OpenRoads Designer for Road and Highway Engineering Training Workshop

Course overview

The OpenRoads Designer for Road and Highway Engineering Training Workshop equips civil engineers, highway designers, transportation engineers, surveyors and infrastructure consultants with practical skills in Bentley OpenRoads Designer for developing, modelling, analysing and documenting road and highway infrastructure. Participants learn to establish terrain models from survey data, develop horizontal and vertical alignments, create road templates, build 3D corridor models, generate cross-sections, assess earthworks quantities and produce engineering drawings for road construction and rehabilitation projects. The workshop covers model-based road design workflows, terrain modelling, geometric design, corridor development, drainage coordination, design documentation and engineering quality control.

Through guided, project-based exercises, participants progress from survey data and existing-ground terrain through preliminary road geometry, 3D modelling, quantity assessment and drawing production. The course is designed around practical engineering deliverables relevant to highways, urban roads, rural access roads, junctions and transport infrastructure projects in Kenya and across Africa.

Course objectives

• Import, organise and validate survey data and terrain models in OpenRoads Designer.
• Produce coordinated road design models, engineering drawings, quantity reports and project deliverables for technical review.
• Evaluate preliminary earthworks quantities, terrain constraints and design alternatives.
• Create road templates, model 3D corridors and generate engineering cross-sections.
• Develop horizontal and vertical road alignments using appropriate geometric design criteria.

Who should attend

Course content

• Module 1: Introduction to OpenRoads Designer and Model-Based Road Engineering Overview of Bentley OpenRoads Designer and its applications, model-based civil engineering workflows, differences between conventional CAD drafting and civil design modelling, r
• Module 2: Project Setup, Survey Data Import and Terrain Modelling Creating and configuring road design projects, understanding workspaces and design file settings, setting appropriate coordinate systems, importing survey data from supported formats, proce
• Module 3: Road Design Standards and Geometric Engineering Principles Road classification and functional hierarchy, design speed and geometric design criteria, horizontal and vertical alignment principles, lane widths and shoulder dimensions, road reserve
• Module 4: Horizontal Alignment Design Creating horizontal geometry using OpenRoads Designer tools, establishing road centreline alignments, creating tangents and circular curves, applying curve parameters and geometric constraints, configuring stationing
• Module 5: Vertical Alignment and Profile Design Generating existing-ground profiles along road alignments, creating profile models, developing proposed vertical alignments, defining tangent grades and vertical curves, analysing crest and sag curves, asses
• Module 6: Road Templates and Typical Cross-Section Development Understanding road templates and component-based modelling, creating typical road cross-sections, defining carriageway and lane widths, modelling shoulders and pavement components, incorporati
• Module 7: 3D Corridor Modelling and Design Coordination Understanding corridor and linear model concepts, combining horizontal alignments, vertical profiles and road templates, creating 3D road models, applying templates along alignments, defining corrido
• Module 8: Superelevation, Widening and Advanced Road Geometry Understanding superelevation principles, identifying design inputs for crossfall transitions, developing superelevation transitions, modelling pavement crossfall changes, evaluating transition
• Module 9: Cross-Sections, Section Views and Earthworks Assessment Generating sample lines and cross-sections along road alignments, displaying existing-ground and proposed road surfaces, configuring section views, labelling offsets and elevations, reviewi
• Module 10: Junctions, Intersections and Roundabout Modelling Understanding intersection geometry and design requirements, developing intersecting road alignments, modelling junction connections, coordinating horizontal and vertical geometry, creating appr
• Module 11: Earthworks Quantities, Materials and Volume Reporting Understanding cut, fill and net earthworks quantities, generating terrain and corridor surfaces, comparing existing-ground and proposed surfaces, calculating excavation and embankment volume
• Module 12: Road Drainage and Civil Infrastructure Coordination Understanding road drainage requirements, assessing longitudinal gradients and crossfall, identifying low points and potential ponding areas, coordinating road levels with drainage infrastruct
• Module 13: Urban Roads, Rural Highways and Transportation Design Applications Designing model-based workflows for rural access roads, urban streets and highways, incorporating shoulders and medians, coordinating pedestrian and cycling facilities, modellin
• Module 14: Engineering Drawings, Design Reviews and Data Exchange Preparing road plan drawings, generating longitudinal profile sheets, producing cross-section drawings, configuring annotation and dimension styles, displaying chainage and geometry informa
• Module 15: Integrated Road and Highway Design Capstone Project Defining a road design scenario and applicable criteria, importing and validating survey data, developing an existing-ground terrain model, creating a horizontal alignment, designing a propose

General notes

• Training tools and software The workshop uses Bentley OpenRoads Designer as the primary platform for terrain modelling, horizontal and vertical geometry, road templates, corridor modelling, cross-sections, earthworks analysis and engineering documentation. Supporting resources include survey data in supported formats, terrain models, design criteria, road geometry datasets, Microsoft Excel for quantity summaries and compatible CAD/GIS data for coordination. Where appropriate, participants explore LandXML and other supported data exchange workflows. A suitable OpenRoads Designer licence, compatible computer and relevant software access are required for hands-on exercises.
• Practical exercises and expected outputs Participants will import survey data, build an existing-ground terrain model, develop a horizontal road alignment, create a vertical profile, construct a typical road template, generate a 3D corridor, model a junction, generate cross-sections, analyse cut-and-fill quantities and prepare plan-and-profile drawings. Expected outputs include an OpenRoads Designer project, an existing-ground terrain model, horizontal alignment drawings, a longitudinal profile, reusable road templates, a 3D corridor model, cross-section sheets, a preliminary earthworks quantity report and an engineering design documentation package.
• Learn Bentley OpenRoads Designer for road and highway engineering through practical training in terrain modelling, horizontal and vertical alignment design, road templates, 3D corridor modelling, superelevation, intersections, cross-sections and earthworks estimation. This professional workshop supports road engineers, highway designers, surveyors and infrastructure consultants working on transportation infrastructure projects in Kenya and across Africa.

Frequently asked questions

Schedule & fees