The Montrose Interchange project was initiated to replace an existing at-grade T-junction on the N4 highway, improving traffic mobility, safety, and the Mbombela province’s economy and tourism. Positioned between two rivers amid steep valleys between mountains, the project presented difficult terrain for implementing the new high- standard, free-flow interchange on a short timeline with no available survey data. Bidding for the contract, SMEC realized that their traditional, manual 2D strategies would not suffice to meet the project challenges and requirements to use much of the existing infrastructure.
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SMEC selected ContextCapture, now called iTwin Capture, to develop a reality mesh of the existing terrain and infrastructure and LumenRT to present their conceptual design, winning the design contract and delivering a workable design in record time. OpenRoads Designer facilitated integration with the bridge team’s modeling software while corridor modeling tools enabled accurate earthworks and material quantities calculations, reducing the carbon footprint of the project. Working in a collaborative digital environment saved approximately 2,500 hours in design time and an estimated ZAR 2.5 million in design costs.