McGill University

Department of Civil Engineering

CIVE 208 Civil Engineering Systems Analysis
ASSIGNMENT 1

Student Name: McGill ID:

Due Date: September 28, 2022 before 18:00

Method of Submission:
o Assemble all your answers to the problems of the Assignment in one SINGLE PDF
file (phone scanner apps could be used to scan your answers).
o Please upload the PDF file of your answers on the myCourses web site (under the
Assignments Tab) before the deadline.

Problem 1
A contractor is planning a job that will require a large amount of gravel and sand. It is estimated
that the job will need:

Coarse gravel 20,000 yd3

Fine gravel 29,000 yd3
Sand 20,000 yd3

There are two pits from which the contractor can obtain material. The contractor plans to haul
from these two pits and separate on the job the material needed. Analysis shows that the material
at each pit has the following composition:

Material Pit A (%) Pit B (%)

Coarse gravel 20 30
Fine gravel 14 50
Sand 25 20
Waste 41 0

It costs the contractor $8.00 per cubic yard for material and hauling from pit A and $16.00 per
cubic yard from pit B. How much material should be hauled from each pit to minimize the hauling
cost? What will the total hauling cost be? Solve this problem graphically.

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Problem 2
The Chemical Company has two plants located along a stream (see figure). Plant 1 is generating
20 units of pollutants daily and plant 2 is generating 14 units. Before the wastes are discharged
into the stream, parts of these pollutants are removed by a waste treatment facility in each plant.
The costs associated with removing a unit of pollutant are $1000 and $800 for plants 1 and 2,
respectively. The rates of flow in the stream are Q1 = 5 million gallons per day (mgd) and Q2 = 2
mgd, and the flows contain no pollutants until they pass the plants. Stream standards require that
the number of units of pollutants per million gallons of flow should not exceed 2. Twenty percent
of the pollutants entering the stream at plant 1 will be removed by natural processes (i.e., oxidation
by the air) before they reach plant 2. The Chemical Company wants to determine the most
economical operation of its waste treatment facilities that will allow it to satisfy the stream
standards. Formulate and solve this problem using linear programming.

Plant 2
Plant 1

Q1 Q2

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