Component Roads in Infraworks

By Trevor Clayton

There are various methods of creating roads with Infraworks.

• Planning Roads – Default road type when importing data from sources such as Ordnance Survey ITN data.
• Design Roads - Style based, dependant on required design speed, editable geometry and gradients allows the use of Infraworks analysis.
• Component Roads – Component based, more akin to Civil 3D. Extended analysis and annotation is available. The method of creating or converting design roads to a component road is relatively simple and opens a more accurate and realistic road design to take forward.

My personal favourite is the component road, as it just allows more control over my design.Once a base for your road has been established, you can select any component and edit as required, for instance, we can treat each lane individually according to requirements and edit width, depth or slope straight from the asset card.  Adding another assembly is just a case of right clicking and selecting “insert road component” and then select the applicable component from the library. You can then carry on building up your design as required.Figure 1 Component Road with 2 lanes

Figure 2 Component Road with added assemblies

Once you are happy with your road you can then start to analyse it. Quantities, for example, can be gained by selecting the earthwork button at the bottom of the asset card.Figure 3 Extract of Exported Earthwork Calculations

There is also the option to view a cross section of the road again by right clicking and selecting ‘show cross section’. You then have an interactive cut bar that allows you to view any part of the road in section.

For those of you using the AASHTO standard, you do have an option to view superelevation.

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