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Kirkham
Michael employee Wayne Scritchfield gets ready to launch the drone.
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Topeka – The Kansas Department of
Transportation has partnered with Kirkham Michael to test the effectiveness of
new technologies in advancing project design processes and improving worker
safety on Kansas highway projects.
Kirkham Michael
and KDOT worked jointly on an approved project that will survey and design a
passing lane on a two-mile section of U.S. 75 north of Topeka. As part of
the joint effort, Kirkham Michael surveyed the area via a series of drone
flights yesterday.
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| Scritchfield retrieves the photo card after the drone flew for several minutes along the survey project area. |
“We are
very excited to be partnering with industry to improve our processes that will
not only save taxpayers money in the project planning and design phases, but
also improve worker safety,” said Ron Feldkamp, KDOT survey coordinator.
Currently, road
surveys for every road project are conducted by workers physically out on
highway right-of-ways. The data that they collect is transferred to
design programs and used to by engineers to plan and design the project.
The use of drones
to conduct the three-dimensional surveys can potentially save time, limit
traffic impacts and significantly reduce the risks to employees.
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| Scritchfield, at right, talks about the benefits of surveying a road project with a drone after the test flight. |
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