Transforming Stakeholder Engagement with Augmented Reality

The Challenge: Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) struggled to communicate large-scale infrastructure changes using traditional engineering plans during the Bruce Highway upgrade. Landowners and stakeholders found it difficult to understand how upgrades would affect their properties, leading to uncertainty and frustration.

The Solution: We transformed static engineering drawings into immersive augmented reality (AR) experiences at a true-to-life scale—sometimes spanning over a kilometre (nearly a mile). Using an interactive digital map interface, we selected each engineering drawing and pinpointed our exact location on-site. By leveraging natural landmarks—such as intersections, existing roads, or survey pegs placed by TMR—we accurately aligned the AR overlays with the real-world environment. The device’s compass provided an initial orientation, and we then fine-tuned the AR placement manually for even greater precision.

With this approach, TMR representatives could stand right beside farmers and stakeholders, showing them precisely where future property boundaries and infrastructure changes would occur—instantly and in context.

The Results:

• Enhanced Clarity: Stakeholders easily understood the scale, scope, and location of the project’s changes.
• Faster Resolutions: Questions that once took weeks to clarify were answered confidently on-site within minutes.
• Improved Trust: Immediate, tangible AR experiences built stronger relationships with the community.
• Operational Efficiency: Reduced repetitive back-and-forth communication freed up the team to focus on delivering the project more efficiently.

See It in Action: Check out the photos and videos below to witness how AR streamlined communication for the Bruce Highway upgrade. These real-world examples highlight how immersive visualization can simplify complex conversations, foster collaboration, and ensure everyone sees the bigger picture—quite literally.

Acknowledgments:

• Steven MacDonald (Principal Communications Advisor, TMR): By enabling us to shadow his team and interact directly with farmers, Steven helped validate AR’s role in building trust and transparency.

• Matt C. (formerly Digital Transformation Executive, Telstra Purple): Matt championed mixed reality solutions for Enterprise & Government. Our joint discussions helped shape the outcome-focused AR solution that met TMR’s communication objectives.

• A special shoutout to 苹果 Australia who supported our efforts.

Looking Back & Moving Forward:

We delivered this pilot back in 2018—yes, 6 years ago!

It became the springboard for our cloud-based Content Manager (CMS)-powered solution we developed, called Easiar, an easy-to-use augmented reality visualisation tool for the Built Environment. Easiar is designed to make complex infrastructure and development projects more understandable, accessible, and engaging for all stakeholders.

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