A unified vertical alignment and earthwork model in road design with a new convex optimization model for road networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive convex optimization model for vertical alignment and earthwork in road design, unifying previous advancements and effectively handling complex road network scenarios.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel mixed-integer linear programming model that unifies multiple previous enhancements and maintains convexity in multi-material road network optimization.

Findings

Model effectively approximates material volumes.

Performs well on large road networks.

Unifies multiple previous modeling techniques.

Abstract

The vertical alignment optimization problem in road design seeks the optimal vertical alignment of a road at minimal cost, taking into account earthwork while meeting all safety and design requirements. In recent years, modelling techniques have been advanced to incorporate: side slopes, multiple material types, multiple hauling types, and road networks. However, the advancements were created disjointly with implementations that only made a single advancement to the basic model. Herein, we present a mixed-integer linear programming optimization model that unifies all previous advancements. The model further improves on previous work by maintaining convexity even in the multi-material setting. We compare our new model to previous models, validate it numerically, and demonstrate its capability in approximating material volumes. Our new model performs particularly well for determining the optimal vertical alignment for large road networks.