Digital engineering

Drone Based Structural Inspections

Challenge

We were tasked with inspecting numerous bridges over the river Wye. Inspecting the bridges posed challenges due to their height and location. Traditional methods required risky abseiling and boat access to capture the photographic evidence required for the report.

Solution

Drones were used instead to help reduce risk and time. This enabled a safer inspection with the need for a specialist contractor. Collaborating with our sister team, Technical Services, we paired these data capture methods with their in-house structural engineers to write the structural condition reports.

Benefits

The primary advantage of using drones was enhanced safety, eliminating the need for working at dangerous heights. Additionally, drones proved more cost-effective and efficient, capturing 4K videos and geolocated photographs. These visual data points facilitated the creation of detailed 3D models for each bridge, significantly improving the overall quality of our inspection evidence.

Leyton Station Swept Path Analysis

Challenge

The Client needed to get a concrete wagon across a train track and on to an island Platform, and down a very narrow strip while also rotating 180° to pour the concrete.

Solution

Using Autoturn within Microstation, we were able collaborate with our in-house Technical Services team to create a swept path along an existing road towards the island, using the vehicle tracking we were able to determine the minimum turning radius of the vehicle going over the track and turning 90° along the island beside the platform, proving their design would work.

Benefits

Using the output from the swept path we were able to design a bridge over the track including working out the minimum space needed to perform the 90° turn.

We also determined it was beneficial to use a turntable on the island to rotate the wagons 180° as there was not enough space to safely complete a 3-point turn at the bottom of the bridge to then reverse the wagons into location.

Leyton Station VR Visualisations

Challenge

Trying to create a fully immersive experience for the Client to showcase the design of the new station upgrades. And being able to openly move around the design as a completed concept.

Solution

The virtual environment allows you to import 3D design models, texture them and add lighting with photorealistic textures and a vast model library of people and objects to help create an immersive experience.

Benefits

Gives the user 100% control of walkthroughs of their project, with as much detail as you want to give

It produces a standalone file that holds the model within a game engine type document with no need for the Client to have specialist software.

Stockpile Analysis and Quantification of Material

Challenge

Large stockpiles of material are kept on site and can be difficult to manage and track movement around the scheme, potentially wasting money on unrequired orders and time spent trying to quantify materials using more traditional methods.

Solution

Using data captured via drones, we create digital surface models of all of our sites. This allows us to calculate all stockpiles on site and compare against historic and future data sets, tracking the usage of materials and also helping to quantify earthworks progression.

Benefits

Empowering our sites to calculate and monitor materials more efficiently, providing better data to make more informed decisions, saving time and money.

Gatwick Airport Traffic Management

Challenge

There was complex traffic management required for widening of existing bridges, and the need to demonstrate to stakeholders how we would be able to keep traffic flowing while also widening the bridges.

Solution

Using visualisation workflows, creating photorealistic images showing construction sequencing and traffic flow drawings from aerial imagery of the area. With textured 3D models we clearly demonstrated the methodology to successfully keep traffic flowing whilst works were ongoing.

Benefits

Created a clear representation of the scheme for the Client to see. This took away any guesswork, which made it much easier to demonstrate to the Client how we would keep the site safe and cause minimal disruptions.