Model Development for Optimising Earthwork Operations on Highway Projects

Abstract

Earthwork is equipment intensive activity as it involves heavy construction equip- ment like excavator, trucks, grader, roller, etc. which have very high operational cost. Earthwork involves cutting the excess soil or lling the suitable soil wherever de cit and grading, compaction and to create the required grade. The new method of earth allocation plan using principle of linear programming are developed, but presently the most widely used method for earth allocation operation is mass di- agram method. In this research work, the conventional mass haul method and linear programming method was considered for comparative analysis. The math- ematical model was developed using principle of linear programming to create the critical earth allocation plans. The MATLAB programming software was used to solve the linear programming problem based on principle of transportation model. For comparative analysis, 8 case studies with di erent plan and pro le of road are considered and results in terms of cost, time, and haul patterns are computed for both the methods of earth allocation. It was observed that results obtained with mathematical model provide more optimized results than mass haul diagram for all case studies.