Plimmerton Farm Stage One
GIS, Automation, Earthworks Optimisation
A 383 hectare subdivision of around 1,000 homes where two things did not scale: exporting more than 700 drawing sheets per issue, and finding anywhere to put the earthworks. Both became scripted, and disposal siting became an optimisation with a defensible answer.
- Drawing title
- Sheet 01-07
- Organisation
- Role
- Year
- Location
- Sector
- Status
- Built with
Submitted drawings
Every drawing set below was produced in ArcGIS and lodged with the Stage One application. They are public, and open from the Environmental Protection Authority’s own pages as the files that were submitted.
View the application on the EPA site (opens in a new tab)Engineering
Combined drawings
- Part 1, Combined drawings (PDF, 11.5MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 2, Combined drawings (PDF, 9.1MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 3, Combined drawings (PDF, 12.1MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 4, Combined drawings (PDF, 9.7MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 5, Combined drawings (PDF, 11.9MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 6, Combined drawings (PDF, 7.2MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 7, Combined drawings (PDF, 13.2MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 8, Combined drawings (PDF, 4.8MB, opens in a new tab)
Earthworks plans
- Part 1, Earthworks plans (PDF, 16.8MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 2, Earthworks plans (PDF, 29.8MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 3, Earthworks plans (PDF, 27MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 4, Earthworks plans (PDF, 18.5MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 5, Earthworks plans (PDF, 29MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 6, Earthworks plans (PDF, 7.6MB, opens in a new tab)
Roading plans
- Part 1, Roading plans (PDF, 28.4MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 2, Roading plans (PDF, 27MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 3, Roading plans (PDF, 27.5MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 4, Roading plans (PDF, 28.6MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 5, Roading plans (PDF, 26.6MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 6, Roading plans (PDF, 29MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 7, Roading plans (PDF, 21.8MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 8, Roading plans (PDF, 29.4MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 9, Roading plans (PDF, 28.5MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 10, Roading plans (PDF, 29.9MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 11, Roading plans (PDF, 16.6MB, opens in a new tab)
Three waters plans
- Part 1, Three waters plans (PDF, 25.3MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 2, Three waters plans (PDF, 24.1MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 3, Three waters plans (PDF, 24.6MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 4, Three waters plans (PDF, 24.9MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 5, Three waters plans (PDF, 24.3MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 6, Three waters plans (PDF, 24.4MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 7, Three waters plans (PDF, 26.1MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 8, Three waters plans (PDF, 29MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 9, Three waters plans (PDF, 16.3MB, opens in a new tab)
- Part 10, Three waters plans (PDF, 29MB, opens in a new tab)
Survey
Subdivision scheme plans
All files are PDF. Sizes are as stated on the EPA page.
Background
Plimmerton Farm is a 383 hectare subdivision of around 1,000 homes, from apartment buildings through to detached houses, alongside open space and stream and wetland restoration.
The problem
Two things did not scale. Exporting over 700 drawing sheets by hand for each issue, and finding adequate earthworks disposal sites given the site geography, disposal volumes and boundary restrictions.
What I built
A GIS workflow that semi-automates the drawing sheet export, and a geoportal collating all design data for client and internal coordination. A separate script optimises the volume and placement of earthworks disposal sites. Also assisted with modelling the initial road layout.
Drawings that update themselves
The drawings were set up to be dynamic. When the engineering team updated a CAD drawing, the change came through to the ArcGIS project automatically. Issuing a revision meant opening the project and exporting again, using an ArcGIS Map Series with dynamic variables to produce each set. I created all of the symbology for the drawings.
Earthworks quantities
I calculated the earthworks quantities, zones and extents. An early version of the parametric earthworks tool was used to find disposal sites efficiently in difficult terrain, and to calculate the maximum volume each could take while staying within the extents. The tool as it stands now is described in Parametric Earthworks Modelling.
Outcome
Sheet export went from a manual production task to a repeatable process. Disposal siting became an optimisation problem with a defensible answer rather than a judgement call against a constrained site.
Both are costs that repeat. Over 700 sheets is a per-issue cost on a subdivision that issues many times over, and a disposal decision reached by judgement has to be argued again every time the volumes move.