The previous topic covered the setup of a permanent haul road which is located beyond the bounds of the pit. Such roads exists on, and their formation and alignment is incorporated into the DTM used to build the terrain. As a consequence the Horizontal and Vertical alignments are designed to mimic the existing road on the topography.

Excavation access roads are required to have a dynamic behaviour, they must extend automatically as the excavation progresses. The creation of vertical and horizontal alignments for such roads therefore differs from the previous example. Excavation Access is a Mode of Operation, not a type of Road. As such the Mode of Operation is set when Roads are assigned to Subsequences in the simulation setup. However in order to function in this particular Mode Roads intended to use in Excavation Access must be set up appropriately. The following topics explain the setup of roads to be used in the Excavation Access Mode of Operation.