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OpenRoads Makes Way for Penguin Parade at Phillip Island Nature Parks

OpenRoads Makes Way for Penguin Parade at Phillip Island Nature Parks
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OpenRoads Makes Way for Penguin Parade at Phillip Island Nature Parks - 1

Project Summary Organization: Tract Consultants Pty., Ltd. Solution: Land Development Location: Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia Project Objective: • Expand the Phillip Island Nature Parks' network of trails through Summerland Peninsula to enhance viewing of little penguins and their coastal habitat. • Provide immersive experiences for eco-tourists without causing harm to the native flora and fauna or incurring excessive construction costs. Products used: OpenRoads, MicroStation, Bentley Navigator OpenRoads Makes Way for Penguin Parade at Phillip Island Nature Parks Tract Consultants Expand Trails for Eco-Tourists, Using OpenRoads to Balance Viewing Experiences and Habitat Preservation against Construction Costs Fast Facts • The 3D model produced richly detailed site plans and displays that conveyed design intent to the client, stakeholders, and the community. • Enhancing Australia's No. 1 wildlife tourist attraction will draw more national and international visitors to the area. Cost-conscious decisions such as aligning trails to avoid the need for elevated boardwalks vs. gravel paths contributed to the overall economy of the trailway expansion. OpenRoads automated the task of placing balustrades wherever required to meet code, reducing design time by an estimated 40 percent. Altering and alignment to avoid the need for balustrades lowered costs by 50 percent per linear meter. Optioneering made possible by Bentley software allowed Tract to develop design options within hours, cutting design time by a factor of eight. Master Plan Promotes Penguins Just 90 minutes from Melbourne, Australia's most popular penguins attract more than 600,000 visitors annually from all over the world. The daily Penguin Parade on Victoria's Phillip Island is both a natural treasure and an icon for tourism. To enhance the visitor experience and increase domestic and international visitation, the Phillip Island Nature Parks asked Tract Consultants to execute phase one of a master plan that would expand the island's network of trailways and viewing areas. Tract used Bentley's OpenRoads civil design software to create a trail system that provided unprecedented views without impinging upon the habitat of little penguins and other native wildlife. The AUD 2.8 million project won multiple awards for seamlessly achieving these economic and ecological goals. Cost-conscious Environment Dedicated to excellence in nature conservation and ecotourism, The Phillip Island Nature Parks manage five major attractions, including Australia's No. 1 wildlife tourist attraction, the Penguin Parade. This natural phenomenon features the islands resident colony of little penguins making their daily trek from a day of fishing at sea to a night of sheltering in their burrows. Eco-tourists view the parade from elaborate tiered platforms designed to enhance sightlines without disturbing the 33-centimeter-tall birds, which are the smallest species of penguins. The Penguins Plus Viewing Area is located in the southwestern tip of Phillip Island, on Summerland Peninsula. The peninsula's unique habitat presented a rare opportunity for conscientious expansion of eco-tourism on the island. The parks first hired Tract, a recognized leader of landscape architecture in Australia, to create a master plan for managing and preserving the spectacular coastal scenery and unique wildlife. To attract and prolong visits to the island, the plan called for creation of diverse eco-tourism and recreation experiences that would complement the Penguin Plus Viewing Area, such as a new underground viewing facility for visitors to observe penguins at ground level. The improvements would also alleviate overcrowding in the existing infrastructure and remove built structures that overlapped penguin habitat. Phillip Island Nature Parks retained Tract to implement the first stage of the master plan, which would expand the network of trails throughout the peninsula, and add a series of elevated boardwalks and viewing experiences at the Penguin Parade facility. The challenge was to create immersive experiences with minimal impact on the coastal flora and fauna. Above all, the new boardwalks could not obstruct penguin paths or borrows. At the same time, some sections had to be accessible to pedestrians, wheelchairs, and bicyclists, which required compliance with safety standards for handrails and balustrades under specific grade/height conditions. To control costs, the trail network would have to be based upon sound landscape design principles, so construction cost estimates could be made with a high degree of certainty. The rigorous analysis technology powered by OpenRoads allowed Tract to model the terrain and design more than 10 kilometers of winding trails without impinging upon the fragile ecosystem. Modeling Rugged Terrain Tract used OpenRoads, Bentley's powerful civil design software for road design and analysis, to model the undulating terrain and plan the trailway system. Bentley's applications allowed Tract to accurately design a trail network that hugged the natural terrain without having to perform the labor-intensive process of grading by traditional CAD methods. LiDAR technology generated the point-cloud data for geolocation and horizontal and vertical alignments within

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OpenRoads Makes Way for Penguin Parade at Phillip Island Nature Parks - 2

"A considered design approach culminated in a beautiful piece of infrastructure which protects the little (a.k.a., Fairy) penguin population while educating visitors about the importance of a delicate and biodiverse habitat. The project allows visitors to observe the delicate sand dune ecology without impacting the mobility of the fairy penguin community, and their burrows and habitat." — Maggie Smythe, Program Coordinator, United Nations Association of Australia (Victorian Division) Find out about Bentley at: www.bentley.com Contact Bentley 1-800-BENTLEY (1-800-236-8539) Outside the US +1...

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