Our newest client, the Clallam County Road Department is working hard on setting up a footing repair project on the old wooden Ward Bridge that runs across the Dungeness River on Woodcock Road this summer near Sequim, WA.

There are various construction, engineer, and consulting people involved to see this project gets accomplished within the short window that is allowed for working in a river that has several endangered fish species. So time management is essential to getting this project done quickly. Many of these folks live far from the North Olympic Peninsula.

The upstream channel will be diverted to the east side of the bridge, while a coffer dam is installed around the two western footings that support the bridge, creating a dry environment to work in. The repair crew then removes 8 to 10 feet of gravel around the footings and ‘armors’ them with large rock or what the industry calls rip rap. The gravel is then placed back on top of the large rock and the whole process is repeated for the eastern footings.

For the first time by Clallam County a UAV is being used to film the channel up and downstream to create a visual record to be sent to the various folks who are involved in the project. Because of the dense woods and underbrush on the banks of the Dungeness, it is extremely difficult to get to and actually see the best areas for a diversion. Our Phantom gives a bird’s eye view of the channel and the bridge with little effort.

I also flew the Phantom along the edge of the bridge to look under it where you can’t get to by foot, unless you have a wetsuit on! Close up video of the footings will also be sent along to be viewed by repair crew, engineers, etc., saving them the trip out to inspect the bridge first hand.

A few of the images below are from the shoot last Wednesday. Flagging  was provided by the engineers of the road department and I was able to use the bridge deck as a take off and landing platform, while Pat and Dave stopped traffic momentarily. Jennifer from the environmental branch of the county was out with us to see what the Phantom could do firsthand as well.

One more way that UAV technology is being used effectively in inspection and survey. The images taken from the Phantom were actually frame shots taken from the video and not actual images captured by the still camera. Amazing detail for a video frame capture!