The Customer:
Buro Happold (working for Dorset County Council)
The Project:
Dorset’s A35 and C6 roads form a crucial link down to the county’s south coast. With a view to improving this link and therefore relieving seasonal congestion on over-capacity neighbouring routes, Dorset County Council commissioned multidisciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold to prepare a feasibility study into bypass options for the village of Bere Regis.
In order to accurately understand the levels and features of the local terrain, the consultancy required accurate terrain height data and high resolution aerial photography that was to be used to create 3D fly-throughs and visualisations of the resulting designs.
The Solution:
Bluesky provided Buro Happold with highly accurate LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data that a specialist survey aircraft equipped with a system of lasers was used. Lasers were beamed to the surface and the time taken for the beam to be bounced back to aircraft-mounted receivers was recorded. Using the known position of the aircraft (derived from on-board satellite positioning equipment), the time taken for the return of the laser beam and the known value of the speed of light, the distance between the aircraft and ground is calculated. Additional readings can also be taken to determine the height of buildings, vegetation and other surface structures.
Using 12d Model, a powerful terrain modelling and civil engineering software package, Buro Happold expanded on an earlier feasibility study and prepared three options for the bypass. The detailed terrain model has allowed the designers to minimise any impact on the environment, particularly the associated costs of cut and fill operations.
The Feedback:
“The size of the study area meant a traditional topographic survey was simply not feasible due to cost implications. However for the same price as a relatively small ground survey we were able to acquire very accurate terrain measurements and high resolution aerial photography of the entire study area. These have proved instrumental in progressing the feasibility study and preparing designs for each of the three options. The aerial photography will also be fundamental in communicating these designs during a future public consultation period as they provide real world detail to our computer generated models.” Neil Harvey, Senior Engineer, Buro Happold, Highways and Infrastructure division
The Duration:
2009