COWI and the Swedish Transport Administration use Trimble Quantm to find the best road corridor for a new road on the west coast of Sweden. The tool makes it possible to automate large parts of the analysis process to effectively evaluate all possible road lines.
The project in question is Road 168 which connects Marstrand with Kungälv and E6. The road is heavily trafficked during the summer, so road safety and accessibility have to be improved.
Project with a challenging localization
Field studies on the stretch, including geotechnical and archeological ones, have however made it necessary to assess possible localization in a larger area. The Swedish Transport Administration has therefore assigned COWI, among other things, to establish a road plan with corridor alternatives for the new road. The parties have decided to work with Trimble Quantm to automate parts of the work.
Quantm analyzes all possibilities
Quantm is a tool that simultaneously analyzes input data, such as terrain, alignment costs, such as pavement, structures (bridges, tunnels, retaining walls), material costs for cut and fill, crossing existing features such as roads, rivers, railway and consideration of environmental and social constraints.
Based on the input data as mentioned above, the Quantm software calculates thousands of options to identify the most optimal alignment, and then by grouping alignments from lowest cost to most expensive you can show the location of various alignment corridors.
The tool is particularly cost-effective in the investigation phase in order to get a complete overview of all the opportunities available, thus helping planners to identify possible corridors as well as conflicts of interest.
At the pre-feasibility stage, the Quantm software can be used as a tool to aid decision making, determining the macro viability of the road or rail corridor options. The software generates multiple alignments that cluster into primary corridors, while maintaining the 3D geometric requirements and other project constraints. The result is a set of preferred costed alignments for public consultation.
