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RAIL SURVEYING


“There is a real kind of mantra now within the industry - survey once, use many times. Any idea of doing a survey, then redoing it again and again is just ridiculous – it should be passed over to Network Rail, who have a good surveying office.


“It is important to point out that the skills of the people who are interpreting the information are just as important as the equipment being used to gain it.


This is also where the skills sets are changing within the rail industry, with some people even coming over from the gaming industries because they have extensive experience of using 3D images and modelling.


“However, the technology being used is amazing and is being developed continuously. When you consider that laser scanners only came into the industry five years ago, you would have


“It is not just the hardware which is improving – the usability and accuracy of the software involved is astounding.”


“The skills of the people who are interpreting the information are just as important as the equipment being used to gain it”


expected to pay a six-figure sum for a piece of kit which would have been the size of a small safe, requiring two car batteries to operate.


“Now you can buy laser scanners for about £30-£40,000 which are small enough to be able to put on a tripod and be carried about by one person. It has


developed in the same way as mobile phone technology.


“Of course, it is not just the hardware which is improving – the usability and accuracy of the software involved is astounding.


“The amount of information which the survey will be picking up on a railway job will be huge and what the aerial LIDAR system does is create a point cloud of information, which is a vast amount of information, terabytes in size. To perform an effective survey you need to be able to control that information and get something of value out of it and this is where the software does an incredibly good job.”


Recent trends in any kind of technology mean it either gets cheaper, more efficient or smaller in size – so what is the way forward for laser surveying technology?


“As with all technology, smaller and faster with greater usability and the software behind it is likely to get more intelligent.


“There are companies already looking into how to improve software and I think you will find there will be bespoke rail surveying software created in the not-too-distant future.


“I also feel laser scanning can really help from a defamation point of view – if you observe what is happening at a lot of the work taking place on the London Underground system at the moment, there are surveys always going on to ensure nothing has moved which shouldn’t have or that there isn’t anything like leaks springing up.


“Laser surveying technology can certainly help with this need for continual monitoring.”


Laser scanning – the hidden benefits T


he main advantage of using this technique is that it provides large datasets in a short working window which is particularly desirable in a railway environment, as this allows personnel to cope with strict safety criteria and awkward site conditions without compromise.


Despite the above, scanning is often overlooked when planning smaller projects as it is relatively expensive when compared to other survey methods but there are a number of less obvious hidden benefits that can be ‘harvested’ from a pointcloud that can make it cost effective. One such benefit is the ability to provide information that was not part of the original specification but has become critical as the project progresses.


Another is the ability to portray 56 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 11


structures from unique angles or viewpoints. The accompanying extracts are all pointcloud orthoimages produced by Chartered Land Surveyors Mike Worby Survey Consultancy in response to ‘extra requests’ for critical information over and above the original specification for 2d plans /elevations as part of an investigation into station canopy and footbridge refurbishment.


FOR MORE INFORMATION


Michael Worby T: +44 (0)1707 333677 M: 07767 456196 W: www.mw-sc.co.uk E: survey@mw-sc.co.uk


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