Stantec conducts vital bridge inspections, helps keep Interstate I-80 moving
Interstate 80 is a major trucking route connecting California, Nevada, and Utah to supply millions of Americans with the goods and services they need. See how leading global engineering firm, Stantec, collects the data the Nevada Department of Transportation needs to most efficiently address the maintenance needs for critical infrastructure while limiting interstate closures for roadwork.
- [upbeat music]
- So this is Interstate 80. Um, this connects, uh,
- California to Nevada to Utah, um, and it goes across the
- entire United States.
- It's a major trucking route. With the amount of truck traffic
- and vehicle
- traffic traveling on the interstates and the state routes, and there's even the
- cities and county roads, they take a beating,
- so especially in the winter, um,
- up in the north. I-80 is only two lanes.
- If it gets shut down, it causes a lot of issues, so...
- [upbeat music]
- So I like to use the football analogy for us.
- We are like the offensive line for bridges.
- We're here to protect the quarterback.
- We're here to protect the bridge and make sure it stays safe.
- [upbeat music]
- Here in the state of Nevada, there are over 2,000 bridges.
- This district, well over 600, and so we have a lot of bridges
- that we need to key
- our efforts on. This week we're focusing on six
- structures, all
- overpasses with the Truckee River here, to specifically look at key areas of
- interest on these bridges. You know, seeing the components in real time and
- being able to make a visual evaluation of the structure and identify defects.
- When you bring in a super truck and have to close a lane,
- it's not always ideal
- because you're backing up traffic.
- I think that's where, uh, rope access and drones both come into play, is we can
- mitigate the closures on the highway and be able to get our job completed with
- minimal disruption. So we're done with bay three.
- I'm gonna dip over to two.
- There's many drones that you could take up and,
- and put between girders, but could
- you bring that back safely? With Skydio, we're able to put that drone between
- girders and move it around a different diaphragm and be able to look at different
- areas, getting into those details of what the
- weld looks like. No bridge is alike.
- That's what makes my job interesting, right?
- And that's why we need so many different tools to be able to do our jobs
- effectively. There might be cast in place versus
- something that was built in
- 1902 and something that was built in 2020.
- Uh, they're all very, very different, and we're inspecting all of them together
- and
- trying to get the data we need.
- I call the, the, uh, [laughs] X2 kind of like my little mouse
- that can get up into
- different corners and spaces, and this gives me a more global map view.
- So we're looking to get basically a map of the superstructure so we
- can start as a baseline of what condition is it in
- at this point in time, and also give us a map for all of the
- other, uh,
- surveys that we do within the bridge.
- [upbeat music] You know, I, I really love
- bridges, but too, I also don't wanna sit in an office all
- day.
- So getting out here, getting out, seeing the environment, seeing the bridges
- firsthand, I think that's really where my passion is.
- Naming the file. We're gonna go ahead and do span... Where we at?
- One, two, three, four. Okay, launching.
- We kind of work in spans for bridges. So first we identify the span.
- We set up the Skydio instrument to address the, the block that is the span.
- From there, it autonomously builds a map of the
- bridge.
- Uh, for this one, it's taking around almost just shy of
- 1,200.
- We're making sure we get plenty of overlap. This is the bridge.
- We're starting to model it back together.
- So we're essentially looking for any anomalies from where it was originally
- constructed. So is there any discoloration?
- Is there any, uh, cracks for concrete?
- You know, misalignments or connections for steel.
- A global map like this is really helpful.
- We can get the detail with the 2 Plus, but then see the global map of, okay,
- why is
- this behaving this way? And, and where can we maybe not address just
- the
- problem, but also what's the cause?
- [upbeat music]
- Early on, it was a little bit skeptical. Can the drone get close enough?
- Can the drone be able to see these details effectively?
- And what we've found is now the answer is yes,
- and we're starting to implement them
- more and more and it's being more accepted as the results start to come back.
- So this is the level of detail we're able to get.
- So that's
- essentially your weld inspection.
- Okay.
- Craig, did you leave your ruler up here?
- Is there a ruler?
- Yeah. Somebody left their ruler.
- Yeah.
- [laughs]
- That's perfect. We did that on purpose, dude.
- [laughs] So
- that's that. All the key areas of interest
- are in the next span,
- so I'll, I'll have you come over when I get it,
- but I'm gonna essentially go over
- there. We're gonna start in bay one and just work our way through.
- Basically what our inspection's gonna come out here and do is just keep track of it
- and say, "What's going on? What's the history of it?
- Can we identify the cracks that we usually use U-bits for?"
- Um, and personnel, traffic control, closing down roadway, whereas with the
- drone, we're not closing down that roadway.
- We're doing it from underneath.
- We keep up with these inspections so that we can mitigate those closures and
- hopefully get to these key points before they become bigger problems.
- Uh, and also be able to identify where we can
- do more preventative maintenance and
- ensure that bridge is being upkept the way it should be.
- We're spending millions of dollars to build the bridge.
- If we're not preserving it adequately, are we being responsible with the taxpayer
- dollars? If we can intervene, inspect, now we can
- essentially prolong the lifespan of that bridge, keep the roads open, and most
- importantly, keep it safe for the public.
- [upbeat music]
- You know, when I found out that actually bridge inspectors existed,
- I was like,
- "That's killer. That's, that's the job for me." Yeah,
- I get to work outside, I get
- to fly drones, and I get to keep people safe, all
- while using the engineering
- degree that I originally got.
- [upbeat music]
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