need to avoid certain urban areas, cultural heritage zones and areas of environmental sensitivity have made the planning process extremely complex.
The new technology allows community input to be integrated into the planning study. Community "no-go" constraints can be added in just minutes. Cost implications and alignment alternatives can be reviewed within hours depending on project scale.
Better environmental outcomes - The Quantm System was identified as one of eight emerging technologies by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) (Web-2) that support the integration of environmental considerations into transportation planning.
The Quantm system can rapidly consider new environmental or social constraints as the project progresses and demonstrate to stakeholders that their input has been integrated into the study.
Planners can be more responsive to public feedback and re-evaluate alternatives within days instead of weeks or months.
Reduced project planning time and delays - The current industry approach to road and rail planning addresses each constraint issue in series, which often leads to conflict between the stakeholders and requires numerous subsequent impact studies.
This can lead to a planning spiral that delays, or even terminates, a project. The new technology encourages cooperation between the road project planners and stakeholders from the onset.
Planners can quickly investigate alignment and cost implications of numerous “what if” scenarios simultaneously.
As a result, planners can demonstrate that they have considered all feasible alignments and substantially improve the quality of the alignment without project delay or cost increase.Construction cost savings - The new technology delivers substantial alignment construction cost savings while meeting the defined environmental, community, heritage and design constraints.
Consultants that have adopted the technology have found that the more thorough alignment searches available through the computerized technique have allowed them to reduce the project costs, offering a better solution to their clients.
2.2 Quantm Applications and Case Studies
In infrastructure planning projects in China, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Europe, the Quantm system has demonstrated that it provides an unprecedented capacity for planners to dramatically improve financial outcomes whilst aligning project outcomes with formal Government policies in Ecological Sustainable Development.
It also enabled the agency to put a dollar value on protecting local environmental, community and heritage values. Projects of all types and sizes can take advantage of the benefits of the new technology. Examples range from regional, state and national transportation infrastructure planning to small bypasses and road realignments. In addition, the system can be used for mining, forestry and utility industry infrastructure.
2.2.1 Value Engineering: Guangxi Hechi-Baise Freeway Project
The 180km Hechi-baise freeway project is part of national freeway network located in Guangxi province.It is a typical mountainous freeway with 4-lanes in each direction and a design speed of 80km/h, maximum design grade of 4%. The project owner face the great challenge of over budget during the preliminary design stage as the project is located in complex mountainous terrain with bridge and tunnel ratio over 35% of the whole route.
The project was on hold due to over budget at the design stage. The project owner spent 2-years to ask the 5 design firms involved in the project to optimize the alignment in order to reduce the cost but to no avail. Then Quantm was stepped in to work with the experts of the project owner first then coordinate 5 design firms to make changes according to Quantm optimization.
Within 4 weeks, we are able to deliver a 8% of savings which is equivalent to $160m. Figure 3 shows that first section of the Hechi-Baise project with optimization results. On the top right section, Quantm is able to adjust the alignment to fit the terrain better, reduced an unnecessary bridge and balance the earthwork; while in the middle section, Quantm is able to adjust the alignment to left first and then move to the right of the original alignment, in this way it can eliminate two larger bridges at the cost of a small tunnel, therefore to reduce total construction cost. It makes designer’s job much easier, and controls the project cost for the owners and provides better outcomes for the environment.
Figure 3. Guangxi Hechi-Baise Freeway Project
2.2.2 Feasibility Study: Xichang-Shangrila Mountainous Highway Project
The Xichang-Shangrila mountainous freeway project (Figure 4) was conducted by the Sichuan Transport
Design Institute (STDI) in China.
The project was located in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces with mountainous terrain.
Due to complexity and construction constraints, the design team spent three months with several site visits and developed a recommended alignment option based on manual selection process, but the design team was not fully satisfied with the alignment option they had identified.
The challenges of the project are to reduce bridge and tunnel ratio in order to control the project cost to stakeholders, and in the meantime, to maintain the design standard and meet the requirement of construction constraints, i.e., maximum bridge height is no more than 350m and maximum tunnel length no more than 16km.
The original design alignment was developed based on traditional alignment selection process with a total length of 363km, bridge/tunnel ratio is 68%, maximum tunnel length was 14km and maximum bridge height is 350m.
Within three days of data preparation and optimization using Quantm technology based on existing DTM and GIS data with required constraints, a better corridor was identified and a new alignment finalised which satisfied all constraints including design standard and construction requirements.
Compared to the original design alignment derived from a manual selection process, the optimized alignment was significantly improved in terms of length and alignment quality.
The total length of the alignment reduced to 320km, bridge/tunnel ratio reduced to 66%. While the maximum tunnel length is increased from 14km to 15.5km, it was worthwhile to reduce the total length of the alignment by 43km. The shorter alignment significantly reduces both the construction and life-cycle operation costs.
Figure 4. Quantm application on the Xichang-Shangrila Highway Project
2.2.3 Design Study: G207 Highway Jingmen Project
The G207 Highway Jingmen Project is a 77km section in Hubei Province China. It is part of the Hubei highway network with 4-lanes in each direction and a design speed of 80km/h, maximum design grade of 4%. Jiangsu Transportation Research Institute (JSTI) was commissioned for the design work of the project.
Using Quantm technology, JSTI conducted full analyses on a 14km section of the project to compare the results between Quantm and traditional methods.
The purpose of the study was to verify the existing corridor and the alignment from the feasibility study which derived manually using traditional method; and identifies potential better alignments within the corridor on 1:20K data; and finally, with the site visits and survey data, to determine the recommended alignment for presentation to the project owner.
The input parameters and constraints for the projects include geology conditions; crossing requirements with existing railways, highways and waterways; cost date (unit cost for earthwork and structures); environmental (built-up areas, avoid zones) and social requirements (local urban planning, land/property acquisition, mining areas, built-up factories and reservoirs).
Figure 5. Manual Alignment from Feasibility Figure 6. Quantm Generated Alignments
The speed of the Quantm system allows the JSTI project team to conduct a sensitivity test to analyse the best design standards for the project (best combination of different minimum horizontal radii and maximum sustain grades): 4 different sustained grades (1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5% and 3.0%) and 6 different horizontal radii (250m, 400m, 550m, 650m, 750m and 1000m) were tested.
The results were compared for the 24 combinations.
By taking consideration of these sensitivity results together with safety and tunnel requirements, within just one day the project team was able to quickly determine the 2% as a sustained grade (maximum grade at 4%) and 650m as the minimum horizontal radius as the design parameter for the section.
This would be a very time consuming task using traditional methods.
The optimization results based on 1:50K ASTER data and 1:10K local DEM data show that the corridor identified was the same as the one from the feasibility study; which provided the supporting evidence of the feasibility study to the project owner (Figure 5 and Figure 6).
By implementing further optimization based on 1:2K local DEM data, the system is able to deliver better alignments (Quantm 1, Quantm 2 and Quantm Final) compared to the manual alignment as shown in Table 1.
The optimised alignments not only reduced earthworks, but also reduced the number of bridges and divided long tunnels into smaller tunnels which resulted in an overall reduction in structure length by over 1km and saved a total alignment cost of 20%.
In the JSTI project report on Quantm application, the benefits of the new technology are summarized as
follows:
- Proving sensitivity tests to determine the best geometric fit to the terrain
- Identifying valuable corridors easily
- Estimating earthworks and structure relatively accurately to reduce project risk at early stage
- Quick response to new constraints, improving communications between stake holders, therefore reducing overall planning time
- Reducing bridge/tunnel length, balancing earthworks therefore reducing construction costs
3.Tilos– Linear project scheduling tool
Creating linear project plans using traditional Gantt software can be cumbersome and inaccurate.
TILOS transforms the way linear project plans are created by integrating a scaled diagram of your project with a comprehensive project management system tailored for railway, road, pipeline, tunnel and transmission line projects (Web-3). TILOS combines time and location (Figure 7) to give you a smarter, easier way to create accurate, optimized plans, and to quickly update these plans as schedule changes occur.
TILOS can make planning your next project faster and easier:
- Combine time and location for intuitive, accurate planning designs to visualize location, working direction and productivity
- Optimize schedules to avoid project clashes and save time and money
- Integrate spatial data such as CAD, survey and mass haul with project management functionality ·
- Create outstanding professional presentations
- Exchange data with other project planning software packages
3.1 Benefits of adopting Tilos
TILOS is a powerful, intuitive scheduling tool that saves you time and money.
It creates logic links between activities and then update the plan to identify the critical path and project end date; It simulates alternative project sequences by changing working times and the location of operations to rapidly find the optimum sequence of operations; It draws and calculates activities using real productivity data in a graphical presentation; It sees schedule conflicts immediately on both short and long projects; It quick starts your planning with industry-specific templates that include prototype tasks, predefined productivity, individual operating time and machine configurations and spatially arranges and coordinates the construction process with 2D scheduling.
Linear Scheduling Planning linear construction projects by using time location diagrams and the comprehensive linear scheduling features is highly effective. Deliver optimized and reliable schedules.
Communicate your projects effectively.Professional Presentations Present high-quality plans that showcase your talent and give confidence in your ability to deliver.
Visualize the whole project on a single summary assist the whole team and the key stakeholders to easily understand the plan.An Integrated Project Planning Solution You do the planning using industry-specific planning features, while Tilos calculates the deadlines and the total time required in one integrated system.
Open Data Exchange Exchange data with other project management systems such as Primavera P6, Microsoft Project and Asta Powerproject, ISETIA Import site data such as mass haul, elevation or site map. Insert quantities, equipment and costs from spreadsheet.Cost Effective TILOS quickly pays for itself when compared to other planning methods. Reduced planning time with improved schedule clarity results in more smooth construction sequences and helps to avoid clashes and machine downtime.
3.2 Other Features of Tilos
Scaled Location Charts
- Use powerful drawing tools to place symbols and objects based on distance coordinates
- Use a symbol library to easily prepare scheme drawing diagrams
- Import existing route-diagrams directly into the chart and scale them to size automatically
- One chart has everything you need: Split the chart into multiple sections so you can display more information; Clearly show the different stages of construction; Include detailed drawings with site plans; Show resource usage (plant, people and materials)
Resource and Cost Planning
- Reduce risk by integrating cost, quantity and performance planning Calculate activity duration from the working speed and the distance or from work quantity and performance
- Calculate resource utilization using quantities or time with flexible calculation models
- Create quantity and cost charts to show time-specific and absolute resource requirements over the duration of a project
- Compare costs and income to show project profit
- Compare values with a project baseline or use other project profiles
- Calculate costs based on resource usage
Customizable Views
- Define project, scale, site plan and chart areas, and use them to create customizable project views showing common data in different ways
- Set axis orientation and direction individually for each cell
- Integrate Gantt diagrams, time and location diagrams, cost and resource diagrams, and spatial information to one comprehensive chart
Mass Haul Data and Diagrams
- Create different types of material such as cut, fill and disposal
- Enter or import different cut/fill locations and quantities
- Dictate where the cut from one area goes to fill another
- Create tasks based on quantity and productivity for each cut/fill movement to quickly build a schedule ·
- Display consumption graphs based on location or time
Progress Tracking
- Update projects regularly and constantly monitor actual progress against the original plan Define the report date to progress activity
- Progress activities by where they have been done and not just by time.
- Enter a distance achieved, a quantity achieved or a percentage achieved
- Baseline and compare the original plan to current project progress to detect variances immediately and compensate for them in real-time
- Instantly update the current project status and calculate new deadlines with reference to the reporting date
- Calculate earned value measures for activities and sub-projects
- Import and export progress and the actual data via a spreadsheet
- Display distance progress as a distance Gantt chart
Connected Software
Trimble Business Center - HCE
Oracle® Primavera® P6
Microsoft® Office Project
Asta Powerproject®
ISETIA® Process Management System
Spreadsheet programs
TILOS can be used alongside other software such as MS Project, Excel, P6 (Primavera), ISETIA, etc. If the project has already started, TILOS can still be applied. Figure 8 shows a 26km highway project in Norway example, The Gantt chart schedule is a 40 pages book, with TILOS, it can be represented in one single chart.
Spreadsheet programs
TILOS can be used alongside other software such as MS Project, Excel, P6 (Primavera), ISETIA, etc. If the project has already started, TILOS can still be applied. Figure 8 shows a 26km highway project in Norway example, The Gantt chart schedule is a 40 pages book, with TILOS, it can be represented in one single chart.
4- Conclusions
The state-of-the-art planning technologies can visualise the planning process, empower planners not only to shorten the planning time, reduce project cost, but also to achieve results that have lower environmental and community impact than traditional methods.
Successful applications of the smart alignment planning technologies such as Quantm have demonstrated that planners can now explore the whole study area thoroughly, investigate all feasible routes without missing any valuable corridors and without influence of preconceptions of where the route should run and quickly review all alternative strategies.
While scheduling technologies such as Tilos combines time and location to give planners a smarter, easier way to create accurate, optimized project plans, and to quickly update these plans as schedule changes occur and to make the planning of linear and repetitive work more efficient.
It improves the integration of location constraints in scheduling via the critical path method.
Integration with other project management systems plays a major part in the development, allowing users to retain their established company standards while using the premium solution for linear planning.
Technological advancements have now made it possible for infrastructure planners to deliver more cost-effective viable solutions to their clients for the life cycle of a project, starting from early scoping studies, feasibility studies, value-engineering studies to construction, operation and maintenance.
References
Gipps, P.G., Gu, K, Held, A. and Barnett, G. (2001). New Technology for Transport Route Selection. Transportation Research, Part C 9, 2001. pp. 135-154.
Gu, K (2010). Using Advanced Tools to Plan Faster and Minimize Environmental Impact, Alignment Planning for High Speed Rail. Proceedings of the 7th UIC High Speed World Congress, Beijing, China, December 2010.
Web sites:
Web-1:www.trimble.com/alignment/, consulted 1 June 2017 Web-2:http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rrd_304.pdf, consulted 1 June 2017 Web-3:http://www.tilos.org/, consulted 15 June 2017
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Skilled in Business Process, Sales Management, Project Portfolio Management, Primavera P6, and Contract Management. Strong business development professional with a Structural Design focused in Civil Engineer, M. Sc. from Atatürk Üniversitesi.
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