Project Summary
The Toowoomba Second Range Crossing project is a 42km long alternative range
crossing route to the north of Toowoomba. It connects the Warrego Highway near
Helidon in the east to the Gore Highway at Athol in the west, via Charlton where
it re-joins the Warrego Highway heading towards Dalby. This upgrade to the road
network improves freight efficiency, connectivity, functionality, safety
reliability, and capacity. The section focussed on here is the New England
Highway overpass where it intersects with the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.
The Challenge
The task undertaken was to provide a 3D visualisation of the double arched
bridges on the New England Highway, which cross over the Toowoomba Second Range
Crossing at Mt Kynoch. A visualisation for the 800m long viaduct had previously
been created, and this was used for visiting VIPs so they would have an insight
into the overall finished project, considering construction had only just
commenced. The New England Highway overpass was originally designed for a
standard pier and deck unit bridge construction, with the arches being a late
addition. The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) therefore required
another visualisation for the new arched bridges.
The Solution
The approach adopted was to create the visualisation similar to how the bridge
would be constructed, by building each component up and in its own model. The
first visualisation created was for the arches. Using the detailed design
drawings, HIG was easily able to create super alignments from setout points and
pipe/culvert the alignment to the arch cross sectional dimensions.
To create the remaining bridge components,
they used the 12d Model CAD tools to create 2D shapes of the arch supports,
abutments, headstocks and deck units. These were saved to the extrudes.4d file
and extruded along alignments that had been created previously.
The Result
With the help of 12d Model, HIG was able to deliver the required information to
the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads quickly and easily.
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