Project Summary
Severn Partnership were commissioned by WSP to undertake a topographic and GPR survey of the town of Clun, based in Shropshire. These services were required to provide WSP with a highly accurate and complete data set, detailing what could be found both above and below ground. As part of drainage improvements in Clun, knowledge on the lay of the land was needed to understand the area’s waterflow. A utility survey detecting underground services and features, was key to providing location information on existing buried assets.
Due to Clun’s older, narrower road structure, the original plan was to make use of traffic management, thereby enabling a traditional survey to take place over the course of a few weeks. However, by instead utilising our autonomous joint mobile mapping technology, we not only saved time and reduced project costs, but provided WSP a better solution without the requirement of road closures around Clun.
The Challenges
The age of the town and its infrastructure system, meant the roads were small and residents had fewer access routes. In lifting each manhole cover individually for data collection, traffic management would need to be used for the survey works to be completed. This would cause a full road closure due to the narrowness of the lanes.
Ultimately, this would lead to major disruption and due stress for those living in and travelling through the town, for potentially as long as a few weeks until the site works were complete.
The challenge was therefore to avoid a situation where traffic management had to be employed, whilst still collecting the data required to highest possible accuracies and minimising disruption. As with any highways project, safety was also a challenging factor, and a solution which kept both the Severn Partnership team and the general public as safe as possible, had to be actioned.
Our Solutions
Our joint mobile mapping solution made light work of this project’s challenges. By combining the Leica Pegasus Two:Ultimate and IDS GeoRadar Stream UP Ground Penetrating systems, we were able to deliver a complete data set to WSP in the quickest way possible whilst maintaining the highest quality and safety standards.
Mass data of above and below Clun’s road system was able to be collected simultaneously and at road speed. This considerably reduced the time needed for our team to be on site, with the data being collected by a team of two in a single day. With no need for any traffic management to be put in place around Clun, there were no issues with road access and residents were generally unaware of any site work having taken place. Safety was also further increased by moving the two operators from the field to inside the vehicle.
Results
Point cloud deliverables were provided to WSP, alongside a combined topographic and utility CAD plan. As a reference for future use, this complete point cloud gives WSP a full picture of site and the ability to extract additional data not required in the original specification. An accurate understanding of the target area in high accuracy, removes any doubt for the design team whether focusing on above or below ground assets.
High levels of communication between a designated mobile mapping Project Manager and WSP, resulted in extremely positive feedback from our client following this project and has worked to strengthen an already key relationship.
Client Feedback
“At WSP, we are continually striving to implement efficient processes and adopt Lean methodologies to deliver high quality projects for our clients and ultimately the end users of the infrastructure that we design. During our collaboration with Severn Partnership, it was great to share this same approach and it was clear to see their passion for the services they provide.
Severn Partnership also facilitated an in-office survey demonstration, showing excellent customer service and acting as a valuable learning opportunity for our project engineer and early career professionals.
The prompt and clear communication from the outset was also useful for progress reporting and aiming for project milestones.”
Cameron McCairn
Project Engineer, WSP