Monitoring of rail infrastructure
Simon Hall, Leica Geosystems
THE risk to human life through infrastructure failures is one of the biggest risks that face construction and surveying businesses every day. Even the smallest movements can cause long term complications, it is therefore critical that these structures are monitored and kept to the highest safety standards.
Mitigating the risk to human life
Survey Solutions were contracted to conduct a monitoring project of a rail station building and platform, where structural movement had been occurring throughout the site.
The remote monitoring data is being used to minimise the risk associated with the movement of critical infrastructure, with the final decision on the demolition and rebuilding of the platform also being made based upon the results of the project.
The project is of critical importance as the movement of the structure has already resulted in some changes having to be made to daily operations, including limiting the size of trains that are able to stop at the station from 12 carriages to six due to the potential danger.
Scheduled to last for 40 weeks, the project used Leica Geosystems to create reporting using plug and play solutions to provide the structural health monitoring, particularly displacements in singular prisms to map station movement.
Due to the critical importance of the project, the solution gave the ability to automatically validate the TPS location during the measurement array readings to enable true displacements.
Implementation
The package of solutions selected combined the total stations, software and monitoring communications. The Leica Nova MS60 was selected to perform all surveying tasks with one instrument, enabling sensor fusion to combine total station capabilities, 3D laser scanning and digital imaging.
The MS60 was controlled remotely to monitor the positions of 20 L-Bar Prisms mounted at strategic points throughout the site.
The project is of critical importance as the movement of the structure has already resulted in some changes having to be made to daily operations, including limiting the size of trains that are able to stop at the station.
Remote monitoring was a key factor in the selected solutions, with limited access available to the station site during operational hours.
To overcome this problem, the Leica ComBox60 was installed. The team from Survey Solutions mounted the ComBox60 on site before connecting the MS60 allowing them to remotely operate the MS60 without the requirement for site visits, simplifying the geodetic monitoring sensor operation in the field.
Leica GeoMoS software has instant data storage ensuring 24/7 operation of the measurement cycle and stored all the captured information in a database.
The first sets of data were captured manually through the GeoMoS interface, after the installation of prisms, MS60 and ComBox60.
This data was then used for initial points that would be monitored throughout the course of the 40-week project to provide deliverable displacement data.
Multiple sets of data were captured at different times of the day to assess any deformation caused by the changing environmental and structural condition.The risk to human life through infrastructure failures is one of the biggest risks that face construction and surveying businesses every day.
Benefits
The solution was delivered and installed in time to begin the project on a tight schedule.
The combination of the MS60 and ComBox60 enabled Survey Solutions to control the project remotely, reducing the need for the team to travel to the site to conduct the monitoring activity.
This method of remote automated monitoring increased efficiency by reducing time spent on site visits, and also provided significant costs savings and minimised the impact on the environment through a reduced carbon footprint.
Simon Hall, Leica Geosystems
