The paper assesses how three new technologies - satellite imaging, softcopy photogrammetry and Align3D alignment optimisation - could assist generating and evaluating plans for new road alignments. It examines not just how the technologies could change individual tasks in the existing process, but whether they would eliminate some, add others, or change the order in which they were carried out. The Albury-Wodonga bypass was selected as a case study, because planning had been in progress for several years and all the data except the satellite images were available. The case study was conducted at a broader level than the full-scale study to demonstrate the ability of the technologies to produce high quality results fast, to produce high quality results fast, and to prepare material suitable for public presentation. Constraints were kept simple because the aim was to demonstrate the technology, not to undertake a detailed study of the options; and the RTA's costs for earthworks and other construction were used to provide comparability with the ongoing study. The costs of the alignments produced by Align3D were about twenty-five per cent less than those from the ongoing study, and there was a consensus that the combination of technologies could have cut 12-18 months off the planning process. (A)
Abstract