HEADS^®Pro^TM

The largest and versatile road design software appropriate to various requirements in highway project

The development of effective road transport system is the primary need of any developing country and the upgrading of existing road network system is essential for the developed countries as the capacity of roads in urban and non-urban highways is reached to saturation level with the passage of time.

The road development involves very high degree of attention by the project Authorities as well as by the Consultants, Engineers and Contractors. Any mistake May result in expenditure of a few millions which could have been avoided. Normally the design of route alignment and the pavement structure decide the cost of a highway project and for this job the best experienced manpower and best available tools must be deployed.

The best available tools essentially Include the selection of most appropriate Highway Design software which must be capable of handling any type of situation and the best manpower is the engineers and other technical staff who have the essential educational background and sufficient experience in working for similar projects and most essentially have required level of training to use high quality design software products.

TechSOFT Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd

NEXT GENERATION TECHNOLOGY

Presently there are two varieties of Software available based on two basic concepts namely: "Template" and "String" modeling. The first group of products are simple to learn and handle but have substantial limitations in handling today’s demand for road geometric design, Whereas software using "String" modeling technique is efficient for highway projects involving Widening of existing roads, Surface Profile Correction & Strengthening, Design of multi-alignment road sections, varying cross-sections, with or without service roads appearing anywhere along the length, design of Multi-level Grade Separated Interchanges, At Grade Junctions, Design of Split Level Dual Carriageway roads, Hill roads having special considerations, Vehicular Tunnels with sharp turns ranging from 90 to 180 degrees. In HEADS the conventional String technique is modified to make the production more efficient. HEADS has full power CAD engine to view and edit drawings as desired. The drawings are compatible to all commonly used CAD softwares. HEADS also have special versions for their applications in all types of Rail Routes and Rail Yards, Mass & Light Rail transit system, Metro Rails, Mono Rails, Pavements and Geometrics for Runway, Taxiway, Apron, Rapid exit etc. for Airport construction.

Fig 1 Power of CAD based design technology

HEADS software from TechSOFT Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd. is based on "String" modeling technique and is today’s established name in offering the users all the facilities described above. It accepts Topographical Survey data from Total Station, Auto level, GPS, Topo Maps, Aerial Photograph, Satellite Imagery Remote Sensing etc. It offers the facility to use Digitized Topo Maps in case of absence of Topographical Survey data. Detailed tables are also generated for Traverse Survey, EDM Survey and Co-ordinate conversion from Spherical (Lat-Long) to Rectangular (Easting-Northing) which is a very complex process and is hardly available in market available products.

HEADS has its own CAD engine and is best appreciated for its Power, Completeness, Versatility, Fastest Processing, Simplicity and Exchangeability of Input and Output with other commonly used Road Engineering software of similar kind and all popular CAD software.

HEADS itself is a marvel in the history of softwares of similar engineering applications. The main power of HEADS lies in its CAD engine which produces sophisticated drawings for the project. This achievement is in addition to its engineering output with best possible accuracy and widest range of coverage in any road engineering project. The various applications are highlighted here:

Applications for Land Survey: Processing of Total station Survey data, Development of Ground Modeling, Digital Terrain Model, Digital Mapping, Contouring, Perspective views, Traverse Co-ordinates correction by Bowditch, Transit, Closed Link, EDM Applications, GPS Survey and Co ordinate Transformations, Ground Sections, Storage of Ground information in Layered CAD System compatible to AutoCAD, MicroStation etc., In-built CAD graphics and design system is very sophisticated and full of drawing features, With all above producing Survey Base Plan.

Applications for Construction: Processing Cross Sections Survey by Auto Level, Bill of Quantities for Running Account Billing with Chainage wise Cross Section Drawings, Rate Analysis, Generating Site Setting out details with desired modifications as and when required, Preparation of As built Drawings Alignment Control for Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), String Tables with Elevations at Normal Cross fall & Super elevated sections etc.

Applications for Engineering Design : Alignment design for Highways, Low cost rural roads, Tunnels, Railways, MRT, LRT etc. Processing Geometric design with complete set of site setting-out information and generating best formatted drawings for PLAN, PROFILE, Cross Sections. It also produces Estimation of Quantities, Analysis of Item Unit Rates, Complete range of pavement design, Hydrological design of Drainage, Multi-level Grade separated Interchanges etc. The Geometric Design is based on improved MODEL-String technique with detailed well formatted Reports. HEADS produces Landxml output enable the users to transfer the design output for 3D Visualization Drive Through.

SURVEY, DTM and GPS: String based software generally starts functioning using the Detail Survey data primarily using Total Station instrument. But there are a lot more tasks to do in an actual project, before obtaining the Detail Survey data. These essential tasks are most commonly the Obtaining two Reference points at every 5 Kilometres using GPS instrument, Using the GPS Co-ordinates carrying out Traverse Survey by using Total Station instrument, Obtaining Correct Traverse Co-ordinates by Bowditch or Transit or Closed Link method followed by installation of Reference Pillars to help in carrying out the Detail Survey. These are essential tasks for any Detail Survey project. The GPS data is more reliable if obtained in the form of Longitude and Latitude (than in the form of East North), the Long Lat data may be converted to Easting and Northing by using correct parameters specific to the location in the globe. Once the GPS data are available in Easting and Northing, these become usable by the Total Station instrument. The data conversion needs correct parameters and the process is also quite cumbersome. Additionally the Correction of Traverse Co-ordinates to install Reference Pillars also needs considerable amount of time and effort by the engineers at the project site. Here comes HEADS as the complete one stop solution for all these requirements by the site engineers at simplest effort. Being a String based software HEADS is very versatile to handle various site situations and eventually comes as an ‘All Complete Solution’ for various Transportation Engineering projects.

CO ORDINATE TRANSFORMATION BY GPS TECHNOLOGY

The instrument GPS (Global Positioning System) is based on Satellite technology. In total about 24 Satellites are rotating around the Earth in various orbits all through the day and taking different times to complete a rotation. For GPS usage 8 Satellites are required in between the First and Second Horizon Circles of the instrument.

If the observer stands in a Plane ground he observes that the sky is touching the ground all around him forming a circle, this is the First Horizon. From his point of observation if a straight line is projected to the sky and rotated to complete a full circle then that is the Second Horizon.

Any circle inside the second Horizon or vertically above is not taken into account, because any object if seen from the top does give any measurement on the height of the object. So to get the height the object is to be seen obliquely. The average observation of 8 or more Satellites gives almost the true height of the object. In case of Ground it is the elevation with respect to the mean sea level.

GPS gives the output in two modes Spherical Coordinate System as Longitude & Latitude in Degree Minute & Second and Rectangular Coordinate System as Easting & Northing in Metres.

If the output is taken in spherical system the user is always safe as the values of Longitude & Latitude are unique for a particular location on the earth. But if any Total Station Survey is to be carried out by using the GPS data as reference point, then the data must be in Rectangular Coordinate system ie, in Northing & Easting in metres.

Here comes the first conversion which is from Spherical system to Rectangular system. If the radius of earth is ‘R’ in metres and Ø1 is the Latitude and Ø2 is the Longitude in Degree Minute & Second then Easting equals to R x (Ø1 in radian) and Northing equals to R x (Ø2 in radian) and finally both the values are in metres.

The above computed values of Easting and Northing in metres are quite large as these are with respect to the Global Coordinate System. Almost every developed & developing country has its own Local Coordinate System. The origin of the Local Coordinate System is separated from origin of the Global Coordinate System by two distances X-Offset & Y-Offset in metres. The axes of the Local Coordinate System is also rotated about X & Y axes of the Global Coordinate System by angles Lat_Offset & Long_Offset, both in Degree Minute & Second.

The Second conversion comes by deducting the X_Offset and Y_Offset values from the Easting & Northing values already computed as stated above to get the reduced values of Easting & Northing. Next the rotations of both the axes Lat-Offset & Long-Offset are also applied on the reduced values of Easting & Northing to get the final values of Easting & Northing which are specific for a location in a particular country.

The Earth shape is not spherical rather it is of irregular shape because of High altitudes at locations of numerous high mountains and Low elevations at locations of various oceans. This irregularity in the shape of the globe does not give a unique radius ‘R’. The problem is solved by considering different radii valid over different regions on the globe. The radius valid for a country may not be applicable in its neighboring country.

The parameters relating the Local Coordinate System of a country to the Global Coordinate System are X-Offset, Y-Offset, Lat-Offset & Long-Offset. These values are also expected to be different for different Country.

So, it is very important to calibrate the GPS instrument by using appropriate country specific parameters Radius of Earth, X-Offset, Y-Offset, Lat-Offset & Long-Offset before using the GPS instrument and when the output is desired in Rectangular Coordinate System which are Easting & Northing in metres. Otherwise the market available GPS instruments are normally holding the parameters of the country of its origin and will result incorrect coordinates.

It is therefore advisable to receive the GPS output in Spherical Coordinate System and Convert into Rectangular Coordinate System using the country specific parameters. The facility is available with HEADS under menu option ‘DGM-Coordinate Conversion’. User may change the default parameters in the dialog box with parameters obtaining from the Survey Department of the country.

The Parameters for Transforming Longitude / Latitude to Easting / Northing to be given to yield the desired transformations are described below. These are default parameters and are applicable to a particular part in India, User has to change the parameters as applicable.

Fig 2 Co ordinate Conversion for GPS and Total Station

1. Spheroid : Everest 1956

2. Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

// Spheroid Parameters

    A = 6377301.243; // India 1956

    F = 1.0/300.8017; // Everest

// False Northing & Easting

    x_offset = 3000000.0;

    y_offset = 1000000.0;

// Origin - Zone Specific

   lat_offset = 19D 15m 14.9818s

   long_offset = 79.0D 0m 0s;

// Standard Paralells Specific

   PHI1 Æ1 = 17D 15m 0s;

   PHI2 Æ2 = 21D 15m 0s;

For Converting from Longitude & Latitude to Easting & Northing user has to select the Radio button From WGS84 to LCC located at top right hand corner of the screen.

User Input file may be named as LongLat.TXT containing the following data:

 HEADS

130,COCONV

131,Conversion from Long Lat to Easting Northing

132,79 2 22.144 20 3 24.97384

132,79 4 51.829 20 1 1.082126

132,79 4 43.159 20 1 10.11755

132,79 4 29.555 20 1 13.29371

132,79 4 15.749 20 1 22.25524

FINISH

Output data will always be in the Report File : EastNorth.REP

Easting Northing

(Metres) (Metres)

3004127.79184 1088809.39141

3008476.63357 1084388.68017

3008224.67406 1084666.24799

3007829.48842 1084763.68565

3007428.36707 1085038.93019

For Converting from Easting & Northing to Longitude & Latitude user has to select the Radio button From LCC to WGS84 located at top right hand corner of the screen.

User Input file may be named as EastNorth.TXT containing the following data:

HEADS

130,COCONV

133,Converted Data from WGS84 to Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

134,3004127.79184 1088809.39141

134,3008476.63357 1084388.68017

134,3008224.67406 1084666.24799

134,3007829.48842 1084763.68565

134,3007428.36707 1085038.93019

FINISH

Output File will always be the Report File : LonLat.REP

Longitude Latitude

(Deg Min Sec) (Deg Min Sec)

79 2 22.144 20 3 24.97384

79 4 51.829 20 1 1.082126

79 4 43.159 20 1 10.11755

79 4 29.555 20 1 13.29371

79 4 15.749 20 1 22.25524

IN BUILT CAD ENGINE FOR INTERACTIVE DESIGN AND DRAWINGS

HEADS Pro is the masterpiece for its various applications in road engineering projects. It enables the engineers and professionals to produce the best in their work by suiting the site condition most accurately and economically.

Fig 3 CAD based interactive alignment design and modification at any time

CAD BASED INTERACTIVE ALIGNMENT PLANNING

The availability of Google images is a remarkable achievement in recent time. HEADS opens the images and upon setting actual Easting & Northing coordinates in the image the route alignment may be tried for various options against the existing land use of the region and finalized for best techno-economic option.

Fig 4 CAD based interactive Alignment Planning on Satellite or Google Images

DESIGN OPTIMIZATION FOR COST MINIMIZATION

Advanced technology is available in HEADS to Optimize the Vertical Profile of the proposed roadway either for the Profile correction and Overlay or for the Earthwork in Cut & Fill in case of new construction.

Fig 5 Design Optimization for Cost Minimization

DESIGN OPTIMIZATION DECRIBED IN PROFILE LONG SECTION DRAWING

Advanced technology is available in HEADS to Optimize the Vertical Profile of the proposed roadway either for the Profile correction and Overlay or for the Earthwork in Cut & Fill in case of new construction.

Fig 6 Optimized Vertical Profile in Long Section Drawing

The Long section drawings are produced with maximum information to make the construction easier. In case of dual carriageway roads with service roads on either side the vertical profile of each carriageway and service roads can be shown with various design details. The information in Long section drawings are also in international standard and fulfills the requirements of most of the country’s standard.

Fig 7 Long Section Drawing with various Design Information

DETAIL ENGINEERING WITH HEADS

HEADS produces Survey Base Plan by Digital Mapping from the Ground model, Contours and DTM, writes detailed reports for every analysis and design with CAD drawings for Plan & Profile, Cross sections with designed Pavement Layers, Benched/Stepped slopes for Cut & Fill in Embankment construction with Embankment Toes on either side to keep the design within the right of way, Earthwork & Mass Haul diagram, Road side Drains, Gabion walls in Hill roads, Diagrammatic details for Horizontal & Vertical alignments and Super Elevations required for preparation & submissions for various Detail Project Reports.

Fig 8 Survey Base Plan

CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS BY HEADS

HEADS produces Plan-Profile and Cross section drawings for the projects in international standard, which means that the information mentioned in the drawing fulfills all construction requirements following the standards and specifications of most of the countries in the world.

Fig 9 Plan & Profile Drawing

Fig 10 Cross section Drawing for dual carriageway Highway

HIGHWAY STRENGTHENING AND WIDENING

In developing countries most of the projects are widening of the existing road carriageway. This needs strengthening of the existing carriageway with Profile correction followed by laying of Bituminous overlay at the top and on the other side there is construction of a new carriageway with full Pavement structure. This needs two separate designs for two carriageways in respect of Horizontal and Vertical alignment. In case the height of existing embankment is low then the surfaces of two carriageways will be at different levels. This is best done in HEADS using the versatile String technique.

Fig 11 Split Carriageway Design for Road Widening

Fig 12 Site Photo of Split Carriageway stretch after Road Widening

PAVEMENT DESIGN

HEADS offers AASHTO method of Pavement design for Flexible Pavement with stage construction facilities, Rigid Pavement by CRCP & JRCP, Pavement Overlay by Benkelman Beam Deflection test data and Design of Bituminous Mixes of Bituminous Concrete, Semi Dense Bituminous Concrete, Dense Bituminous Macadam & Bituminous Macadam based on Marshall Test data for Bulk Density, Stability and Flow and Blended Grading of aggregates with diagram. All the designs are generated with detailed illustrated design calculation report with relevant references to AASHTO Tables & Charts. The facility for computation of Equivalent Standard Axles in Millions (MSA) is also available with this system.

Fig 13 Pavement Design

HIGHWAY DRAINAGE

HEADS provides facility for the Hydraulic design of Highway Drainage using rainfall data in the region. Rate Analysis is also available for various Road and Bridge items. The detailed estimation of Bill of Quantities for construction items will enable speedy estimation of the project cost.

Fig 14 Highway Drainage

CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS FOR NEW ROADS

The road Cross section may be for new construction for either dual or single carriageway road with various pavement layers for full pavement structure designed for any new road to be constructed.

Fig 15 Cross section Drawing for new single carriageway construction

CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS FOR REHABILITATION OF OLD ROADS

Some times the existing single carriageway 2 lane road is proposed for rehabilitation after carrying out Benkelman Beam Deflection test and within the limited budgetary provisions. Here the central portion may be treated with Profile correction and a course of pavement overlay commonly by Bituminous Macadam or Dense Bituminous Macadam. In case the edges on both the sides are broken or damaged then full pavement structure for limited width may be proposed at the edges in such sections. HEADS computes the quantities for Profile Correction Course (PCC), Overlay and for side layers with best possible accuracy and produces the drawings with various levels at specified distances. These drawings are most essentials for such construction.

Fig 16 Cross section Drawing for Road Rehabilitation projects

DESIGN OF MULTI LEVEL GRADE SEPARATED INTERCHANGES

Design of multi level grade separated interchange is a marvel of highway engineering produced by HEADS. The accuracy of loop formation, bearing matching, maintaining the weaving distance are done very easily.

Fig 17 Trumpet Interchange for Fully Access Controlled Closed Toll Expressways

DESIGN OF HILL ROADS

Hill roads with hair pin bends, retaining walls, drains are designed with additional considerations to suit the existing site, construction possibilities, safety requirements, aesthetics and finally adopting the country’s design standard.

Fig 18 Hill Road with sharp turns at hair pin bends, Varying cut slopes, Drains and Gabion walls

DESIGN OF AT GRADE ROAD INTERSECTIONS

Fig 19 Design of At Grade road intersection

SAFETY STUDIES FOR HIGH SPEED EXPRESSWAYS

For the design of HIGHWAY and 6/8 Lane EXPRESSWAY at design speed 120 KPH or more by following relevant International Standard, HEADS is the most appropriate road design software.HEADS creates 3 dimensional perspective view of the terrain and the designed roadway. It can convert the design output in LandXML format and supports Visualization and Drive Through by compatible software. Drive through is helpful identifying the unsafe sections of the designed motorway along with the surrounding features.

Fig 20 3 Dimensional Perspective view and LandXML for Drive Through Visualization

ACCURACY IN COST ESTIMATION

In case two embankments are proposed to be constructed close to each other on the original ground, this results overlapping of the slopes of two embankments and results double computation of earthwork on the overlapped zone. HEADS is capable to handle such situation and avoid double computation of earthwork with the help of powerful technology of model edit.

Fig 21 3 Dimensional Perspective view at Embankment merging section

REINFORCING ASPHALT / BITUMINOUS LAYERS USING GEOSYNTHETICS / GEOGRIDS AND REINFORCING SUBGRADE USING JUTE GEOTEXTILES

The cost of Pavement structure is important for every road project and compromising with the structure will not allow the pavement to last long. So the cost reduction is to be done without lowering its strength. Now products are available to incorporate the pavement to increase the strength and longevity at a lesser cost. This is commonly done by laying Geosynthetics layer in between the layers of Asphalt concrete and Dense Bituminous Macadam and also by laying Jute Geotextiles at the top of the Subgrade layer.

Geosynthetics are not decomposable but Jute Geotextiles are decomposable and both increase the life of pavement significantly. Jute Geotextiles are very useful when the road is to be constructed in unstable ground. It is available in plenty in India and Bangladesh and is an inexpensive material. If the ground is stable but traffic load is high then the pavement structure becomes expensive. To reduce the cost either less expensive layers or lesser thickness are to be thought of. In such case if the strength is to be maintained same as the original structure then incorporating of Geosynthetics is an effective solution.

This requires correct analysis to determine the strength of the pavement structure by using various layers of different strength and thicknesses. Every pavement option may also be studied with and without incorporating the Geosynthetics.

The strength of pavement is required by obtaining the Elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio. The various companies are producing Falling weight Deflectometer, one of them is Dynatest (www.dynatest.com) and for analysis software HEADS may be used for various options.

In HEADS software option is available for Analysis for Layered pavement System. It may be used for 2 or 3 or 4 layer Pavement system, where the Layers may be combined to define as a Bound (Asphalt/Bituminous) Layer, Unbound layer (Granular Base), Sub Base and Sub Grade.

The input is required for Thickness of each Layer (excluding Subgrade), Modulus of Elasticity of each Layer and Poisson’s ration of each Layer (excluding Subgrade).

The final result is produced as : Horizontal Strain, Vertical Stress and Vertical Deflection at the interface of each two Layers.

The above results are improved by incorporating Geosynthetics or any other type of Reinforcement is used. The Analysis Report is generated with details of all Formulae and Calculation Steps and is highly useful for the users.

Fig 22 Analysis for Layered Pavement System

Fig 23 Analysis for Layered Pavement System…Result

Fig 24 (A) and (B) Fig 25 Geogrids Layed over cracked surface

Laying of Geogrids are in progress before laying the wearing course to strengthen

the weakened asphalt course

Fig 26 Selection of Geogrids

Comparative study of results obtained from HEADS

Table 1. Comparing the results

A number of field tests are available to test the strength of the pavement at site after construction but it is very rare to find a facility to estimate the results before construction. So the procedure described above is expected to be highly useful to project authorities and consultants to decide on the pavement structure and the type of reinforcement to be used. This will ensure increased design life of pavement at a lesser cost.

Analysis of Item Rates

With In built formulas on components of Materials, Equipment and Labourer the Unit Item Rates are computed for most of the Road, Culvert, Bridge and other work in worksheet.

Fig 27 Complete facilities of Item Rate Analysis in Worksheet

TechSOFT Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd.

Email:

techsoft@consultant.com

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