A bi-objective optimization framework for three-dimensional road alignment design

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bi-objective optimization framework for three-dimensional road alignment design, simultaneously optimizing horizontal and vertical alignments to balance earthwork and utility costs efficiently.

Contribution

It presents a novel bi-objective optimization model for 3D road alignment that considers conflicting costs and compares multiple solvers for Pareto front determination.

Findings

Pareto front can be computed in reasonable time

Bi-objective approach balances earthwork and utility costs

Multiple solvers effectively explore solution trade-offs

Abstract

Optimization of three-dimensional road alignments is a nonlinear non-convex optimization problem. The development of models that fully optimize a three-dimensional road alignment problem is challenging due to numerous factors involved and complexities in the geometric specification of the alignment. In this study, we developed a novel bi-objective optimization approach to solve a three dimensional road alignment problem where the horizontal and vertical alignments are optimized simultaneously. Two conflicting cost objective functions, \emph{earthwork} cost and the \emph{utility} cost, are cast in a bi-objective optimization problem. We numerically compare several multi-objective optimization solvers, and find that it is possible to determine the Pareto front in a reasonable time.