Ramp and timber explainer · Giza Plateau

The Modeled Ramp Has to Stay Usable

Schematic of workers pulling sledges up a changing ramp route with wetted and planked surface areas and replacement timber stacked beside the route. — The Internal / Edge Ramp (IER) model published in 2026 is important because it gives a detailed scenario for how stones could move through the construction site. But movement is only one part of the problem. The same paper recognizes that such a system would need a steady supply of materials to keep working. This explainer asks what happens when that requirement is counted instead of passed over.

Conceptual schematic based on the published multi-ramp traffic model; not a surveyed reconstruction.

Interactive explainer

Build the ramp burden

Click a step. The panel below the icons shows what that modeled layer adds to the ramp burden.

Key distinction

Modeled timber in place is not timber consumed

In the model, reusing surface pieces can reduce how much timber is installed at one time. It does not erase the timber consumed by traffic, resizing, breakage, and repair.

Modeled in place at peak

~166 cubic meters

Modeled planking in service at one time for peak lanes plus fully planked corner bays.

Consumed over the modeled build

26,743 cubic meters

Replacement timber required if the modeled ramp surface is kept usable under the published loaded-traffic schedule.

Favorable reuse test

13,372 cubic meters

Even if every plank is flipped or reused for a second full life, the modeled replacement timber burden halves. It does not vanish.

Reuse is not erasure

Changing modeled ramp phases add their own burden.

If the IER scenario is being used, some timber can move from one modeled phase to another. But changing ramp geometry still adds work and losses: sorting, lifting, cutting, repairing, reinstalling, breakage, and abrasion. Reuse is a lever only if the reuse operation is also counted.

Replacement test

You can change the ramp scenario. You cannot delete the route function.

Any alternative scenario still has to provide lift, access, traffic capacity, surface condition, maintenance, and replacement if it is asked to do the same work.

Model anchors

Published ramp traffic

The explainer uses the 2026 published ramp dataset as the traffic basis. Workbook anchor: IERRampTimber_38!B6 for 670,264 loaded sledge-kilometers on ramp surfaces.

Planking replacement

Replacement planking is calculated in IERRampTimber_38!B24:B31 from loaded lane-meter passes, plank service life, planked share, and plank thickness. The reuse lever is controlled by Inputs_03!B192 / Assumptions_02!E93.

Ramp maintenance and open gates

Modeled ramp installation, maintenance, and removal/rework are tracked in RampSystem_32. Surface/route replacement treatment remains open at Inputs_03!B162 and RampSystem_32!B29.

Definitions used by info buttons

Standing stock: The technical term for material in service at one time.
Replacement stream: The technical term for material consumed over time to keep a function working.
Favorable reuse test: A generous assumption granted to the conventional scenario before testing whether the burden still matters.
Open gates: Known functions that must be solved or bounded before a claim can reduce the modeled burden.