Trimble Business Center

Hi

I am working on a bid for the earthworks of a decommissioned power station, to turn it into a new housing estate.  The earthworks strategy allows for completing a cut and fill to 1.5m below the formation level then placing 1.5m of clean fill up to the formation.  There are also a number of existing stockpiles on site which will all need to be used.  I have calculated the volumes using the takeoff module (and designed a formation level to balance the materials) but now I want to produce a mass haul for us to cost.  I have been playing around with it and it looks really useful.  My only issues are the stock piles and the 1.5m of clean cover.  I have created waste sites to be utilized for the clean cover and burrow sites at the location of the stock piles.  Is there a way to force the system to use 100% of all waste and burrow sites?  Or is there a better way to get the program to factor in these volumes?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Fred

Fred

Give me a call today on +1 720 323 0481 and we can discuss this and look at your project to determine the best approach here. The Mass Haul uses Cost to determine the most optimal way to use and distribute the materials available. If the same material is available from several sources, then the cheapest overall will be used first until it is fully consumed - so if there are 3 stockpiles at different distances from the target locations required, and all three have the same cost of Borrow and same cost of haul (per yd3 / distance) then the nearest pile will be consumed first and then the second furthest and then the furthest last. The site can determine to move material from one zone to another or move material in zone or borrow and import the data from a stockpile. So the trick if you want to use all the stockpiles first and then use zone to zone movements last is to make the stockpile materials cheaper than the zone to zone movement materials. You can do that by making zone to zone haul roads that have a high cost, or by increasing the cost of collection in zone significantly, to weight the calculations in favor of the stockpiles. Alternatively you can control the use of materials through the definition of haul roads from the stockpiles to the site zones in certain areas that will consume the materials of the stockpiles, and then put in haul roads between other zones to allow materials to be moved between them and not connect them to the stockpiles at all.

I hope that this helps - call me on my cell if not and we can discuss

Alan 

Hi Alan.  

Thanks for the info.  It all makes sense.  The problem I have now is that the software will not use the borrow (stockpiles) because in order to balance the site it has to fill all my waste sites (clean cover fill material) and it is only putting enough in to use up the site won material from the zones and not the borrow material (stockpiles).

Any ideas?

Fred

Are you wanting it to raise the design surface to use all the material

available because if there is enough material on site without the Stockpile

Materials then that I guess is the only option, or are you trying to remove

the On Site Material to Waste locations so that you can consume the

Stockpile Materials?

This is why we need a call to discuss - I dont think I have your contact

number - can you email me on alan.sharp@rockpilesolutions.com so I can call

you to discuss (also what time zone are you on?)

Alan

On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 2:49 AM fred@flsurveys.co.uk <trimble@jiveon.com>

It would be good if there was more 'Site Types' in the Create Earthworks site function.  For example a 'stockpile site' and a 'mitigation bund site' and you can choose whether the total capacity needs to be used or not.  Also would be good if you could specify material type in waste site as I have some waste sites which can only take unsuitable/contaminated materials and some which can only be clean material. 

Maybe something for a future update?  I do a lot of work on contaminated land sites and this sort of function would be a great help.

Fred

To summarize what I would do based on our conversation this morning

1) I would include the Stockpile for Asbestos in my Existing Surface and

include the formation / Finished Design Beneath it as a part of the

"Design" surface in my Final Surface. Then use the Cut Fill Map to create

the Cut Fill between the two.

2) Define a boundary around the Asbestos Pile and treat that as one of your

zones in the Mass Haul.

3) Define a boundary and use that as a zone in the Mass Haul around the

Location where you can bury the Asbestos Material and connect it to the

Asbestos pile using a Haul Road. Make sure that no haul roads cross that

Haul Road and that it only has two ends - one in the pile and one in the

placement location. That way it all has to go there - and it will get

consumed. If that is your highest priority and you want to use that first

before you use any other material, make sure that its combination cost of

movement and distribution and collection is cheaper than anything else you

take into that zone.

4) I would do two Site Mass Hauls - One to go from Existing to Formation

and a second from Formation to Finished with your Clean Cover materials. In

the first Mass Haul I would make sure that I waste enough of the Clean

Cover to a location where I can store it and use it as a Borrow Location

for Stage 2 Mass Haul (so I would define a Waste and Borrow at the same

location and use one in phase 1 and the other in phase 2. It does mean that

you have to know your bulk volumes for each phase so that you know where

you are going to waste the clean cover from in Phase 1 that you can use in

Phase 2.

When you define the Site Mass Haul, you need to define the zones - those

can be regular or irregular shaped boundaries, around areas where you know

you have to do specific activities, and then if you need to drive a

material from one location to a specified destination then you make that

using a haul road on site from Zone A to Zone B (dont allow any haul roads

to cross if you dont want the material ending up somewhere else on site

(this can be tricky to define a haul pattern on site that does not have

cross overs, but it is normally possible. If two haul roads cross, then the

material can go along either path if it is needed somewhere and the cost of

haulage and cost of material controls the prioritization (so I use cost as

a weighting factor to drive the calcs to do what I want them to do  -

Typically I will make a main Haul Road and then do little connectors from

it to the locations / zones where I want the material to go - that way you

can easily control the material flows.

If you need me to take a look I can do that - just let me know. Happy to

coach you also as needed

Alan

On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 2:56 AM fred@flsurveys.co.uk <trimble@jiveon.com>