Drone Support for Council

Highways and infrastructure specialist Amey uses drones to support local councils to improve rail and road infrastructure.

12:06 23 September 2020

Amey, a highways and infrastracture specialist, is taking advantage of drone technology to enhance the services it provides to its clients. The firm uses the technology to record the condition of a transport network and take detailed images for inspection. 

 

Amey's head of business improvement for transport infrastructure Sunita Dulai said: "The use of drones is one solution that we are trialling to enhance the service we provide to our clients. By using drones to investigate roads, we can deliver safer inspections by minimising the risks associated with sending people out to physically inspect a site. 

 

"Through upskilling our teams so that they can deploy drones, we can also reduce the timeframe from initial inspection to delivering essential remedial works." 

 

Sunita added: "We've successfully demonstrated the first drone inspection of UK infrastructure to go beyond line of sight. Our drone surveyed an area of two kilometres autonomously and out of sight of the pilot, which is a huge step forward for the sector and has significant positive ramifications for local councils. 

 

"This evolution has opened up a number of possibilities for the maintenance of long linear infrastructure, such as roads, railways and overhead power lines."