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Yorkshire Water and contractor Morrison Utility Services (MUS) have planned out the route of a new £4.8 million pipeline using information collected by drones.
MUS trialled the unmanned air vehicles to investigate the route of the new 20km clean water pipeline which will replace the water treatment works in West Stonesdale.
The drones, owned by Remote Aerial Surveys, allowed MUS to scan the route of the new pipeline, which includes four crossings of the River Swale, and 13 crossings of other watercourses.
MUS construction manager Mike West said: “Drones have minimised the physical risks to our employees, allowed us to access unreachable locations at speed, and enabled us to take aerial images, extract the terrain slope, aspect and ruggedness and see things in a range of ways.”
He added that the trial has been a success, and could be extended to other projects, becuase the drones enabled MUS to obtain information that could not have been collected via Google Earth or roadside surveys much quicker than by sending out a reconnaissance team.
West said: “All of this was very useful when designing the new pipeline and we’ve seen enough from this trial to suggest drones can play an extremely useful role in future projects.”
The new water pipeline is expected to take 12 months to complete, and the decommissioning of the West Stonesdale water treatment works will take place early next year.
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