Recambering
Uploaded by
Suneth ThusharaRecambering
Uploaded by
Suneth ThusharaDEVELOPMENT OF A METHODOLOGY FOR CAMBER READJUSTMENT IN
REHABILITATION ROAD PROJECTS USING CIVIL 3D SOFTWARE
Eng. S.A.S.T Salawavidana
CEng FIE (SL), MCIHT, MBCS, MEng (Highway & Traffic), BSc.Eng (Hons)
INTRODUCTION
Most of the Sri Lankan roads, before improvement existed more or less as paved trails without
being designed to a particular design speed. The roads initially constructed in the country
catered for animal drawn carts. With the advent of the motor vehicles in the country in the
1940s, it became necessary to improve the road network to cater for the needs of the motor
vehicles. [1] Sri Lankan Highway Construction boom that prevailed from year 2008 up to 2015
saw most of these roads being designed to a particular design speed and widened to standard
two lane highways. In doing so, it was common to adjust the alignment from the existing centre
line of the road. This effectively meant that the road camber which was sloped towards the
existing crown needed to be readjusted to match with the new designed crown. While this
process involved a plenty of manual calculations, this paper proposes a convenient method to
do this adjustment using the Civil 3D software.
CAMBER READJUSTMENT OR “RECAMBERING’
When the centre of the carriage way is slightly raised above its edges on straight portion of the
road is called as camber or cross slope. [2] Once the alignment of the road is changed, the
camber changes from the existing crown to the new crown. This process is commonly known
as “recambering” in the highway design industry. Cross Section of a vertical design carried
out without considering the recambering requirement is shown in Fig. 01. In this instance, the
designer has considered the pavement design thickness only at the centre of the road.
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Fig 01: A Road Cross Section designed without considering the “recambering” requirement
As obvious, such a design would require cutting the existing road which has been compacted
over so many decades under the traffic, which is not suitable considering the stability.
However, if the recambering technique was employed, this cross section could be changed as
shown in Fig.02
Fig 02: A Road Cross Section designed considering the “recambering” requirement
With the new cross section, road cutting is not involved and the required pavement thickness
is maintained throughout the existing road surface. In order to ensure that recambering is
satisfied throughout the road, it would be necessary for the designer to do calculation in each
chainage (10m or 20m intervals) to establish the feasible road design profile.
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MODELLING THE REHABILITATION ROAD CROSS SECTION USING CIVIL 3D
With Civil 3D software, the development of a corridor using “OverlayMillAndLevel2”
subassembly would automate the process of calculating recambering requirement for each of
the chainages. Parameter adjustments for the “OverlayMillAndLevel2” to create a corridor that
satisfies the recambering requirement is shown in Fig. 03
Fig 03: Parameter adjustments to create a corridor satisfying recambering requirement
With the Use Profile parameter set to “Use minimum clearance”, the Corridor created would
consider that minimum pavement thickness provided under the Minimum Clearance parameter
to be maintained throughout the road.
DISPLAYING RECAMBER REQUIREMENT IN THE CIVIL 3D PROFILE VIEW
A Corridor created using “OverlayMillAndLevel2” subassembly and a resulting top surface
can be displayed in the profile view as shown in Fig. 04
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Fig 04: Displaying the recambering requirement in the Civil 3D Profile View (Magenta
colour)
Once the recambering requirement is displayed, the designer is free to do the Vertical
Alignment design satisfying the requirement
CONCLUSION
A tedious task that involved a plenty of manual calculations can be conveniently automated
using Civil 3D software. There is no such standard method provided in Civil 3D to do this in
straightforward terms. However the tools provided in the Civil 3D can be effectively used to
developing a methodology to calculate the recambering requirement.
REFERENCES
1. RDA, Historical Development of the Road Sector Organizations and Road Network.
Available at https://rda-srilanka.weebly.com/historical-evolution.html (Accessed 11
May 2023)
2. Civil Engineering Notes, Camber in Roads, its purposes and types, Available at
https://civilengineeringnotes.com/camber-in-road/ (Accessed 15 May 2023)
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