Case Study: MIM Holdings achieves up to 23% rail alignment construction cost savings and improved design compliance with Trimble's Alignment Planning system

Trimble Alignment Planning Bauhina Mine Regional Rail Project

MIM Holdings (now Xstrata PLC) engaged Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Trimble Alignment Planning system to design a 92 km section of the Bauhinia Regional Mine Rail Project. The challenge was to find the most cost‑effective rail alignment that minimized 20‑year operating costs while respecting strict land acquisition limits and reducing community, environmental, heritage, grade and clearance impacts—constraints that the original CAD‑derived alignment failed to meet.

By converting the digital terrain model into the Trimble system, defining design standards, constraints and costs, and optimizing within tightly constrained corridors, planners generated and costed millions of alignment options and produced viable low‑cost alternatives within a day. The result was improved horizontal and vertical alignment quality that met previously violated crossing and grade rules, delivering a 23% construction cost reduction versus the CAD alignment under the same constraints and up to $14.13M (11.7%) savings when additional project constraints were included, plus faster scenario testing, auditing and reporting.