Structural Design of a Bus Terminal

By
MD Anamul Hasan

Abstract
Bus-terminal is an essential component of urban transport facilities which defines the beginning (origin) or end (terminating) of the line for the transportation system. It normally requires a size-able land in a strategic part of an urban area. A well planned or managed bus-terminal will act as catalyst to the social and economic development of the surrounding areas. On the other hand, bus-terminal is an asset to an area as it may act as catalyst to economic and social development of the surrounding areas. However, poorly planned and sited terminal for buses may generate traffic problems as well as deteriorating the quality of life of the affected surroundings. This project focuses mainly the structural design of whole bus terminal. As with engineering and operational aspects of terminal facilities the focus would be on the design to fulfill traffic capacity requirement and operational efficiency to operators and passengers. The proposed far side terminating bas terminal model which located outside city centre may have added advantages such as reducing unnecessary congestion and improving the environment.

Objectives: This project have following main objectives:
Conducting research on the existing bus terminal of a city and proposing a new model of bus
terminal according to findings

1. Architectural planning of whole bus-terminal

2. Planning and design of complete bus-terminal

3. Design of a steel garage for bus repairing house and bus storage

4. Design of pavement

5. Material estimation of the whole project

6. Car parking management

Description of the Project
At first i conducted a survey in poorly planned and constructed bus-terminal named “Kodomtoli Bus-terminal” which is located in one of the major city in Bangladesh. After surveying i found the following conditions

1. The ticket counters are situated here and there and sometimes it creates a irritating situation to search expected ticket counter among the passengers.

2. In terms of waiting area, mostly it is not strategic because the plan at bus-terminal is not properly well managed and not suitable for the users and customers.

3. Information on trips and services are not well managed.

4. Public facilities such as toilets, telephone are inadequate.

5. Lack of facilities for staff such as office and control room, storage of personal belongings, rest room, toilets and so on.

6. Unauthorized sale of tickets.

7. Lacking of proper as well as modern repairing house and bus storage garage.

8. Condition of pavement is not good.

9. Poor bus parking management and as a result it creates traffic congestion.

I designed a complete bus-terminal including a terminal building design, a steel garage design by using roof truss system and the rigid pavement design of terminal area and finally gave some feedback to improve car parking management.

Design of a terminal building: I designed a complete terminal building( 150’x150’) with every component like slab, column, beam, septic tank, underground water reservoir, stair, and footing.

Slab design: Slab may be defined as that structural element that is subjected to distribute loads primarily in a plan of slab. R.C.C slabs are provided in different ways depending upon the length and breadth of openings like One-way slab, Two-way slab, Continuous slab etc. I designed three types two-way slab ( i.e. slab continuous with all sides, continuous on two sides and continuous on three sides) with 25’x25’ panel by co-efficient method.

Column design: Columns are the parts of the building which transfer the loads coming over it, along with its weight to the foundation. Two types of columns according to line of action of the loads. They are “Axially loaded columns” and “Eccentrically loaded columns”. Eccentrically loaded columns are subdivided into “Uni-axial column” and “Bi-axial column”. I designed these types of column with details calculation with complete cross-sections. On the other hand, i also designed slender column (length 47’ and diameter 2’) by using ACI moment magnifier method.

Beam design: Beams are the horizontal parts of the structure which transfer the dead and live loads to the vertical members of the structures. There are various types of beam i.e. “Simply supported beam”, “Fixed beam”, “Cantilever beam”, “Continuous beam”. I designed both “Singly reinforced beam” and “Doubly reinforced beam” with shear reinforcement.

Septic tank design: I designed a septic tank ( 34’x12’x8’) for 230 people and assuming production of waste water 90 lpcd with complete calculation and proper cross-section.

Underground water reservoir design: I designed a underground water reservoir (5’x5’x8.5’) for 230 people and assuming water demand 25 lpcd with complete calculation and proper cross-section.

Footing design: I designed column footing assuming fc’= 4 ksi and fy = 60 ksi and bearing capacity of soil 5 ksf with punching and one-way shear check.

Stair design: I designed a stair and landing both assuming thickness of waist 8” with complete calculation and proper cross-section.

Complete steel garage design using roof truss system:
Dimension of proposed steel structure: Considering

Span of truss = 60’
Rise = 12’
Bay = 10’
Steel designation = A36
fy =36 ksi and E = 29×10³ ksi

Steps of analysis and design of roof truss system
1. Selection of truss system
2. Estimation of loads
3. Analysis and design of purlins
4. Analysis and design of sagrods
5. Dead load(DL) and wind load(WL) analysis
6. Design of columns
7. Design of column base plate and concrete footing
8. Earthquake load analysis
9. Combination of DL and WL to determine the design bar forces
10. Design of members according to the design bar forces
11. Design of bracing system
12. Design of bolt connections
13. Beam-column joint design
14. Truss-column joint design

Pavement design: Pavement is designed for concrete slabs subjected to patch loading using design charts and joint is also designed.

Software used:

1. STADD.pro for analysis
2. MS office excel for analysis
3. Autocad2007(2D and 3D) for drawing
4. GRASP( Graphical Rapid Analysis Of Structural Programs)
5. Photoshop, Paint, Snipping tool( for figures and pictures)

Significance of this project work:
I think this project work is very helpful for a city to provide a properly planned and organised bus terminal as well as conducting further research regarding bus terminal facilities. In sylhet city, where the “kodomtoli bus terminal” is situated, lack of proper structure, management, facilities are observed. That is why my supervisor Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed, ordered me to work with this poorly built bus terminal and i became able to give the proper plan and structural design of the whole bus terminal after my one year hardship. I also provided some feedback about the bus parking management and total estimated cost. I worked first time with this new as well as unique project work in my department and the dean of “Applied science and Technology”, Head of the department of “Civil and Environmental Engineering(CEE), my supervisor, externals, viva members appreciated me in the day of my project work presentation and inspired me to continue further research on this topic.

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Highways-The location, design, construction and maintenance of pavements(Fourth edition), by C.A. O’Flaherty. Butterworth-Heinemann.
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Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC)
http://www.tmc.com.lb/tmc/docs/foundation%20design.pdf
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http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.google.com/images
http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia travel/travel sites/whats nearby/cat/5/bus terminal/
http://www.panynj.gov/bus-terminals/
http://gomexico.about.com/od/mexicocity/gt/df bus stations.htm

We at engineeringcivil.com are thankful to MD Anamul Hasan for submitting his project report to us. We are hopeful that his project on “Structural Design of a Bus Terminal” will be helpful to many engineers who are looking for similar projects.

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