Concrete slab coring has begun at the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) Kuwahee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Knoxville, TN.
Below is a photograph of the construction equipment cutting the core holes in the concrete slab.
Construction Progressing at KUB WWTP
LandTech is assisting Lane Construction (https://www.laneconstruct.com/) with construction surveying services at the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) Kuwahee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Knoxville, TN (Google Map).
Currently, LandTech is staking the locations of foundation piers and dewatering wells in the bottom of the treatment basin for concrete slab coring and saw cuts. Below are a couple of photos of our work, showing the pink whiskers sticking up at stakeout locations.
Mixed Reality in Construction
I’ve seen a lot of technological advancements in land surveying and civil engineering over my career, including electronic distance measurements, GPS, and robotics to name a few. Now we are starting to see merging of real and virtual worlds on construction sites, called mixed reality.
According to Wikipedia, mixed reality is “the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time.”
Below is a video from Trimble demonstrating their mixed reality system, displaying holograms of 3D design models at a construction site. For more information, visit Trimble’s website: https://mixedreality.trimble.com/
LandTech Provides Aerial Mapping Services for Campground
LandTech recently provided aerial mapping services for the Smoky Mountain Under Canvas (SMUC) campground in Pigeon Forge, TN to assist with documenting as-built conditions of the site.
The services provided by LandTech included setting ground control points, collecting aerial photographs using our quadcopter small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS, or drone), processing the imagery using our photogrammetry software, preparing a digital photo ortho-rectified to the project coordinate system, ground survey of entrance roadway and bridges/culverts, and preparing a CAD file with survey information.
Here is a website with more information about the SMUC campground: https://www.undercanvas.com/camps/great-smoky-mountains/
Below is the digital ortho-photo prepared for the project.
Concrete Curb and Sidewalk Machine
If you’ve never seen a concrete curb and sidewalk machine, here is a video posted by Interesting Engineering showing one in action. You can see in this video the GPS antenna on the equipment for automated machine control. Pretty cool equipment.
Video Showing Tunnel Built In Three Days
Every once in a while I come across a video showing something amazing. The video below shows a 70-meter tunnel (230-feet) being built in 3 days.
According to this article:
“The impressive work was carried out by the Dutch construction company Heijmans on the A12 highway towards Arnhem in the Netherlands.
The busy national road was shut over the weekend but was back up and running by the Monday morning.”
UT Engineering Building Construction Progress
LandTech prepared a topographic survey for the new engineering building on the University of Tennessee campus, adjacent to Neyland Stadium and Estabrook Hall.
The area within the construction site has change significantly since we surveyed there in 2016.
Here is a link to a time lapse camera of the construction site: https://app.oxblue.com/open/utk/newenginneringcomplex
Below are before and after photos from the construction site:
JUNE 1, 2018:
NOVEMBER 1, 2018:
LandTech Provides Aerial Mapping Services for Quarry
LandTech recently provided aerial mapping services for the Loyston Quarry located in Union Co, TN to assist with documenting the limits of the quarry operations for permitting.
The services provided by LandTech included setting ground control points, collecting aerial photographs using our quadcopter small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS, or drone), processing the imagery using our photogrammetry software, preparing a digital photo ortho-rectified to the Tennessee State Plane Coordinate System, and preparing a CAD file with boundary information.
Below is the digital orthophoto prepared for the project.
Construction Surveying at KUB WWTP
We just started a new project providing construction surveying services to The Lane Construction Corporation at KUB’s Kuwahee Wastewater Treatment Plant in Knoxville.
LandTech will assist Lane Construction by providing survey control points, surveying the locations of basin foundation points encountered during ground penetrating radar (GPR) investigations, and mapping located basin foundation points.
Robots Being Developed for the Construction Industry
There’s been a lot of news lately about the worker shortage in the construction industry. The manufacturing industry has used robots for decades, and it looks like the construction industry may starting using them as well.
The website Interesting Engineering has an article and video showing a robot installing drywall.
“Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has released a video that is bound to have all other robotic firms worrying. This slightly creepy yet super handy humanoid machine may just be the most helpful robot yet!
Called HRP-5P, this robot installs drywall completely autonomously and as well, maybe even better, than a human. This video clearly shows HRP-5P pick up a sheet of drywall, bring it over to a wall and then, last but most definitely not least, use a cordless screwdriver all alone to put it in place.
Before you panic about this agile robot taking over human jobs, it should be noted that HRP-5P is a bit slow and does struggle with properly using the screwdriver once. Still, it seems very close to actually getting a machine that could do the job perfectly without any human supervision.”