diff --git a/rust/Cargo.toml b/rust/Cargo.toml
index c5bb370e0..08f0066a6 100644
--- a/rust/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,26 +9,27 @@ members = [
 ]
 
 [workspace.dependencies]
-serde = { version = "1.0.209", features = ["derive"] }
-serde_json = { version = "1.0.133", features = ["preserve_order"] }
+serde = { version = "1.0.219", features = ["derive"] }
+serde_json = { version = "1.0.140", features = ["preserve_order"] }
 rayon = "1.10.0"
-geo = { version = "0.29.3", features = ["use-serde"] }
-geo-types = "0.7.14"
-geojson = { version = "0.24.1" }
+geo = { version = "0.30.0", features = ["use-serde"] }
+geo-traits = "0.2.0"
+geo-types = "0.7.16"
+geojson = { version = "0.24.2" }
 rstar = "0.12.2"
-thiserror = "2.0.7"
-flate2 = "1.0.35"
+thiserror = "2.0.12"
+flate2 = "1.1.1"
 kdam = "0.6.2"
-log = "0.4.22"
-env_logger = "0.11.5"
+log = "0.4.27"
+env_logger = "0.11.8"
 csv = { version = "1.3.1" }
-itertools = { version = "0.13.0" }
-chrono = "0.4.39"
+itertools = { version = "0.14.0" }
+chrono = "0.4.40"
 regex = "1.11.1"
 wkt = { version = "0.12.0", features = ["serde"] }
-wkb = "0.7.1"
-config = "0.14.1"
-ordered-float = { version = "4.5.0", features = ["serde"] }
+wkb = "0.8.0"
+config = "0.15.11"
+ordered-float = { version = "5.0.0", features = ["serde"] }
 allocative = "0.3.4"
-indoc = "2.0.5"
-derive_more = { version = "1.0.0", features = ["full"] }
+indoc = "2.0.6"
+derive_more = { version = "2.0.1", features = ["full"] }
diff --git a/rust/routee-compass-core/Cargo.toml b/rust/routee-compass-core/Cargo.toml
index 913177ce7..ff93f6de6 100644
--- a/rust/routee-compass-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/routee-compass-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,10 +17,11 @@ rayon = { workspace = true }
 thiserror = { workspace = true }
 flate2 = { workspace = true }
 geo = { workspace = true }
+geo-traits = { workspace = true }
 ordered-float = { workspace = true }
 derive_more = { workspace = true }
 priority-queue = "2.0.2"
-lru = "0.12"
+lru = "0.14.0"
 csv = { workspace = true }
 kdam = { workspace = true }
 log = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/rust/routee-compass-core/src/util/geo/geo_io_utils.rs b/rust/routee-compass-core/src/util/geo/geo_io_utils.rs
index b0bc1d936..6f2f5dcb6 100644
--- a/rust/routee-compass-core/src/util/geo/geo_io_utils.rs
+++ b/rust/routee-compass-core/src/util/geo/geo_io_utils.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 use geo::{Coord, CoordsIter, LineString, Point};
+use geo_traits::to_geo::ToGeoGeometry;
 use itertools::Itertools;
 use wkb;
 use wkt::{ToWkt, TryFromWkt};
@@ -113,14 +114,13 @@ pub fn parse_wkt_linestring(_idx: usize, row: String) -> Result<LineString<f32>,
 }
 
 pub fn parse_wkb_linestring(_idx: usize, row: String) -> Result<LineString<f32>, std::io::Error> {
-    let mut c = row.as_bytes();
-    let geom = wkb::wkb_to_geom(&mut c).map_err(|e| {
-        let msg = format!("failure decoding WKB string: {:?}", e);
-        std::io::Error::new(std::io::ErrorKind::InvalidData, msg)
-    })?;
-    match geom {
+    let geom = wkb::reader::read_wkb(row.as_bytes())
+        .map_err(|e| std::io::Error::new(std::io::ErrorKind::InvalidData, e.to_string()))?;
+
+    match geom.to_geometry() {
         geo::Geometry::LineString(l) => {
-            // somewhat hackish solution since we cannot choose f32 when parsing wkbs
+            // somewhat hackish solution since we cannot choose f32 when parsing wkbs and
+            // geo::Convert does not support f64 -> f32, for good reason of course
             let coords32 =
                 l.0.into_iter()
                     .map(|c| Coord {
@@ -131,10 +131,10 @@ pub fn parse_wkb_linestring(_idx: usize, row: String) -> Result<LineString<f32>,
             let l32 = LineString::new(coords32);
             Ok(l32)
         }
-        _ => {
+        g => {
             let msg = format!(
                 "decoded WKB expected to be linestring, found: {}",
-                geom.to_wkt()
+                g.to_wkt()
             );
             Err(std::io::Error::new(std::io::ErrorKind::InvalidData, msg))
         }
diff --git a/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/Cargo.toml b/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/Cargo.toml
index e797062e4..a6c3e8b1e 100644
--- a/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/Cargo.toml
@@ -12,19 +12,19 @@ documentation = "https://docs.rs/routee-compass"
 
 [dependencies]
 routee-compass-core = { path = "../routee-compass-core", version = "0.9.1" }
-smartcore = { version = "0.3.1", features = ["serde"] }                      # random forest
+smartcore = { version = "0.4.0", features = ["serde"] }                      # random forest
 thiserror = { workspace = true }
 log = { workspace = true }
 geo = { workspace = true }
 kdam = { workspace = true }
-bincode = "1.3.3"
+bincode = { version = "2.0.1", features = ["serde"] }
 env_logger = { workspace = true }
 serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"] }
 serde_repr = "0.1"
 serde_json = { workspace = true }
 ordered-float = { workspace = true }
 ndarray = "0.16.1"
-ort = { version = "2.0.0-alpha.4", optional = true }
+ort = { version = "2.0.0-rc.9", optional = true }
 rayon = { workspace = true }
 itertools = { workspace = true }
 ninterp = { version = "0.1.0", features = ["serde"] }
diff --git a/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/src/model/prediction/smartcore/smartcore_speed_grade_model.rs b/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/src/model/prediction/smartcore/smartcore_speed_grade_model.rs
index 3d963c167..37d3b4379 100644
--- a/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/src/model/prediction/smartcore/smartcore_speed_grade_model.rs
+++ b/rust/routee-compass-powertrain/src/model/prediction/smartcore/smartcore_speed_grade_model.rs
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ use routee_compass_core::model::{
 use smartcore::{
     ensemble::random_forest_regressor::RandomForestRegressor, linalg::basic::matrix::DenseMatrix,
 };
-use std::{borrow::Cow, path::Path};
+use std::{borrow::Cow, fs::File, path::Path};
 
 pub struct SmartcoreSpeedGradeModel {
     rf: RandomForestRegressor<f64, f64, DenseMatrix<f64>, Vec<f64>>,
@@ -27,7 +27,13 @@ impl PredictionModel for SmartcoreSpeedGradeModel {
         let mut grade_value = Cow::Owned(grade);
         speed_unit.convert(&mut speed_value, &self.speed_unit)?;
         grade_unit.convert(&mut grade_value, &self.grade_unit)?;
-        let x = DenseMatrix::from_2d_vec(&vec![vec![speed_value.as_f64(), grade_value.as_f64()]]);
+        let x = DenseMatrix::from_2d_vec(&vec![vec![speed_value.as_f64(), grade_value.as_f64()]])
+            .map_err(|e| {
+            TraversalModelError::TraversalModelFailure(format!(
+                "unable to set up prediction input vector: {}",
+                e
+            ))
+        })?;
         let y = self.rf.predict(&x).map_err(|e| {
             TraversalModelError::TraversalModelFailure(format!(
                 "failure running underlying Smartcore random forest energy prediction: {}",
@@ -47,22 +53,23 @@ impl SmartcoreSpeedGradeModel {
         grade_unit: GradeUnit,
         energy_rate_unit: EnergyRateUnit,
     ) -> Result<Self, TraversalModelError> {
-        // Load random forest binary file
-        let rf_binary = std::fs::read(routee_model_path).map_err(|e| {
+        let mut file = File::open(routee_model_path).map_err(|e| {
             TraversalModelError::BuildError(format!(
-                "failure reading smartcore binary text file {} due to {}",
-                routee_model_path.as_ref().to_str().unwrap_or_default(),
+                "failure opening file {}: {}",
+                routee_model_path.as_ref().to_string_lossy(),
                 e
             ))
         })?;
         let rf: RandomForestRegressor<f64, f64, DenseMatrix<f64>, Vec<f64>> =
-            bincode::deserialize(&rf_binary).map_err(|e| {
-                TraversalModelError::BuildError(format!(
-                    "failure deserializing smartcore model {} due to {}",
-                    routee_model_path.as_ref().to_str().unwrap_or_default(),
-                    e
-                ))
-            })?;
+            bincode::serde::decode_from_std_read(&mut file, bincode::config::legacy()).map_err(
+                |e| {
+                    TraversalModelError::BuildError(format!(
+                        "failure deserializing smartcore model {} due to {}",
+                        routee_model_path.as_ref().to_str().unwrap_or_default(),
+                        e
+                    ))
+                },
+            )?;
         Ok(SmartcoreSpeedGradeModel {
             rf,
             speed_unit,
diff --git a/rust/routee-compass/Cargo.toml b/rust/routee-compass/Cargo.toml
index bf896a976..2e0eb4bd9 100644
--- a/rust/routee-compass/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/routee-compass/Cargo.toml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"] }
 serde_json = { workspace = true }
 csv = { workspace = true }
 geo = { workspace = true }
+geo-traits = { workspace = true }
 geo-types = { workspace = true }
 geojson = { workspace = true }
 rstar = { workspace = true }
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ kdam = { workspace = true }
 log = { workspace = true }
 rayon = { workspace = true }
 serde_repr = "0.1"
-rand = "0.8.5"
+rand = "0.9.0"
 chrono = { workspace = true }
 config = { workspace = true }
 clap = { version = "4.3.19", features = ["derive"] }
diff --git a/rust/routee-compass/src/main.rs b/rust/routee-compass/src/main.rs
index bf16ecd4e..f90b7e144 100644
--- a/rust/routee-compass/src/main.rs
+++ b/rust/routee-compass/src/main.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ fn main() {
     match run::command_line_runner(&args, Some(builder), None) {
         Ok(_) => {}
         Err(e) => {
-            error!("{}", e.to_string())
+            error!("{}", e)
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/rust/routee-compass/src/plugin/output/default/traversal/traversal_output_format.rs b/rust/routee-compass/src/plugin/output/default/traversal/traversal_output_format.rs
index 49700a431..1e6ba6572 100644
--- a/rust/routee-compass/src/plugin/output/default/traversal/traversal_output_format.rs
+++ b/rust/routee-compass/src/plugin/output/default/traversal/traversal_output_format.rs
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ use std::{collections::HashMap, sync::Arc};
 
 use super::traversal_ops as ops;
 use crate::plugin::output::OutputPluginError;
-use geo::{CoordFloat, Geometry};
+use geo::{CoordFloat, Geometry, TryConvert};
 use routee_compass_core::{
     algorithm::search::{EdgeTraversal, SearchTreeBranch},
     model::{map::MapModel, network::vertex_id::VertexId},
@@ -100,18 +100,19 @@ impl TraversalOutputFormat {
 fn geometry_to_wkb_string<T: CoordFloat + Into<f64>>(
     geometry: &Geometry<T>,
 ) -> Result<String, OutputPluginError> {
-    let bytes = wkb::geom_to_wkb(geometry).map_err(|e| {
-        OutputPluginError::OutputPluginFailed(format!(
-            "failed to generate wkb for geometry '{:?}' - {:?}",
-            geometry, e
-        ))
+    let mut out_bytes = vec![];
+    let geom: Geometry<f64> = geometry.try_convert().map_err(|e| {
+        OutputPluginError::OutputPluginFailed(format!("unable to convert geometry to f64: {}", e))
     })?;
-    let wkb_str = bytes
-        .iter()
-        .map(|b| format!("{:02X?}", b))
-        .collect::<Vec<String>>()
-        .join("");
-    Ok(wkb_str)
+    wkb::writer::write_geometry(&mut out_bytes, &geom, wkb::Endianness::BigEndian).map_err(
+        |e| {
+            OutputPluginError::OutputPluginFailed(format!("failed to write geometry as WKB: {}", e))
+        },
+    )?;
+    let out_string = String::from_utf8(out_bytes).map_err(|e| {
+        OutputPluginError::OutputPluginFailed(format!("failed to read WKB as utf8: {}", e))
+    })?;
+    Ok(out_string)
 }
 
 // #[cfg(test)]