I-69 Reconstruction

3D Modeling, LiDAR, Survey, UAV | Indiana | Back

Challenge

Under a public-private partnership agreement (P3), the State of Indiana hired a developer to upgrade 21 miles of State Road 37 (an existing four-lane divided highway) between Bloomington and Martinsville to full Interstate standards. The developer was to design, build, finance, and operate the facility for 35 years. When the developer experienced several delays due to financial and other difficulties, the State of Indiana terminated the P3 arrangement citing default on the contract terms. Construction was delayed for two years from the initial October 2016 completion deadline.

The Indiana Department of Transportation assumed direct oversight of construction and contracted with Walsh Construction to serve as the prime integrator for the remainder of the project, which includes four new interchanges and four new overpasses, in addition to improvements at existing interchanges and additional travel lanes in urban areas along the corridor. Walsh is overseeing several subcontractors retained from the P3 developer that were performing earthwork, structures, and paving to complete the work.

Solution

Kapur began assisting Walsh Construction on the project in July 2017. We quickly reestablished control and pieced together topography and as-builts along the corridor. Critical data was collected through a variety of methods, including mobile LiDAR, to quickly allow construction to resume. Surface data was also collected and provided to the design and construction teams to aid in design completion, traffic staging, and budgeting.

Services Provided

  • Survey – 10 surveyors and two CAD technicians help support the project from construction staking, QA/QC, and final as-builts.
  • UAV – The entire project was collected with UAV for a volume check to be used with conventional data and LiDAR data. A slide failure was monitored with the UAV and several areas were constantly shot for historical records.
  • LiDAR – Static LiDAR was used for as-builts of bridges and structures that needed high detail for checks or confirmation. This LiDAR was also integrated into data for designers.
  • 3D modeling – Two full-time modelers were used to reverse engineer the plans and check for any plan errors or constructability issues. The models were provided to the surveyors, grade checkers, and all machines for use of AMG. The models were also used to create a wedge and level table for paving of the mainline.

Results

From notice to proceed, to deliverable, to restart, Kapur turned all data around in two weeks for this massive project.

The initial deliverable to Walsh Construction was a final design surface and current surface, with an analysis of compared surfaces. All data were collected by flights in four days with additional conventional and LiDAR topo over another four days. Processing and mapping were an additional six days, including the creation of the point cloud, clean up, and surface creation.