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arXiv · 1507.02714

Optimizing horizontal alignment of roads in a specified corridor

Sukanto Mondal·Yves Lucet·Warren Hare
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Abstract

Finding an optimal alignment connecting two end-points in a specified corridor is a complex problem that requires solving three interrelated sub-problems, namely the horizontal alignment, vertical alignment and earthwork optimization problems. In this research, we developed a novel bi-level optimization model combining those three problems. In the outer level of the model, we optimize the horizontal alignment and in the inner level of the model a vertical alignment optimization problem considering earthwork allocation is solved for a fixed horizontal alignment. Derivative-free optimization algorithms are used to solve the outer problem. The result of our model gives an optimal horizontal alignment in the form of a linear-circular curve and an optimal vertical alignment in the form of a quadratic spline. Our model is tested on real-life data. The numerical results show that our approach improves the road alignment designed by civil engineers by 27\% on average, resulting in potentially millions of dollars of savings.

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Sukanto Mondal, Yves Lucet, Warren Hare. 2015-07-09. Optimizing horizontal alignment of roads in a specified corridor. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2015.05.018

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