PARAPHRASING (ENGINEERING REPORT)

1. Objective

A representative of the Leprechaun Village Corporation, 670 Queen Street, Brisbane, Qld, 4000, has contacted your engineering organisation to provide a preliminary design for an urban development site at the Gold Coast. The objectives for this project is for your team to develop a preliminary design of the earthworks as part of this development and test the optimum arrangement using a geometric scale model of the site. Mr Sam Clements from Leprechaun Village Corporation has been negotiating the preliminary design and is your contact for all correspondence.

2. Project Brief

The Gold Coast City Council has been approached by an urban developer who is interested in constructing a new urban retirement community on the beach front, at the southern end of the Gold Coast. The urban community will be called Leprechaun Heights and will include a community centre which will be the focus of numerous recreational activities. Your engineering company has been asked to prepare the civil earthworks design for the community centre. However, before undertaking the full design for this urban community project, the supervising engineer would like to investigate some alternative arrangements for the proposed community centre. A geometric scale model of the entire site has been developed (1:200 scale). You are part of a team of junior engineers who have been asked to design the arrangement for the earthworks and construct a geometric scale model of the community centre site. Note that this only includes the earthworks, as the community centre will be designed by another group of engineers and architects. In the geometric scale model of the site, the top of the measuring scale represents a reduced level (RL) of 25.0 m AHD (Australian Height Datum) in the prototype. The lower left corner of the scale model (Zero on each tape attached to the top of the box) represents a location with the coordinates 535,020.0 m East & 13,096,740.0 m North. The North – South axis runs along the long axis of the scale model box. The community centre must be constructed on a platform that sits at RL 21.0 m AHD, as this will provide a site that is free from storm surges during cyclones. The design specifies a platform that is a truncated pyramid. This platform must also allow for the construction of the community centre building, which will require a rectangular site with a minimum of 40.0 m × 40 m in the prototype. Due to other earthworks taking place in the area, the site will have access to 40,000 m3 of soil/sand for construction of truncated pyramid platform. No other part of the site is to be disturbed as part of the design and construction of the community centre platform. The batters on the sides of the platform are to be constructed at 1.0 Vert : 3.0 Hor. The developers would like to keep costs at a minimum, and so you should aim to produce a design which minimises the total construction costs. An initial budget for platform construction has been set at $150,000. Due to other earthworks in the area, there is 40,000 m3 of sand already available. Therefore, you will not have to allow for any costs associated with purchasing or placing this sand. However, any sand you require in excess of this, will need to be delivered to the construction site at a cost of $12.50/m3 . Disposal of any excess sand from the site will have an impact on the environment and this will have a cost of $20.00/m3 . The developers will also have to purchase land to cover the full footprint or plan area for the community centre, including all earthworks. The land will cost $200,000/ha. A hectare (ha) is equivalent to 10,000 m2 .

3. Project Assessment

You are required to design the community centre platform and construct a geometric scale model of the platform in the scale model allocated to your team. As part of the design process, your team is required to develop at least three alternative arrangements for the platform, within the area provided by your scale model. Your team is also required to build a scale model of your optimum arrangement within the scale model of the terrain. Each member of the team is required to produce their own design report to the client covering the design undertaken, as well as the test of the recommended arrangement for the community centre platform. All of the details of the design should be presented to the client based on the prototype terrain, with the test using the geometric scale model. REMEMBER: THIS IS AN ENGINEERING DESIGN REPORT, NOT A LABORATORY REPORT! You are required to use the report template provided. The report should be no longer than four (4) A4 pages including all text, figures, tables and references, but not including the covering letter, the title page and any appendices. Specific guidance relating to the Design Report is provided in the following section. A lecture relating to writing design reports will also be provided during the semester.

4. The Design Report

Marking criteria for the report are provided below. It is proposed that the ‘main text’ in the report should include the following:

• A covering letter to the client that outlines the study that has been undertaken and the results achieved.

• A statement of the objectives of the report.

• The alternative solutions to the design problem (descriptions and neat, labelled, engineering sketches), and their relative merits – if appropriate, this should include brief, outline design calculations to demonstrate the viability of each design.

• Results of any preliminary analyses undertaken as part of these alternative solutions.

• The preferred arrangement for the community centre platform giving reasons for your choice.

• A comparison between the predicted area, volumes and costs for the preferred arrangement and those for the arrangement as constructed. This will include the effects of various ‘grid’ measurements, ideally showing the convergence to a solution and optimum grid size.

• Neat sketches (giving dimensions, etc) of the chosen design.

• A discussion covering:

a) How well the design aims were met.

b) Possible reasons for any differences between the predicted and measured performance.

c) Other factors that you think your team should have considered at the design stage that may have improved the outcomes.

d) Any issues that might affect the construction of the platform at the actual site of the community centre.

e) A list (if any) of technical sources used from any literature search.

5. Marking Criteria

The table on the following page identifies the criteria for the report and provides indicative descriptions for each level of achievement.