Stories

A Bird’s Eye View for Data Capture

The ACLS site in Phoenix, AZ, is in the middle of an already crowded campus, so the project team uses its imagery to communicate the project’s status to the surrounding community.
The team at MonteCedro Senior Living Community in Altadena, CA, captures pictures of project milestones, like this major concrete pour, for communication and coordination with the owner, subcontractors and consultants.
The Rancho Santiago Community College team in Santa Ana, CA, used this image of underground piles to show the owner the limited amount of space available to perform the work needed for the foundation.
The team building the Betty and Bob Beyster Institute for Nursing Research, Advanced Practice and Simulation at the University of San Diego uses their images and video to communicate project updates.
The ACLS site in Phoenix, AZ, is in the middle of an already crowded campus, so the project team uses its imagery to communicate the project’s status to the surrounding community.
The team at MonteCedro Senior Living Community in Altadena, CA, captures pictures of project milestones, like this major concrete pour, for communication and coordination with the owner, subcontractors and consultants.
The Rancho Santiago Community College team in Santa Ana, CA, used this image of underground piles to show the owner the limited amount of space available to perform the work needed for the foundation.
The team building the Betty and Bob Beyster Institute for Nursing Research, Advanced Practice and Simulation at the University of San Diego uses their images and video to communicate project updates.

DPR teams use aerial project technology for faster and more accurate communication and planning

The best maps often lead to buried treasure. In the case of more than 15 DPR projects nationwide, that treasure is in the form of schedule savings, easier communication and higher accuracy. Teams are using frequent, high-definition aerial imagery as project site maps to communicate scheduled work, coordinate site logistics—such as material deliveries and equipment movement—and capture project progress for owners, subcontractors and the surrounding community.

An in-house team takes the images with one of DPR’s more than 20 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The UAVs fly a slow serpentine flight path across the site, taking hundreds or even thousands of top-down photos that are later automatically stitched together into one large image called a mosaic.

“The mosaic is really a true-to-life map of the project and site,” explained DPR’s Scott Widmann. “Our teams are able to use that map for collaboration and to communicate the reality of what’s on the ground.”

A few teams, including UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, Arizona State University Center for Law and Society (ACLS), and MonteCedro Senior Living Community, are using the photo maps for work planning and site logistics. Because the maps represent the site as it exists in the real world, they also serve as an easy-to-understand visualization tool for a variety of project stakeholders.

The most advanced team is also using the maps to detect changes on the project, including the movement of materials and equipment, using software that compares the maps from day-to-day and highlights areas that have changed.

Posted on December 10, 2014
Last Updated August 23, 2022