Council design teams across Australia face a uniquely challenging brief; deliver safe, accessible, resilient infrastructure, all while contending with constraints like public expectations and legislative requirements. Balancing these priorities is no small feat, and the tools councils use can make all the difference.
Today’s councils are required to manage a diverse portfolio of works – urban road upgrades, rural safety improvements, creation of share paths, car park refurbishments, and the transformation of open spaces – all under tight timelines and expectations for community consultation and transparency. There are elements councils simply cannot move, from deep-set utilities to mature street trees; meanwhile, the households who live alongside these upgrades demand clarity and comfort about the impact of works.
As Shane O’Rorke, Technical Services Manager at Civil Survey Applications, reflected “Local government work is very varied, and it’s really challenging, because there are things you can’t move, there are things you can’t change. There are the residents and their quality of life and experience to think about as well.”
O’Rorke, who started his career in local government, recognised that designing infrastructure for councils is about more than just technical output.
“It’s about delivering tools that make it easy for local government designers to get their work done. It needs to be accurate, it needs to be controlled, because there are things you can’t change. But it also needs to be easy,” he said.
Bridging the technical and the tangible
One of the persistent hurdles for local governments has been finding civil engineering design software that suits the Australian context. For years, imported solutions fell short – originally “built in America for Americans”, they did not deliver the outputs or workflows that reflected council realities in Australia.
Australian-built design solutions, developed by teams with deep council experience, have altered this equation. Now, solutions are tailored for the Australian environment, supporting workflows in Autodesk, AutoCAD and Civil 3D, as well as BricsCAD. The approach enhances council designers’ ability to manipulate and visualise land changes, manage stormwater, utilities, and road alignments, all in real time within the familiar CAD (Computer-Aided Design) environment.
All levels of government are increasingly focused on equitable data sharing, particularly as the Infrastructure Foundation Class (IFC) format becomes the standard for projects in New South Wales and elsewhere. This enables planners, engineers, architects, and landscape architects to engage with the same data, reducing errors and enabling swifter, better-informed decisions.
“Historically, departments have been separate,” O’Rorke said, “but what is happening in industry now is this idea that we all create data that is equitably shared, equitably viewed, and equitably analysed.”
This shift is especially critical for councils, who must frequently package up design outputs to meet state government and multi-disciplinary project requirements.
The power of visual communication
Community consultation is no longer a box-ticking exercise – it’s an imperative. Councils need to bridge the technical expertise of engineers with the understanding of the local community.
“Advances in 3D visualisation allow councils to take screenshots or open up the model and move it around, and it makes a big difference for a resident to say, ‘Okay, I’m unhappy about this road, but when I see it, I can at least see why I’m unhappy’,” O’Rorke said.
“The fear of not understanding the impact goes away, because they can see it in context and look at it in any angle.”
Workshops with local councils have highlighted how these visual tools empower designers and community members alike, making design intent clear without the need for specialist technical skills. Tools such as Twinmotion now allow designers to add detail such as people, lighting, and landscape elements, creating immersive digital twins that resonate with a broad audience.
Efficiency, practicality and innovation
Civil Site Design offers local government teams a powerful solution for tackling complex infrastructure projects.
By streamlining everything from road design to stormwater management within familiar CAD environments, the software helps councils deliver accurate, compliant plans efficiently.
Designed with input from local government experts, Civil Site Design enables seamless collaboration, intuitive visualisation, and practical automation – making it easier for council engineers and planners to meet today’s challenges and shape well-functioning, resilient communities.
Civil Site Design is a well-established tool for 3D visualisation. Councils are using Civil Site Design to translate technical plans into clear visual representations that can be shared with colleagues and local communities alike.
This capability is enhanced by the new free Model Review software which allows the sharing of design models and provides check measuring, comment and markup capability for all stakeholders.
Civil Site Design is also leading the way in automation and artificial intelligence for council teams.
With AI-powered tools like Project Assist, designers can rapidly generate road models from basic geometry, saving manual effort and minimising the risk of repetitive errors.
“They spend less time going through the mechanics of the software and more time thinking ‘what is the intent? What is the outcome I need out of that software?’,” O’Rorke said.
Additionally, the software’s vertical grading optimisation helps users quickly find the most cost-effective, compliant design, even when dealing with real-world constraints on grades, accessibility, and cut/fill volumes.
Civil Site Design also supports automated scripting and natural language processing via integration with trained AI models, empowering even less experienced users to leverage powerful design automation.
Feedback from councils highlights Civil Site Design’s ease of use and robust support ecosystem.
“It runs inside CAD, so pretty much what you design is what you produce as a final plan. That’s sort of the main benefit, and it’s an easy point of accessibility,” O’Rorke said.
A focus on the local government mission
The majority of Civil Site Design’s development team has direct local government experience, ensuring their software is aligned to council needs and workflows.
Workshops and case studies share best practice approaches to everyday challenges, ensuring councils get practical value from technology investments.
As local governments across Australia navigate the tightrope of efficiency, compliance, and community vision, Civil Site Design is helping bridge gaps – offering not just powerful design technology, but a way for councils to communicate, collaborate, and create lasting local benefit.
For more information visit civilsitedesign.com.au
