diff --git a/include/geos/index/chain/MonotoneChain.h b/include/geos/index/chain/MonotoneChain.h
index d6b1b1ad6d..a5172f9d78 100644
--- a/include/geos/index/chain/MonotoneChain.h
+++ b/include/geos/index/chain/MonotoneChain.h
@@ -151,9 +151,6 @@ class GEOS_DLL MonotoneChain {
         return context;
     }
 
-    void setId(int p_id) { id = p_id; }
-    int getId() const { return id; }
-
 private:
 
     void computeSelect(const geom::Envelope& searchEnv,
@@ -201,9 +198,6 @@ class GEOS_DLL MonotoneChain {
     /// Owned by this class
     mutable geom::Envelope env;
 
-    /// Useful for optimizing chain comparisons
-    int id = 0;
-
 };
 
 } // namespace geos::index::chain
diff --git a/include/geos/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.h b/include/geos/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.h
index 70b6cb3154..35028b5bd4 100644
--- a/include/geos/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.h
+++ b/include/geos/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.h
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ class GEOS_DLL EdgeSetIntersector {
     // HPRtree index = new HPRtree();
     const Envelope* envelope = nullptr;
     std::deque<MonotoneChain> monoChains;
-    int idCounter = 0;
+    std::size_t overlapCounter = 0;
 
 
     // Methods
@@ -76,7 +76,6 @@ class GEOS_DLL EdgeSetIntersector {
         std::vector<const SegmentString*>& edgesB,
         const Envelope* env)
         : envelope(env)
-        , idCounter(0)
         {
             addEdges(edgesA);
             addEdges(edgesB);
diff --git a/src/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.cpp b/src/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.cpp
index 37b3600b83..63332acf1f 100644
--- a/src/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.cpp
+++ b/src/operation/relateng/EdgeSetIntersector.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 #include <geos/operation/relateng/RelateSegmentString.h>
 #include <geos/index/chain/MonotoneChain.h>
 #include <geos/index/chain/MonotoneChainBuilder.h>
+#include <geos/util/Interrupt.h>
 
 
 using geos::geom::Geometry;
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ EdgeSetIntersector::addToIndex(const SegmentString* segStr)
 
     for (MonotoneChain& mc : segChains) {
         if (envelope == nullptr || envelope->intersects(mc.getEnvelope())) {
-            mc.setId(idCounter++);
+            // mc.setId(idCounter++);
             monoChains.push_back(mc);
             MonotoneChain* mcPtr = &(monoChains.back());
             index.insert(mcPtr->getEnvelope(), mcPtr);
@@ -68,26 +69,19 @@ EdgeSetIntersector::process(EdgeSegmentIntersector& intersector)
 {
     EdgeSegmentOverlapAction overlapAction(intersector);
 
-    for (const MonotoneChain& queryChain : monoChains) {
+    // Replaces JTS implementation that manually iterates on the
+    // monoChains with the automatic queryPairs method in TemplateSTRTree
+    index.queryPairs([this, &overlapAction, &intersector](const MonotoneChain* queryChain, const MonotoneChain* testChain) {
 
-        std::vector<const MonotoneChain*> overlapChains;
-        index.query(queryChain.getEnvelope(), [&overlapChains](const MonotoneChain* mc) {
-            overlapChains.push_back(mc);
-            });
+        if (overlapCounter++ % 100000 == 0)
+            GEOS_CHECK_FOR_INTERRUPTS();
 
-        for (const MonotoneChain* testChain : overlapChains) {
-            /**
-             * following test makes sure we only compare each pair of chains once
-             * and that we don't compare a chain to itself
-             */
-            if (testChain->getId() <= queryChain.getId())
-                continue;
+        testChain->computeOverlaps(queryChain, &overlapAction);
+
+        if (intersector.isDone())
+            return;
+    });
 
-            testChain->computeOverlaps(&queryChain, &overlapAction);
-            if (intersector.isDone())
-                return;
-        }
-    }
 }