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Case Study
Highway Alignment Construction Comparison UsingObject-Oriented 3D Visualization Modeling
Hyunjoo Kim1; Kevin Orr2; Zhenhua Shen3; Hyounseok Moon4; Kibum Ju5; and Wonsik Choi6
Abstract: The major aspects of highway planning are cut and fill calculations, cost estimation, and schedule duration planning. These itemsof highway planning are often complex and time consuming. Designing and comparing different alignment alternatives is even more timeconsuming and tends to be very costly. When planning for a new highway alignment, the general practice is to identify multiple alignmentoptions and determine the best option based on multiple factors. This research proposes to automatically generate multiple alignment alter-natives and the cut and fill quantities, costs, and schedules associated with each alternative in comparing different highway alignment alter-natives. Building information modeling (BIM) technology has been increasingly used in resolving the complexity of a project in the buildingindustry. However, the development of highway data schema and model using an object-oriented three-dimensional (3D) visualization is stillunderway and has not been fully implemented yet. This research proposes an object-oriented data model in compliance with ISO 10303 forhighway design and construction. With the newly proposed data structure in highway design and construction, the automation of cost es-timating and duration scheduling was achieved in identifying and comparing an optimum solution for alternative modeling and data outputwhose values provided aid in the selection process of design comparison. In summary, the explicit contribution to the body of knowledge thatthis paper claims is to propose a research procedure to improve current highway design and construction practices by applying a 3D object-oriented modeling approach to solve the problem of time-consuming highway planning related to alignment comparison. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000898. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Alignment comparison; Highway design and construction; Standard for the exchange of product model data (STEP);Industry foundation class (IFC); Scheduling; Cost estimating; Visualization; Information Technologies.
Motivation
Highway planning is often complex and time consuming becauseof the multifaceted nature of highway design. Some of the majorcomponents to be considered are cut and fill calculations, cost es-timation, and schedule duration planning. Each of these highwaydesign components requires a significant amount of time and effortwhen planning for each highway alignment, and when multiple
alignments are considered for a single project, the time and effortrequired to identify and plan for multiple alternatives significantlyincrease. The building industry has successfully applied buildinginformation modeling (BIM) technology in resolving the complexprocesses in the design and construction process. However, thehighway industry has not fully taken advantage of the technologybecause of the fact that the standardization of the highwaymodeling is still underway in the infrastructure sectors (building-SMART 2013).
Without the use of three-dimensional (3D) modeling, highwayplanning experiences a significant difficulty (Easa et al. 2002). Cutand fill calculation process tends to consume a significant amountof time. Inaccurate earthwork calculations lead to increased overallcosts for the highway project. Identifying accurate cut and fill vol-umes early in the highway planning phase can help reduce totalcosts of the project. By using the object-oriented approach, theprocess of cut and fill calculations can be performed automaticallyand in an accurate manner. This research proposes to limit the effortand time required to analyze different highway alignment alterna-tives by using a model-object-based 3D model to automaticallygenerate multiple alignments and the cut and fill quantities, costs,and schedules associated with each alternative.
Research has been conducted in different aspects of highwayplanning, but the limiting factor is the absence of using objectmodeling to automatically estimate values pertaining to cut and fillcalculations, cost estimation, and schedule duration planning,which will be applied in this research.
To test the feasibility of the proposed approach, a prototypeobject-based 3D model was developed and tested on a highwayproject in Seoul, Korea with a team led by the Korean Institute ofConstruction Technology (KICT). The proposed 3D model was ap-plied to explore different design alternatives and cost/schedule
1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Engineering Technology and Construc-tion Management, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9212 UniversityCity Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223 (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
2Research Assistant, Dept. of Engineering Technology and Construc-tion Management, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9212 UniversityCity Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223. E-mail: [email protected]
3Research Assistant, Dept. of Infrastructure and EnvironmentalSystems, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9212 University City Blvd.,Charlotte, NC 28223. E-mail: [email protected]
4Ph.D. Senior Researcher, ICT Convergence and Integration ResearchDivision, Korea Institute of Construction Technology, 283, Goyangdae-Ro,Ilsanseo-Gu, Goyang-Si, Gyeonggi-Do 411-712, Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
5Research Fellow, ICT Convergence and Integration Research Division,Korea Institute of Construction Technology, 283, Goyangdae-Ro, Ilsanseo-Gu, Goyang-Si, Gyeonggi-Do 411-712, Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
6Research Fellow, ICT Convergence and Integration Research Division,Korea Institute of Construction Technology, 283, Goyangdae-Ro, Ilsanseo-Gu, Goyang-Si, Gyeonggi-Do 411-712, Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
Note. This manuscript was submitted on November 19, 2013; approvedonMay 14, 2014; published online on June 24, 2014. Discussion period openuntil November 24, 2014; separate discussions must be submitted for indi-vidual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Construction Engineeringand Management, © ASCE, ISSN 0733-9364/05014008(12)/$25.00.
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comparisons to enable end users to compare different alternativesearly in the design/construction process when they make thebiggest impact on building life-cycle costs.
Related Research
When developing a system for highway alignment comparison,several factors should be considered for a reliable and realistic ap-plication (Tu et al. 2008). This research first developed an object-oriented 3D model in the highway design/construction and thenapplied case-based reasoning (CBR) in the consideration of cutand fill as a factor of analysis in the process of highway alignmentcomparison.
Object-Oriented 3D Visualization Modeling
This research proposes a new highway data schema and modelbased on the open standard industry foundation class (IFC) whichwas defined by ISO 10303-32 where each IFC entity represents asingle object record or object property. The IFC, also known as anextension of Standard for the Exchange of Product model data(STEP) has been used in various areas of building construction,such as scheduling (Kim et al. 2013), cost analysis (Giel and Issa2013), and quantity take-off (QTO) calculations (Kim 2012). Thedevelopment for new product modeling using LandXML related tohighway design is a continuing process (Rebolj et al. 2008). Thedifference between using a traditional 3D model and an open-BIMstandard such as IFC is that a IFC model provides a complete 3Ddigital representation and a complete set of information related tothe project rather than simply geometric data for the project (Sabol2008). In this research, not only will object-based modeling beapplied to one highway alignment, but multiple alignments willbe analyzed to determine the optimum alternative for the highwayproject.
Case-Based Reasoning
Case-based reasoning (CBR) is a technology that uses knowledgefrom previous cases and applies it to new situations and has beenapplied to many tasks in the AEC industry (Luo et al. 2010).The CBR can be defined as “to solve a new problem by remember-ing a previous similar situation and by reusing information andknowledge of that situation” (Aamodt and Plaza 1994).
Construction cost is a very important factor of construction andif a project is not planned properly, the likelihood of a projectsucceeding decreases. The CBR systems have been implementedduring the planning phase to produce more accurate cost estimate.One key to the success of a construction project is to conduct ac-curate cost prediction early on in the construction planning phase(Ji et al. 2010). The CBR has been applied to cost analysis situa-tions for road planning to determine the optimum solution (Choiet al. 2014). Construction incidents can be costly and is typicallydue to a poorly conducted risk assessment; thus, Goh and Chua(2010) used the CBR approach in the area of construction hazardidentification. The CBR has also been applied to building mainte-nance in conjunction with BIM, and BIM models can be used tocollect relative information and relationships between componentsand CBR systems can be used to capture knowledge from previousexperiences (Motawa and Almarshad 2013).
Highway Alignment Comparison
Highway alignment comparison has been an important topic ofresearch in the infrastructure industry. Highway alignment
comparison is also considered highway optimization by researchersin the infrastructure industry, which is the process of identifyingthe most cost-effective alignment with the optimum constructionscheduled for a proposed highway project. The process of design-ing a highway is a time-consuming process for design teams, whichexplains the difficulty of identifying the optimum solution for ahighway alignment (Shafahi and Bagherian 2013). In the processof identifying solutions for the problem of time-consuming andcost-prohibitive highway optimization, some researchers have usedthe combination of complex algorithms and graphical informationsystems (GIS) in determining an optimum solution from highwayalignment alternatives (Jha and Schonfeld 2004; Kang et al. 2012).Researchers have identified that vertical alignments and horizontalalignments are two major components of highway design and areoften analyzed separately, which requires a substantial amount oftime (Goktepe et al. 2005). Computer-aided drawing (CAD) appli-cations have been used in the process of highway optimization buthas generally been applied only with two-dimensional (2D) draw-ings. Major efforts have been conducted to advance the process ofoptimization, but few researchers have used 3D modeling in high-way design optimization (Shafahi and Bagherian 2013). Althoughthis research and the work of Shafahi and Bagherian (2013) havethe same goal of identifying the best alternative for a highwayalignment, the methods and tools used are quite different. Shafahiand Bagherian (2013) used a proprietary procedure in GIS and anoptimization algorithm to determine alignment costs, but this paperapplied an internationally recognized data standard of BIM modelsand some additional machine learning method such as CBR tocollect project information and estimate costs and durations. Differ-ent tools will produce different results. For example, they estimateearthwork quantities based on a manual process by using the ele-vations obtained from GIS files with complex equations throughthe average end area method. This is a known earthwork method,but this manual method is prone to error. The BIM is used in thispaper to automatically calculate the cut and fill volumes fromelevations and dimensions obtained from the model. Their methodof using GIS with computer algorithms was used on a real-worldcase study, similar to this paper’s approach with BIM. Results fromtheir research also included cut and fill volume, earthwork costs,and construction costs, but the difference is with this paper, thesource of the information is from the BIM model which providesmore accurate and automatic process. The focus of this paper wasto implement BIM into complex highway alignment comparison toreduce the time to produce results as well as produce accurateresults. The BIM has not been thoroughly integrated in the infra-structure industry, but modeling using the BIM technology can sig-nificantly reduce the time required to evaluate highway alignmentalternatives (Strafaci 2008).
Cut and Fill Calculation
One of the major factors in highway construction is cut and fillcalculation. Hare et al. (2011) states that cut and fill operations ac-count for approximately 25% of the total construction cost in roadconstruction projects. Prior to the use of CAD software in the con-struction industry, manual or basic computer models were used forearthwork planning. Identifying accurate earthwork quantities dur-ing the construction planning phase is such an important area thatmany researchers have attempted to implement many technologiesand methods to improve the process. Because of the technologyavailable at the time, Easa (1988) primarily used difficult equationsin a simple programming model containing earthwork detailsto help with earthwork operations. With the advance of computertechnology since that time, research progressed to complex
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algorithms and CAD models. Nassar et al. (2011) took the tradi-tional earthwork method of Mass-haul diagrams (MD) and appliedan algorithm to automatically compute cut and fill balances of thoseMass-haul diagrams. Cheng et al. (2011) also produced a simula-tion model with the goal of improving productivity, equipmentefficiency, and construction safety in earthwork operations. A 3Dsurface modeling system with a mobile 3D imaging system hasbeen used to help in the earthwork process. Chae et al. (2011)recognized that improving the process of earthwork operationsis difficult because the task generally involves human input andautomating the process is hard to accomplish.
Methodology
The highway alignment comparison methods used in this researchare based on object-oriented 3D intelligent models. The researchproposed a new highway data schema and model based on ISO10303 STEP technology which is an international open standard,which uses industry foundation class (IFC) in the 3D model andallows for user interaction. By using this technology, the analysisis not limited to one alignment per model. Multiple alignment al-ternatives will be produced/modeled and analyzed to determine theoptimum alternative based on the outputs of the total constructioncost, cut and fill volumes, and construction schedules. During theprocess, the user is able to not only interact with the 3D model butalso verify the schedule, costs, and earthwork quantities for eachmodel. Through the comparison of alternatives, the best option willbe chosen. Fig. 1 presents the overall process for highway compari-son for the research. The research process consists of four main
stages: information input process, parallel multiple simulations,comparison of output file, and optimum design results.
The first step of information input process (A) collects the in-formation necessary for highway alignment alternatives. This infor-mation includes the data obtained from the IFC file, external datasuch as unit costs and schedule durations, and user input data. Theuser input data are obtained from the system to specify the locationof the roadway alternatives.
The next step of the process is parallel multiple simulations (B).This simulation includes 3D model representation, highway QTOestimation, and highway scheduling process for each of the threehighway alignment alternatives. The information collected fromboth the information input process and parallel multiple simula-tions steps produce data output files (C). The output files are com-pared based on the cut and fill quantities, project cost, and projectschedule. This output (D) is presented for each of the highwayalignment alternatives. From these output files, the optimum designresults are selected.
This research plans to apply an object-oriented modeling ap-proach to cut and fill operations to automate the process. The needto human input is limited when using an object-oriented highwayalignment model. The 3D model contains the object informationrequired for automatically estimating cut and fill volumes for multi-ple highway alignment alternatives. Fig. 2 shows the steps taken forcalculating cut and fill volumes based on the 3D model. The maincomponents of identifying cut and fill volumes from the system arethe topography surface and the proposed roadway surface. Thetopography surface in the 3D model is composed of numerous tri-angulated irregular networks (TINs), which when joined togetherrepresent the geometry of the soil surface for the highway project.
Fig. 1. Overall highway comparison process
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The CBR was used in this research to determine applicable unitcosts and unit durations for the highway alignment alternatives. TheCBR library setup begins by identifying construction activities re-lated to the highway project. In this research, the activities consid-ered were excavation, embankment, water drainage, pavement,concrete, and slope protection. For each of these activities, thereare several attributes that identify specifics within that activity.For example, for the concrete activity, the attributes include appli-cation, duration, quantity, stage, strength, and unit cost. Previouscases were collected from the data obtained from the Korean high-way project and inputted into the CBR library. The cases for thisproject were compiled into the CBR library. Fig. 3 shows thesecases as instances in the myCBR software and the example pre-sented defines each instance as concrete followed by a number.These instances contain the attributes for that particular activity.For the CBR selection process, certain attributes are more impor-tant than others. To determine the attribute weights for this project,the WEKA software was used. WEKA is an open source datamining software (Hall et al. 2009), which was used to determineattribute weights. WEKA uses a feature selection algorithm calledRelief Attribute Evaluation to determine the attribute weights forthe CBR system.
After the CBR library is set up with the highway constructioninstances and the attribute weights, the next step is CBR caseretrieval. The case retrieval step for the case study searches forapplicable unit costs and durations for the highway alternative ac-tivities based on the old cases which were inputted into the CBRlibrary. The CBR system allows for a more accurate estimation of
the total costs of the project by identifying the closest match ofcases. The known attributes are inputted into the myCBR softwarefor the case retrieval steps. The example given in Fig. 3 presentsknown information for the attributes of application, quantity, stage,and strength. The attributes that must be identified for a new alter-native for this project are duration and unit cost; thus, those fieldsare unknown for the case retrieval step. Inputting these values helpsthe system identify the most similar case from the CBR library.
Case Study
The case study was conducted and applied to a highway construc-tion project located in the southern part of Korea and consists ofearthwork, road pavement, water drainage, and slope protection.The total length of the project is 318 m (0þ 720.000 − 1þ038.000) and the total construction cost was $17,182,637. Theproject started on June 1, 2012 and was completed on April 14,2013. Construction activities included in the analysis for this studyinclude excavation, embankment, subbase, base, subgrade, surface,drainage, and slope protection. For the purpose of this study, thecost and duration estimations for each of the construction activitieswere considered to be independent from one another and analyzedas such. Table 1 presents the major structure of the highway con-struction project.
The highway construction project consists of four main taskssuch as earthwork, pouring of concrete, temporary structure, andmiscellaneous (Fig. 4). The major work tasks in the work package
Fig. 2. Cut and fill procedure
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are backfill, slope surface protection, embankment, excavation inearthwork, surface finish, appendages, mortar, formwork, and re-bar/admixture in pouring of concrete, fall protection, scaffoldingand strut construction in temporary structure, and drainage and
guardrail construction in miscellaneous. Fig. 5 shows the highwayconstruction project as represented in Civil 3D. For this case study,the same highway alignment was modeled in 3D representation.Two additional highway alignment options (Alternatives 1 and2) were considered for this paper to determine the optimum align-ment alternative.
The section of highway alignment described previously is oneof the three sections used for the comparison analysis. This study’ssystem will use this section and produce cut and fill quantities, costanalysis, and a construction schedule. Also, two additional align-ments will be modeled as possible highway alignment alternatives.The two addition alignments are based on the same topography anduse the same generally structural components and will have thesame starting point and ending point as the initial alignment. Fig. 6shows the 3D representations and the labels for each alternative.
Each of the three alignments will have separate analysis of cutand fill, cost, and schedules. The cost and schedule durations for the
Fig. 3. CBR system setup and case selection
Table 1. Structure of Highway Construction Project
Component Name Code
Earthwork Excavation E022Embankment E023
Road construction Subbase E11210Base E11220
Surface E11250Road separator E11510
Soundproofed wall E11530Water drainage E11410
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two additional alignment alternatives will be estimated from acase-based reasoning (CBR) system based on the cases compiledfrom the Korean highway construction project. The outputsfrom each alternative will be compared to determine the optimumalternative.
For this case study, the open standard industry foundation class(IFC) was used for object-oriented modeling. The IFC models in-clude geometric details, engineering aspects, and material data ofthe project. The IFC has been used in building construction, but theapplication of IFC in infrastructure has not been made. An IFCmodel of a building contains IFC entities such as IfcSlab, IfcDoor,or IfcRoof. These entities do not apply to this case study andnew entities were developed for the use in infrastructure. Figs. 7and 8 present Express-G diagrams of new entities used in highwayconstruction. IfcRoad and IfcRoadBed are entities used to
represent the highway components of the road and the road bed.Tables 2 and 3 show the attributes related to IfcRoad andIfcRoadBed.
This research collected old cases from an existing highwayproject to find the closest match for a new problem, which in thiscase is the problem of cost estimating and duration estimations. TheCBR software used for this case study was myCBR. Cases from thehighway project were used to populate the CBR library. The prop-erties from the construction activities of the highway project weremade available for this research and are the basis of the CBRlibrary. The CBR library contained cases for embankment, excava-tion, water drainage, pavement, concrete, and slope protection.Several attributes for each construction operation were addressed.Case selection from the CBR system contains three mainsteps: CBR library setup, CBR case retrieval, and similar case
Fig. 4. Work package
Fig. 5. 3D model in Civil 3D
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selection. This whole process was used to aid in the determinationof unit rates as well as activity durations for total cost estima-tion and construction schedule development for the highwayalignments.
After the information is inputted into the system for the caseretrieval step, the myCBR program presents similar cases. Severalcases are presented from the CBR library which is the closest match
based on the information input during the case retrieval step wherethere is a similarity value for each case. A value of 1.0 in thesimilarity field would represent a complete match. The exampleshows four cases with similarity values of 0.9, 0.9, 0.76, and0.73. Cases titled Concrete #2 and Concrete #10 both show a sim-ilarity value of 0.9, which is a 90% match to the values inputtedfrom the case retrieval step. Both of these cases have the same unit
Fig. 6. 3D representation of highway alignment alternatives
IfcRoad
IfcOwnerHistoryOwnerHistory
GlobalId STRING
Name STRING
Description STRING
Representation
Tag STRING
PredefinedType ObjectType STRING ENUM
IfcProductRepresentation
IfcObjectPlacement
Component IfcRoadComponent
IfcHighwayRoadIfcMunicipalRoad ... ...
ObjectPlacement
Fig. 7. Express-G diagram of IfcRoad
IfcRoadBed
IfcOwnerHistoryOwnerHistory
GlobalId STRING
Name STRING
Description STRING
ObjectPlacement
Representation
Tag STRING
PredefinedType ObjectType STRING ENUM
IfcProductRepresentation
IfcObjectPlacement
Layer IfcMaterialLayerSet
Component
IfcComponent
IfcRoadFoundationIfcRoadEmbankment
Fig. 8. Express-G diagram of IfcRoadBed
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rate of $150 per cubic foot; thus, this value can be selected for thisparticular activity of the new highway alignment. The used systemfor cost estimating allows for a more specific unit cost for the high-way alignment rather than using standard rates.
Earthwork Characteristics
There are many factors to consider in earthwork calculations,and as a prototype system for highway comparison, some char-acteristics of earthwork material were considered. For this proto-type, compaction (0.85) and swelling (1.2) factors were added.These geotechnical factors have an impact on the cost andduration of the highway project and are included as part of thisresearch.
Quantity Take-Off Analysis
Cut and fill analysis was conducted on each of the three alignmentalternatives. The quantities of cut and fill are output from the IFCmodel based on the information obtained from the IFC entities. Thegeneral method of quantifying cuts and fills is based on the existingtopography elevation and the proposed roadway elevation. Thisprocess is conducted on each of the three highway alignment alter-natives to determine the cut and fill outputs for each alignment.Fig. 9 shows the 3D representation of the three highway alignmentalternatives with their proposed elevations and the surface of theexisting topographical surface. This perspective of the alignmentsshows that a certain amount of fill material is required to obtainproposed road elevations.
Fig. 10 shows the opposite end of the highway alignments,which will require a certain amount of cut operations. The multipleTINs represent the soil surface overlaying the proposed highwayalignments. The highway alignments are not clearly visible in
Table 2. Attributes Related to IfcRoad
Attribute Type Defined by
GlobalId IfcGloballyUniquedID (STRING) IfcRootOwnerHistory IfcOwnerHistory (ENTITY) IfcRootName IfcLabel (STRING) IfcRootDescription IfcText (STRING) IfcRootObjectType IfcLabel (STRING) IfcObjectTag IfcIdentifier (STRING) IfcElementPredefinedType IfcRoadTypeEnum (ENUM) IfcRoad
Table 3. Attributes Related to IfcRoadBase
Attribute Type Defined by
GlobalId IfcGloballyUniquedID (STRING) IfcRootOwnerHistory IfcOwnerHistory (ENTITY) IfcRootName IfcLabel (STRING) IfcRootDescription IfcText (STRING) IfcRootObjectType IfcLabel (STRING) IfcObjectObjectPlacement IfcObjectPlacement (ENTITY) IfcProductTag IfcIdentifier (STRING) IfcElementPredefinedType IfcRoadTypeEnum (ENUM) IfcRoad
Alternative #1 Base Option
Alternative #2
Alignment Starting Point
Fig. 9. 3D model of embankment section of highway alignment alternatives
Alignment Ending Point
Alternative #2
Alternative #1
Base Option
Fig. 10. 3D model of excavation section of highway alignment alternatives
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the figure because of the topography covering the alignmentwhich represents material that is required to cut to reach roadwayelevations.
In addition to the cut and fill calculations for each highwayalignment alternative, roadway quantities were obtained. Fig. 11shows the roadway cross section for each of the highway align-ment alternatives. Quantities obtained included subbase, base,subgrade, surface, and water drainage. These values for each al-ternative are presented in Fig. 12. In that figure, Road 1 is the basealignment, and Roads 2 and 3 are the alternatives. The differencein quantities between alternatives is observed in excavation andembankment quantities, but the remainder of the activities pro-duced similar quantities. This quantity presentation aids in thecomparison process. These values in conjunction with total costand schedule diagram allow the design team to select an optimumalternative.
Cost Analysis
The cost analysis for this case study included identifying the costsassociated with the highway construction activities for each high-way alignment alternative. The estimated costs are based on thequantities obtained from the 3D model and the unit costs fromthe CBR system. The CBR system estimated the unit costs basedon values obtained from the base alignment, which is represented asBase Option in this research. The best option in each particular sit-uation is selected for the unit costs and that value is multiplied bythe quantity to determine the total cost for that particular activity.Fig. 13 shows the costs associated with each activity for each alter-native. The major costs for this project, as shown in Fig. 11, arethe excavation and embankment activities. The road constructioncosts, which include subbase, base, subgrade, surface, and waterdrainage, are comparatively less than the earthwork costs. Roadconstruction costs produced similar estimates for the three
Alignment Starting Point
Base Option
Alternative #1
Alternative #2
Fig. 11. 3D model of roadway cross section of highway alignment alternatives
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
Vol
ume
(yd3 )
Activity
Quantity Comparison
Base Option
Alternative #1
Alternative #2
Fig. 12. Quantity comparison for each activity of three highway alignment alternatives
$0
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
$3,000,000
$4,000,000
$5,000,000
$6,000,000Cost Comparison
Base Option
Alternative #1
Alternative #2
Fig. 13. Cost comparison for each activity of three highway alignment alternatives
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alternatives, whereas there were variations in the earthwork costsbetween the alternatives.
Fig. 14 shows the estimated total construction cost for eachhighway alignment alternative. These totals are the sum of the ac-tivities presented in Fig. 14 in which Alternative #1 has the highestestimated cost at $5,820,665.40 followed by Base Option at$4,106,474.82. Alternative #2 has the lowest estimated total costof $3,823,436.20. Based on the cost analysis, Alternative #2 isthe best option for the highway alignment.
Schedule Analysis
The schedule analysis for the highway alignments produces a con-struction schedule for each of the three alignment alternatives. Theschedule components are obtained from the IFC file to present theschedule to the user. IfcWorkSchedule is the IFC entity used to de-termine activity durations, start dates, end dates, and creation datesfor the project schedule. Fig. 15 shows the Express-G diagram forIfcWorkSchedule, which applies to each of the highway compo-nents, such as IfcRoad, IfcRoadBase, and IfcRoadCurb. The datarequired to determine the durations of activities are stored in theseIFC entities.
The system produces a critical path method (CPM) schedulediagram for each of the alignment alternatives. Fig. 16 presentsthe schedule diagram produced for base option. The total durationof the project is presented in each of the CPM schedule diagramsand the duration for each activity of the project. Durations are cal-culated for each activity of the highway alignment based on thequantity take-off values obtained from the system. The activitiesinclude excavation, embankment, subbase, base, subgrade, surface,and water drainage. Specific durations are calculated for each ofthose activities for each of the alternatives and are formed in theschedule diagram to produce a complete construction schedule.
Fig. 17 presents the comparison of the total duration of con-struction for the three alignment alternatives. Alternative #1 and
Fig. 14. Total cost comparison of three highway alignment alternatives
IfcWorkSchedule
GlobalIdSTRING
Duration
UnitSTRING
DescriptionSTRING
ObjectTypeStart Date
STRING End Date
TagSTRING
IfcTimeMeasure
IfcDateTimeSelect
IfcDateTimeSelect
IfcPersonCreators
Creation Date IfcDateTimeSelect
PredefinedTypeIfcWorkControlTypeEnum
IfcSlab IfcRoof IfcColumn IfcWindowIfcRoadBaseIfcRoad IfcRoadCurb IfcBridgeDeck IfcBridgeFooting IfcTunnel
Fig. 15. Express-G diagram for IfcWorkSchedule
Fig. 16. Construction schedule for highway alignment 1
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Base Option55 presented similar total duration values at 157 and155 days, respectively. The total duration for Base Option is sig-nificantly more at 245 days. Simple automated presentation of thisdata from the system allows for alternative selection based on thetotal duration. When considering the total duration of the project,Alternative #2 is the best option.
Conclusion
Highway planning and construction are often complex and timeconsuming. Designing and analyzing different alignment alterna-tives is even more time consuming and tends to be very costly.The explicit contributions to the body of knowledge that this paperclaims is that the conducted research utilized an object-oriented 3Dmodeling approach to solve the problem of time-consuming high-way planning.
The three alternatives modeled in this research provided suffi-cient data to determine an optimum option. Based on the quantitytake-off values, Base Option had lower excavation quantity, butAlternative #1 had lower embankment quantity, and the other quan-tity values were too close to be significant. In terms of total costcomparison, Base Option and Alternative #2 are significantly lessthan Alternative #1. The estimated total cost for Base Optionand Alternative #1 were $4,106,474.82 and $3,823,436.20, respec-tively. Total cost for Alternative #1 was estimated at $5,820,665.40.Alternative #2 is a slightly better option than Base Option in termsof total cost. The total estimated duration for the project were esti-mated at 245 days for Base Option, 157 days for Alternative #1,and 155 days for Alternative #2. Based on the output values ob-tained for quantity take off, total cost, and schedule duration,the optimum output for the highway alignment is Alternative #2.
The process of identifying alignment alternatives and their re-spective quantity take-off values, costs, and schedules included averification process. The main verification for this research wascomparing the two additional alignment alternatives with the basealignment. For this research, the base alignment was represented asBase Option. The results of the Base Option in this research wereobtained from the actual results of the Korean highway construc-tion project. In terms of total construction cost, Alternative #1 wasestimated 42% more and Alternative #2 was estimated 7% less thanthe Base Option. For the construction duration, Alternative #1 wasestimated to require 36% shorter duration and Alternative #2 wasestimated to require 37% shorter duration than the Base Option.
Several difficulties arose from the research process. The 3Dmodeling process to convert to Civil 3D to SketchUp for analysisand calculations was complex and contained a significant amountof data. Some steps were taken to make the process more efficientto run the analysis in a timely manner, but additional research isneeded for data simplification for large projects. In addition to
the model processing, the cut and fill calculations from the modelswere also complex and determining accuracy is in continued devel-opment. Further research is needed to develop an efficient andaccurate method of quantifying earthwork operations from 3Dmodels based in the IFC systems.
The result from multiple alignment alternative analysis presentssignificant data for alignment comparison. The automation processof this research affords the opportunity to identify an optimum sol-ution in a timely manner. At the time of this research, there waslittle application of highway construction within the communityand the prototype developed and presented in this paper demon-strates the potential of application within the industry. Open stan-dard IFC modeling used in this research allows for automatedalternative modeling and data output. The values provided aid inthe selection process of design comparison. As BIM continuesto develop in the highway construction sectors, the methods dem-onstrated with the prototype can be more accepted and shared in theindustry.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the “Development of InformationModel Standard and Verification Technology for Infra BIM” pro-ject, funded by the Korea Institute of Construction Technology(KICT).
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