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Designing Roads/Canals Using OptiSurface

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Ed Foronda
Updated 5 months ago

Canal Side Battering


The purpose of this is to bring soil to the canal side to help batter up this area, as this area is prone to soil erosion from siphons out of the earth/concrete feeder, as well as traffic compaction and movement of soil caused by haulage rigs and other infield traffic.

As contractors can have two different types of scraper, namely a duel-receiver scraper or single-receiver scraper, there are two approaches to use to implement canal side battering depending on the scraper (reason being that a single-receiver scraper cannot implement a cross-sloped battering).

Single-Receiver Scraper


If the contractor who will implement the design has a single-receiver scraper, you need to design a flat topped battering. The battering should be ±100mm high above the proposed surface alongside the canal, and extend for 6m into the field. Steps to implement this are below:
Figure 1. Single-Receiver Scraper

Select Draw Straight Breakline in the toolbar (see icon below) and insert breakline as close to the boundary line of the field as possible (only the boundary sides where water is extracted from earth/concrete canals with siphons). Following this, right-click on the Topography tab under Proposed (left of screen, see below) and select Retriangulate Without Breaklines. This will ensure the proposed surface is unaffected by the breakline (for now).

Figure 2. Draw Straight Breakline Icon

Figure 3. Breadkline Insertion: Retriangulating without Breaklines

Then right-click on the breakline and select Design. Once the design tab is open, select Calculate Using Proposed Surface, set your spacing to 5m, and set the Target Depth to -0.1m (negative value so that it is ABOVE the surface, and not below). No other inputs are required.














Figure 4. Breakline Design Selection, and Design Breakline Parameters

Now that the Breakline is designed, you can create another breakline which follows the same height profile but is offset by 6m… effectively creating a 6m wide ‘step’. Right-click on the designed breakline, select Offset, and select Left (or Right, depending on direction the breakline was created), input a Horizontal Offset, keep the Vertical Offset to zero, and deselect Update Related Offset Lines.
















Figure 5. Breakline Offset, and Offset Parameters

Once this is done, Retriangulate the Proposed Topography (as in screenshot below).

Figure 6. Retriangulate with Breaklines

The contours across the 6m wide step which you created might not be uniform and have some anomalies (as in screenshot below). You will need to delete some points from the surface to create a smoother finish. Follow the steps below to remove excess points alongside the 6m wide step.

Figure 7. Retriangulated Proposed Surface

Figure 8. Delete Points

Figure 9. Proposed Surface: Deleting Points

Once the excess points have been deleted, the contours across the step should be uniform with no anomalies, as below.
Figure 10. "Cleaned up" Surface Battering

Your surface and design is now ready. You can now recalculate cut/fill before exporting your design.


Duel-Receiver Scraper 


If the contractor who will implement the design has a duel-receiver scraper, you can design for the battering to be 300mm high above the proposed surface alongside the canal, and then batter that down to the proposed surface over 6m. Steps to implement this are below:

Figure 11. Duel-Receiver Scraper

Select Draw Straight Breakline in the toolbar (see icon below) and insert breakline as close to the boundary line of the field as possible (only the boundary sides where water is extracted from earth/concrete canals with siphons). Following this, right-click on the Topography tab under Proposed (left of screen, see below) and select Retriangulate à Without Breaklines. This will ensure the proposed surface is unaffected by the breakline (for now).

Figure 12. Draw Straight Breakline Icon


Figure 13. Breakline Insertion: Retriangulating without Breaklines

Then right-click on the breakline and select Design. Once the design tab is open, select Calculate Using Proposed Surface, set your spacing to 5m, and set the Target Depth to -0.3m (negative value so that it is ABOVE the surface, and not below). No other inputs are required.















Figure 14. Breakline Design Selection, and Design Breakline Input Parameters

Now that the Breakline is designed, you can create another breakline which batters down to the proposed surface over ±6m. To do this, right-click on the designed breakline, select Batter, and select the Proposed Surface, select Left (or Right, depending on direction the breakline was created), input the Slope Down % (5% drops 0.3m over 6m) set the Flat Width to 0m, and deselect Update Related Offset Lines.
















Figure 15. Breakline Batter Selection, and Batter Breakline Design Parameters

Once this is done, Retriangulate the Proposed Topography (as in screenshot below).

Figure 16. Retriangulate with Breaklines

The contours across the ±6m wide ‘bank’ might not be uniform and have some anomalies (as in screenshot below). You will need to delete some points from the surface to create a smoother finish. Follow the steps below to remove excess points alongside the bank.

Figure 17. Retriangulated Proposed Surface

Figure 18. Delete Points

Figure 19. Proposed Surface: Deleting Points

Once the excess points have been deleted, the contours across the bank should be uniform with no anomalies, as below.

Figure 20. "Cleaned up" Surface Battering

Your surface and design is now ready. You can now recalculate cut/fill before exporting your design.


Infield Waterway & Road Design

Waterway can be ±150mm deep, ±6m wide (wide enough for road too). To note that once the contractor has implemented the design the operations team will still need to send a grader to create a drain each side of the road, which will allow the road to stay intact. The infield waterway and road can be created by inserting a breakline, and then using the Offset and Batter functions to create the profile/design that you are after. The screenshot below is an example of a waterway which was created, followed by a raised portion on the top side of the road which will be used to create an earth canal.
                 Figure 21. Flood: Field where drain and raised feeder created in the design 
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