UK council trials drone technology for bridge inspections

West Sussex County Council in the UK, in partnership with Balfour Beatty Living Places, has begun trialling the use of drones to inspect bridges across the county. Trials have so far been carried out on two bridges, resulting, they say, in around US$10,000 (£8,000) of savings compared to traditional inspections. Routine inspections are carried out on all bridges every two years to ensure they are safe for public use. Traditionally, inspection work requires traffic management to allow inspectors to safely ca
May 12, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
West Sussex County Council in the UK, in partnership with 3902 Balfour Beatty Living Places, has begun trialling the use of drones to inspect bridges across the county. Trials have so far been carried out on two bridges, resulting, they say, in around US$10,000 (£8,000) of savings compared to traditional inspections.


Routine inspections are carried out on all bridges every two years to ensure they are safe for public use. Traditionally, inspection work requires traffic management to allow inspectors to safely carry out works at height and over water, causing disruption to the public and road users. The use of drones to review the condition of a bridge reduces potential health and safety risks, as well as dramatically reducing costs, disruption and inconvenience to members of the public by removing the need for traffic management.

Operated by one of Balfour Beatty’s six Civil Aviation Authority licensed drone pilots, each drone is fitted with recording equipment to allow the workforce on the ground to review the condition of the bridge once filming is completed. To make sure the drone is operated safely, a second camera is used to film the drone in action, with an assistant reviewing the safety parameters around the drone in real-time.

The drones are also fitted with protective floats to enable them to safely land on water if required, as well as a GPS system to prevent them flying into ‘no fly zones’, such as airport space, without permission.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • SCANaCAR and VideoBadge counter parking’s prickly problems.
    June 4, 2014
    Colin Sowman discovers how the latest systems can boost productivity and reduce conflict in parking enforcement. Parking enforcement is something of a ‘Cinderella’ service for local authorities: while necessary to keep the roads open and the traffic flowing, it is an expensive operation and can be loss-making. It is also labour intensive and parking enforcement officers are routinely verbally abused and sometimes physically attacked. Some authorities are now looking to automate parking enforcement in orde
    Read More
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 1, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones. Highway construction zone safety is taken seriously enough in the US to merit a special spring National Work Zone Awareness Week, which in 2010 ran from 19-23 April. Headed by the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), this aims to reduce an annual toll of work zone deaths - 720 in 2008 (an average of one every 10 hours) with more than 40,000 traffic injuries (an average of one every 13 minutes).
    Read More
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 6, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones
    Read More
  • Indra partners to develop UTM system for Norway drones
    April 17, 2019
    Indra is working with the University of South-Eastern Norway and the Andøya Space Center to accelerate deployment of an unmanned traffic management (UTM) system for drones. Ingolv Bru, manager business development at Indra, claims an efficient transport system based on drones – including autonomous ones - could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 25%. “But a safe and efficient management system for drone traffic in urban environments is crucial to realising this ambition," Bru adds. The two-ye
    Read More

Highlighted Content