| Cover story
Heads Up!
Susan Philip tells you more about a ‘best-of-class’
road design software.
Given the extraordinary demand for quality infrastructure
to maintain the India growth story and take it forward, roads,
highways, airports, ports, railroad systems, bridges, flyovers
and tunnels have assumed immense importance. Existing structures
are being revamped and new facilities are being planned all
over the country.
Software, naturally, plays a critical role in this scenario,
as planners, architects and engineers are expected to come
up with output matching international standards. Aiding them
in this task is HEADS, a software from TechSOFT that has been
described as ‘best of class’.
“HEADS has been in use for the past 10 years and is
considered No. 1,” says Sandipan Goswami, Director,
TechSOFT Engineering Services (I) Pvt Ltd. “Use search
words ‘road design software’ in Google search
and you will find HEADS in the top position internationally
out of 6 million search results. This definitely reflects
the position of HEADS in the international market place.”
The HEADS range of products is available for land survey,
planning, design, preparation of bid documents, drawings,
construction of highways, expressways, tailways, tunnels,
MRTs, LRTs and airport projects. Developed by highway engineering
experts, the software uses the string modelling technique
said to be ideal for highway projects of all types.
“The USP of HEADS is that it is the simplest way of
operating and producing deliverables to international standards,”
says Goswami. It is menu-driven and user-friendly and has
the capacity to solve complex engineering problems.
The string modelling technique accepts topographical survey
data from GPS, aerial photographs and satellite imagery remote
sensing. Detailed tables are generated for traverse survey,
EDM survey and coordinate conversion from spherical (latitude-longitude)
to rectangular (easting-northing), a very complex process.
The string modelling format also makes it very versatile in
handling site situations and renders it
a complete solution for various transportation engineering
projects. It is particularly suited for projects that involve
widening of existing carriageways and simultaneous const-ruction
of new ones by the side – very common in developing
nations like India.
HEADS is capable of generating sophi-sticated design and construction
drawing and calculation reports and has its own CAD engine.
An added advantage is that it allows exchange of input and
output with other commonly used road engineering soft-ware
and all popular CAD software.
The development of airfield pavements for runways, taxiways
and aprons involves a high degree of attention by project
authorities, consulting eng-ineers and contractors.
Any mistake could result in unsafe operating conditions and
rectification would mean expenditure of milli-ons. HEADS offers
effective engineering of airfield pavements for developing
geomet-rics, grades, bills of quantities for earthwork, other
pavement layers, mass haul diagrams, etc. It also offers facilities
for the analysis of layered pavement systems and the output
is horizontal strain, vertical stress and vertical deflection
at the interface of every two consecutive layers. It provides
bituminous mix design for asphalt and bituminous concrete,
semi dense asphalt and bituminous concrete, dense bitu-minous
macadam and bituminous macadam using Marshall test results
for bulk density, stability and flow.
The value of HEADS can be gauged by the fact that it is used
for a large number of prestigious national highways, expressways,
rural roads, tunnels, airports and railway projects in India
and elsewhere.
Training programmes are held at customers’ offices,
pro-ject sites, and in the National Institute of Training
for Highway Engineers (NITHE) under the Ministry of Shipping,
Road Transport and Highways (MoSRTH). There are three levels
of training: basic, professional and advanced. The company
also provides demo versions of HEADS. Check it out!
“The USP of HEADS is that it is the simplest way of
operating and producing deliverables to international standards.”
- Sandipan Goswami,
Director, TechSOFT Engineering
Services (I) Pvt Ltd
High points
Generates detailed bills of quantities for construction items,
thus facilitating speedy estimation of project costs.
Provides for hydraulic design of highway drainage, using
rain- fall data.
Allows designing of hairpin bends, with provision for retaining
walls and gabion walls, as well as variation in slopes on
the basis of depth of cut.
Offers a 3D perspective view from various angles, is compatible
with visualisation software, and accepts aerial pictures,
thus allowing the setting of true coordinates.
Offers facilities for surveying, site setting out and quality
assurance.
Generates accurate project reports.
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