Fast, reliable and detailed aerial inspection of bridge structures that can be invaluable to safety inspections without having to disrupt day to day use.
Traditionally, to inspect a road, rail or pedestrian bridge structure and its support beams, (whether it be a historic sandstone structure, steel framed or brick) required a complex inspection access set up involving costly scaffolding, a trained inspection team that were qualified to work ‘at height’ and traffic disruption and road bridges were cut to one lane and railway lines were rerouted or disrupted to allow access.
The benefits of drone surveys
Drone surveys are faster, safer, more detailed and provide REAL cost savings over conventional bridge inspection methods.
In the transportation sector, across the UK, old canal bridges, some sitting incredibly high up off the ground, need inspected on a regular basis to ensure their safe operation. In order to inspect the underside of these bridges would usually require a complex and expensive scaffolding set up and/or a rope access team.
The problem with traditional bridge inspection methods
Traditional methods of bridge inspection broke down into a choice between aerial work platforms (AWP) or an under bridge inspection carrier such as a cherry picker/spider platform or rope access team. This choice can be cut to only one option dependent on the bridge size and location and even on what flows beneath the bridge (rivers, seas, streets, motorways etc).
However, regardless of what type of traditional bridge access was used, the requirement to close roads and shut down lanes of motorways along with the equipment cost for rope access teams meant that this form of inspection was time consuming, limited to small areas at a time and costly.
The same situation is true for so many railway bridges across Scotland and England. And while access to these railway bridges may seem daunting, there is the added complexity of train disruption as these railway lines are in constant use with trains operating to a tight schedule. Conventional railway bridge inspection methods would require train disruptions so that the workers can conduct their inspection safely.
Why drone bridge inspections are the way forwards
With modern technology, Balmore can provide you with an award winning inspection service with real cost savings. With our fleet of aerial drones, we can provide a tailored inspection drone survey service for road, rail, canal and pedestrian foot bridges across Scotland and the North of England.
With our drones, we can inspect a bridge in a fraction of the time it takes a conventional inspection team to perform the same work. We can inspect and report on locations on the bridge at angles that are simply impossible to replicate with conventional scaffolding and rope access. And with our commercial drone services, we can take 4K HD photography, video AND thermal imaging of any and all locations on a bridge that are of interest. This can then be archived and processed to provide incredibly accurate and detailed inspection reports that numerous specialists can then examine.
And because our drone surveys for bridges can be done so quickly and comprehensively, we can provide a regular inspection schedule that monitors any specific locations using the exact same GPS based locations. Perfect for back to back comparison data.
Where do we cover?
Balmore is based just outside of Glasgow. This allows us easy access to the central belt of Scotland but our drone survey services are called upon across the whole of Scotland and the North of England. From inspecting lighthouses on the islands around Shetland and Orkney to powerline inspections in England and 3D modelling of buildings in Edinburgh City Centre. Our drones are easy to deploy across all these areas.
Find out more
If you would like to know more about our bridge inspection services using aerial drones, please contact our Glasgow head office today.
