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.

Related Content

  • October 28, 2015
    Emissions reductions targets to have major impact on transport
    As bold moves aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions have been introduced in California, David Crawford looks at the ramifications for transportation. California Governor Jerry Brown’s recent dramatic raising of the bar on emissions reduction policy for the state has won him praise from Japan, Australia, Europe and the secretariat of the critical UN conference on climate change being held in Paris in November/December 2015. His April 2015 executive order aimed at bringing emissions to 40% below 1990 lev
    Read More
  • January 30, 2012
    Managed motorways, hard shoulder running aids safety, saves time
    The announcement that, in 2012/13, work to extend Managed Motorways to Junctions 5-8 of the M6 near Birmingham in the West Midlands is scheduled to start marks the next step for the UK's hard shoulder running concept, first introduced on the M42 in 2006. The M6 scheme is in fact one of several announced; over the next few years work will start on applying Managed Motorways to various sections of the M1, M25 London Orbital, M60 and M62. According to Paul Unwin, senior project manager with the Highways Agency
    Read More
  • April 30, 2015
    Cable cars come of age in trans-continental expansion
    David Crawford explores a high-level option of public transport. Sharing its origin with that of ski lifts at winter sports resorts in the European Alps, urban aerial cable transport is attracting growing interest as a low-footprint, low-energy alternative to conventional public transport that can swoop over ground-level traffic congestion.
    Read More
  • October 28, 2016
    Alcohol interlocks aid drink drive adherence
    The use of alcohol interlocks to prevent drink driving and change driver behaviour is gaining ground around the world but needs greater buy-in from authorities as Colin Sowman discovers. The often repeated mantra says that prevention is better than cure - and none more so than in the case of drink-driving. The introduction of the breathalyser provided an objective indication of alcohol consumption instead of having drivers touch their nose or walk in a straight line. Initially breathalysers were used as a r
    Read More

Highlighted Content