Chapter 3 - Design Time Cost Reporting

External Material Movement Example

Material Movement Types
While calculating a cost for your alignment, Softree Optimal is also generating an optimal haul
specification. Because you can specify borrow and waste pits, there are two types of haul available:

• Internal haul moves material from excavation in the road construction area to embankment
also in the road construction area.
• External haul is earthwork which either starts or ends up in pit (outside the road construction
area).
All material movement is classified as either Freehaul, Overhaul or Endhaul depending on the haul
distance. External material movement includes the following types of movement:

Borrow / Waste Material movement from/to user defined pits.

Sidecast Excess cut material disposed of along the alignment.

Overflow / Underflow This movement is used only when all other options to balance
volumes have been exhausted. The Overflow/Underflow pit is
located at the beginning of the alignment.

Note:

a) Softree Optimal must account for all material of each type. The sum of all Internal and External Material
must be zero for all material types (cut and fill have opposite signs).
b) If you want to internally balance a road, remove all Borrow and Waste pits. If it is geometrically possible
(without violating constraints), the road will be balanced internally (material movements will be restricted to the
road construction area). If a significant volume ends up in Overflow / Underflow, it indicates a balance can't
be made without importing or exporting material.

External Movement Example

In this example, we consider the most common applications of external material movement. In the
first part, we will look at overflow/underflow reporting and how to configure the reporting area in the
Alignment Panel. In the second section, we will examine side-cast and how to add range based
constraints.

If you are starting here, open the Softree Optimal application. If you are continuing from
the previous start at step 4.

File button | Open. Select Hart Rd.dsnx. Press Open.

Arrange your screen as before, to look like the Figure 3-2. You may need to arrange your visible
windows by selecting the View tab | Tile Vertically

Press the Options button in Alignment Properties Panel toolbar.

a. Select the Pits tab.

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