Shetland Islands Council is one of 32 local authorities in Scotland. It serves 22,400 people across 1,468 square km and the Roads Department is responsible for the maintenance, management, construction, and improvement of the road network.
The Roads Department needed to design a new two-lane single carriageway on the island of Yell. The 4 km road will be on a new horizontal alignment and will replace the existing single-track road to upgrade transport links. For this major project, they required software that could handle the design of horizontal layout, long sections, existing and proposed cross sections, and junctions. The software also needed to provide all horizontal setting out information for the project in the form of .lst files and view the new road design in 3D.
The Roads Design Engineer, Ian Leask, used BricsCAD and KeyTERRA-FIRMA, our Civil Engineering plug-in for the design of the new road. Ian told stated “A big advantage to using KeyTERRA-FIRMA for road design is that several different alignments, both horizontal and vertical can be produced relatively quickly” and that “this should then help the designer arrive at a design that is close to the optimum”. BricsCAD was chosen due to its cost-effectiveness and its ability to meet all CAD requirements. KeyTERRA-FIRMA was also used to create topographical land surveys.
The use of BricsCAD and KeyTERRA-FIRMA has had a significant impact on the department’s ability to carry out road design projects quickly and efficiently in-house. The software has allowed for the creation of several design options, resulting in cost savings for the department. Ian told us “I find KeyTERRA-FIRMA intuitive and user-friendly; the results achieved are very good. The basic features of creating existing and proposed long/cross sections has the most significant impact for our users” He also added “The product features allow road designs to be carried out quickly, meaning several options can be appraised” and “Permanent licenses are convenient, and the technical support provided is always useful”.
If you are a looking for software that can handle road design projects quickly and efficiently, and create several design options resulting in cost savings, you can take advantage of powerful, intuitive CAD tools to take your designs to the next level.
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