An Earthwork Districting Model for Large Construction Projects

Abstract

Earthwork in a large construction project such as a land development generally costs 20-30% of the total cost. The earthmoving process, comprising of four repetitive tasks: loading, hauling, unloading, returning, is quite simple and it does not need delicate or advanced techniques. Therefore, earthmoving earthwork planning can heavily affect the cost and time., and Even a slight deviation from the plan can increase or decrease the cost and time. This study presents a planning model that minimizes average haul distance in a large complex construction project. Based on earthwork planning, practitioners’ heuristics, a districting algorithm and Simulated Annealing algorithm were employed to build the model. Districting algorithm plays a role that divides in dividing an earthmoving area into several sections. Simulated annealing provides a function that decides whether a new generated solution is confident. Finally, the proposed model was applied to a real earthmoving project of a large land development. It was found that the model showed approximately 14% improvement in average hauling distance compared to the actual design plan.