Road & Bridge Design Surveys
Road and bridge design demand the highest accuracy, meeting the Federal Highway Administration standard of just 1.5 cm maximum vertical error.
SurveyWhirrx was used to perform a topographic survey in Minnesota on 10 miles of road in 5 days
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100+ Days Saved
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1800+ Hours of Productivity
Complete 10 Mile Project Savings
Savings start with a single design survey and extend across every stage of a road project, including:
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Planning Survey
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Design Survey
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In-Progress Survey
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As-built Survey​​
Resolve Disputes between Customers/Contractors
Disputes often arise between contractors and clients over work performed. By capturing data before and after material is added or removed, SurveyWhirrx ensures precise volumetric accounting every time.​​​
Eliminate Need for Additional Survey Shots
Legal right-of-way and utility line shots are often done separately from topographic surveys, but by marking them in advance for aerial visibility, SurveyWhirrx delivers a single digital model with all the data a design engineer needs—accurate to 1–1.5 cm.
Commercial & Residential Construction Design Surveys
Large commercial and residential developments typically require 3–5 cm maximum vertical error. With SurveyWhirrx, no survey control setup is needed—simply fly the site, upload the data, and receive a deliverable with the required accuracy. This enables faster turnaround and allows multiple in-progress survey checks as the project advances.
Significant Savings with Reduced Risk
​No survey control is needed—SurveyWhirrx can fly and collect data on over 200 acres in just ~1.5 hours. Within hours, this produces a digital survey with 3–5 cm vertical accuracy and a point every inch. For projects requiring higher precision, GPS control can be added to enhance accuracy.
Reduces Risk of Engineering Design Errors
High-resolution, accurate survey data gives design engineers critical insights upfront, mitigating the risk of errors in planning and construction.
Significant Savings with Reduced Risk
High-resolution, accurate survey data gives design engineers critical insights upfront, mitigating the risk of errors in planning and construction.
Regular Site Verification During Construction
The automated process of converting aerial data into digital deliverables enables affordable, in-process build checks to catch issues early.
Eliminate Additional Survey Shots
By painting utility locations and other markers ahead of time, SurveyWhirrx automatically captures these positions with 1 cm horizontal accuracy—removing the need for extra field surveys if the markers are visible from the air.
Utility Cooridor & Pipeline Design Surveys
Surveying long utility corridors or pipelines is expensive and time-consuming with traditional methods. While drones can cover these distances efficiently, most systems only provide variable 'GIS-level' accuracy rather than true survey-grade results. SurveyWhirrx changes that—delivering 3–5 cm maximum vertical error across the entire surveyed area without any survey control required.
Same Accuracy, More Efficient Aerial Platform
Many customers turn to fixed-wing systems for long corridor surveys, thinking they’re faster. Over four years of drone surveying, we’ve found fixed-wing systems are inefficient due to the wide turns required for a survey grid.
SurveyWhirrx takes a different approach:
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Quadcopter: Surveys at 23–25 mph with precise results
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Helicopter (coming 2019): Surveys at 65+ mph at 400 ft AGL, with instant turns to maximize time over the survey area
Results You Can Count On:
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Topo 70 miles in under 7 days
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65 MPH helicopter ideal for larger corridors
Airport & Runway Design Surveys
Surveying airports, runways, and obstructions is often complex, time-consuming, and can disrupt airspace. With SurveyWhirrx, you can achieve 1–1.5 cm maximum vertical error on runways and taxiways, making airport obstruction surveys faster, simpler, and more efficient.
More Efficient with Superior Deliverables
See the results from an actual Class E airport survey compared to traditional methods—SurveyWhirrx lets you survey faster and deliver better results.
Survey Time Comparison
Method
Crew
Time
SurveyWhirrx
1 person
1 hour
Traditional
2 crews
160 hours
Additional Applications
While SurveyWhirrx greatly improves efficiency for design surveys, it also supports a wide range of other uses:
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Environmental Surveys
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Pavement Analysis
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Volumetric Estimates
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Accurate Planning and Bidding
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Dispute Resolution for Earthworks & Material Estimates
Future Upgrades
SurveyWhirrx will continue to expand capabilities with new airborne platforms and sensors, enabling you to do even more. Upcoming sensors include:
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Affordable LiDAR – for capturing items above ground, such as power lines, while maintaining survey-grade accuracy
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Multi-spectral Sensors
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Hyper-spectral Sensors
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Magnetic Sensors
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Sonar Sensors
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And more…