CVEN2401 Infraworks360 Guide Part 2:

Assessing the design of an existing road

Infraworks360 can be used to import and assess existing roads to understand the properties,
strengths and weaknesses of the current infrastructure. The following Infraworks360 Guide details
how to use features of Infraworks360 to conduct an assessment of existing road infrastructure.
Ensure that you have created the base model you wish to assess using the guidelines presented in
the Infraworks360 Guide Part 1: Introduction to Infraworks360.

1 Identification of Geometric Features

1. You will see that on the existing road network, Day Lane and Barker Street will be segmented
into discrete sections. On these sections you can assign a variety of road
attributes/characteristics such as maximum speed, lanes forward and so on. Ensure that the
speeds and purpose of the road sections (which you designate in the attributes section on the
road) are labelled correctly according to what is observed on site.
2. To obtain data such as length, grade range and stopping sight distance data, for each of these
segments, you must convert these segments into design roads. To do this, right click on the
relevant section and choose from the dropdown menu: convert to design road (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1: Converting to design roads

3. After converting to a design road, greater details of road characteristic data can be obtained and
tabulated. For example, for the first section of Day Lane, ending at the intersection with
Strachan Street:
a. Length = 275.636m
b. Elevation range = 23.006 25.385
c. Grade range = 0.81% - 1.64%
4. Note that the ranges are the maximum and minimum, and to read off the chainage at which you
have maximum and minimum, you will need to look at the profile view by right-clicking and
selecting Show profile view (Figure 1.2).
a. The green line represents the existing terrain and the black line represents the proposed
road profile

CVEN2401 Infraworks360 Guide: Part 2 1

 b. Be careful as to how chainage is defined for each segment as Infraworks does not treat
the roads as continuous
5. Tabulate the lengths and grade ranges for each segment of the roads. Make clear notes on
segments where the grade range exceeds the allowable grade (refer to Austroads Guide and
Lecture notes for allowable grades by using PVI markers.

Figure 1.2: Sample profile view diagram

2 Stopping Sight Distance Assessment

1. Once you have converted to a design road, exit the edit menu (right click, exit edit).
2. You can check stopping sight distance from the menu shown in the diagram below. In this menu
you will see sight distance as an option select this option.

Figure 2.1: Sight Distance Module

3. Choose stopping sight distance and the lane you are interested in (you will have the option of
forward or backward representing the left and right lanes for the direction of increasing
chainage respectively) and then click analyse (See Figure 2.2)
4. The analysis will present a colour coded road segment: blue, yellow or red (most commonly
blue or yellow) indicating whether the stopping sight distance is satisfactory (blue) or

CVEN2401 Infraworks360 Guide: Part 2 2

 unsatisfactory (yellow and red). As presented in the diagram below, the blue sections show
where the sight is clear, and the yellow section shows where there is failure (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.2: Sight Distance module settings

Figure 2.3: Completed sight distance analysis visual output

CVEN2401 Infraworks360 Guide: Part 2 3