Bridge Inspections & High Mast Light Pole Inspections Go Robotic!

Bridge Inspections & High Mast Light Pole Inspections 

Go Robotic!

By:Doug Thaler 4/26/17

Seeing infrastructures around the world deteriorating faster than they can be maintained and budgets

 being diverted and reduced, managing infrastructure for countries around the world with limited assets and resources has become a challenge. 

After a long study of the industry and their methods it became clear that the subjective testing being conducted was an inadequate and antiquated method to identifying issues necessary to properly maintain these vital assets. A company based in the USA, Infrastructure Preservation Corporation, "IPC" created very specific infrastructure inspections using modern technology and robotics to help asset managers or in the case of the US., the Department Of Transportation better understand the current condition.  Surprisingly enough inspections conducted till now do not give asset managers what they need to properly maintain their existing assets.  

With IPC's services these asset managers can now better allocate whatever limited funds they have to the most urgent need.  By finding early stage deterioration we are able to make repairs that can extend the service life and save billions in infrastructure costs. By utilizing modern technology and robotics, IPC's bridge inspection services and high mast light pole inspections offer comprehensive quantitative data with actionable items.  Inspections are safer for the inspector and for the public. Many of the inspections do away with lane closures and placing heavy equipment on the bridge so they are less burdensome to the public and many fewer accidents occur. 

IPC’s patented robotic bridge inspection services take the 50 year old subject inspections of yesterday and using the federal and state guidelines created inspections that revolutionize both bridge inspections and high mast light pole inspections. IPC will soon adapt their technology into many other industries. 

Some of the service robots peer through concrete and steel structures to locate early stage corrosion. IPC utilizes many different technologies to produce the asset manager or department of transportation with the information it so badly needs to not only make budgetary decisions but to take action.

Some of bridge inspection services include:

CableScan® is a robotic bridge inspection service that inspects the external cable stays of cable stay bridges.   Cable Stay Inspections today close a lane on the bridge, park a bucket truck and heavy equipment on a bridge and send a man up at night to look at the cable with a helmet flashlight and a pad and paper. How much of a cable can the inspector actually see?  With the bucket truck blowing in the wind 100 feet up, how can we rely on the data produced. The inspectors today are doing the best they can with the equipment and procedures that they were given.  These antiquated inspection methods should no longer be tolerated. 

With modern technology and robotics, bridge inspections no longer requires lane closures or heavy equipment like bucket trucks park on the bridge.  The inspection robot and base station is portable, wireless and is controlled from a ground station. It can be steered around obstructions and has multiple redundancies such as rollover backup batteries and an automatic return to base in the event of a power failure.  There is just no way for inspectors today to match the quantitative data that can be produced with robotics. There is just no match for the technology IPC provides.

Cable Stay bridge inspection services conducted today.  IPC bridge inspection services  provide  asset managers (department of transportation) with quantitative data unlike anything they have seen to date. Quantitative data will allow the Department Of Transportation to properly allocate their limited maintenance dollars in a much more efficient manner. By locating early stage deterioration and properly maintaining & conducting repairs in order of severity, the service life of our critical infrastructure assets can be extended and untimely replacements avoided, saving billions in infrastructure costs.

CableScan® provides a 360 degree inspection of Cable stays with no lane closures or boom trucks.  . It records high definition video and stills of the cable, seams, grout ports, saddle and more. All issues are recorded and photographed as well as the position along the stay and deck. LIDAR is used to measure the length and width of cracks. The device is wirelessly controlled from a ground station and can steer around obstructions (grout ports).

 No lane closures or bucket trucks are required. Inspections can take place during the day with no danger to the inspector or the public.

Current Manual Inspections                                                    IPC’s CableScan® -Cable Stay Inspection

     

CableScan®-R is a repair bot that can make specific minor repairs without lane closures or boom trucks

Currently  bridge inspections require lane closures and bucket trucks or inspectors that climb the stays.  A man visually inspects what he can see. During the last manual inspection of 84 cable stays on one bridge, the engineering company found 1 issue on all 84 cables. IPC was asked to conduct a quality control  inspection of just 9 of those stays and found 12 issues on those 9 stays that were missed by the original inspectors.  In addition, during the manual inspection with the bucket truck on the bridge, there were 9 traffic accidents that occurred over the 6 week inspection period .

Another inspection service provided inspects high mast light poles (HMLP). High Mast Light Poles

 Todays Visual HMLP Inspection                            IPC’s Robotic HMLP Inspection

 Manual from ground                                              PoleScan® “Patented” 360 degree views

                                                                                              Scans poles, seams, luminaries.

                      

                                     

  In the United States and Canada, Infrastructure Preservation Corporation, "IPC" is the service company and conducts bridge inspection services directly.  Internationally, IPC will license their technology to various engineering firms/partners. 

Infrastructure Preservation Corporation, “IPC” is a professional services bridge inspection and robotic engineering company advancing infrastructure inspections worldwide.  

For more information on IPC’s services contact: Doug Thaler at info@infrastructurepc.com.

Cable Stay Video

http://www.infrastructurepc.com/cable-stay-inspection

High Mast Light Pole Video

http://www.infrastructurepc.com/high-mast-light-pole

TendonScan

http://www.infrastructurepc.com/tendonscan-tm

Funding The Nations Infrastructure

February 13, 2017

Author:DougThaler

You would certainly think that there are enough tax dollars, toll dollars,

gas tax dollars, etc. in the till to pave the roads in gold, send every kid to private school & send every family on a two week paid vacation.  The National highway system of 41,000 miles cost approximately $30 billion dollars in 1956, adjusted for inflation approximately $250 billion in today's dollars. So you would think that the $400 billion recently awarded to transportation by congress would fix our ailing infrastructure. Not a chance. The biggest difference was that it was originally paid for with a non divertable gas tax.  This means that the states could not use the money for anything but building roads. So what does that mean today?  

How many billions of dollars would it take in today's dollars for enough of the money committed to  actually end up going to fix what it was earmarked for?  And then where do we start?  Below is an excerpt from an article by Russell Nichols and Ryan Holeywell on some ideas of how to move forward.

"Six Ideas for Fixing the Nation's Infrastructure Problems"

"Here's how to plan, fund and make a safer, more efficient transportation system

Without changes to current policy, the commission projects a federal highway and transit funding gap totaling nearly $2.3 trillion through 2035. Here are six ideas for fixing the nation’s infrastructure system -- how to plan it, how to fund it and how to make it safer and more efficient than ever.

Revamp the Highway Trust Fund

Speaking before a conference of state transportation officials in a D.C. hotel ballroom in March, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood challenged his audience to ask him some hardball questions. John Schroer, the transportation commissioner from Tennessee, delivered. Schroer wanted to know how Congress and the Obama administration are addressing a situation most state and local transportation officials worry about: the future of the gas tax. “Well,” LaHood replied, “we’re not doing anything about it.”

The nation’s highways are primarily financed by the Highway Trust Fund, which gets most of its money from a gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. The tax has remained unchanged since 1993 and isn’t tied to the price of gas or inflation.

As a result, it’s lost a third of its purchasing power over the past 18 years. That’s caused both short- and long-term consequences. In the short term, Congress has had to bail out the trust fund to the tune of $35 billion since 2008 -- the fund spends more money than it takes in.

In the long term, the situation is even more problematic. As more and more Americans opt for hybrid and electric vehicles -- and as cars in general continue to become more fuel efficient -- the highway system faces a future in which it is perpetually underfunded. It’s a system, Schroer says today, that is “at best archaic" and certainly  cannot work long term.

So what’s the fix? In the short term, a 10-cent increase to the federal gas tax, indexed to inflation, could provide some comfort. A commission authorized in 2005 by the previous highway bill has endorsed that plan as a way to generate an extra $20 billion per year for the trust fun and recapture the tax’s purchasing power. The 10-cent increase would cost U.S. households an average of $9 per month, which would equate to about 1 percent of household spending on owning and operating vehicles. But even that modest bump may be a difficult sell when the price of gas hovers around $4 per gallon. “I don’t think that at this time, raising the gas tax is an option,” says Bill Kennedy, a county commissioner from Yellowstone County, Mont., and a member of the commission that made the recommendation. “I don’t think the public is in favor of that.” It’s not just the federal government that’s reluctant to address gas taxes. No state raised its gas taxes last year, and just a handful did in 2008 and 2009. This year some states took advantage of the OPEC feud and passed a gas tax which it may regret once Opec solidifies a long term plan to raise oil prices.

In the long term, just about everyone besides federal lawmakers endorses a transition from a gas tax to a vehicle miles-traveled fee (VMT). That would be a truer “user fee” that pegs drivers’ payments to their use of roads, essentially solving the funding problem caused by fuel-efficient cars. “We’ve got all these federal policies toward reducing fuel consumption,” says Trey Baker of the Texas Transportation Institute, a research group within Texas A&M University. “But when you drive down fuel consumption, you’re driving down the revenue base. What are you going to do when the vehicle fleet looks completely different than it does now?”

Shifting to a VMT system would not be simple, of course. The biggest initial obstacle involves privacy concerns: Many drivers don’t like the notion of onboard monitors tracking their driving history. Convincing citizens about the necessity of moving to a VMT system might be tough too. According to research conducted by Baker, which involved interviewing focus groups, many Americans have such a minimal understanding of the current funding mechanisms for roads that making the case for a switch could be difficult.

Still, there are signs that a miles-based fee could be on the horizon: Researchers in as many as 16 states have studied the feasibility of a VMT system, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and some are finding that it could work. States don’t need federal permission to implement a VMT, and some transportation leaders believe the best way to bring about a change from Washington would be by first proving a VMT system is workable at the state level.

Policymakers Should Start To Take Our Infrastructure Seriously

  For federal lawmakers on a few key committees, transportation is a major issue. But for most of the rank-and-file, it’s far from the front burner. “For a lot of folks on the Hill, this is just not important enough,” says Susan Binder, a former director of the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Legislative and Governmental Affairs. “It’s invisible. There are a few players who have been extremely dedicated. [The rest] just don’t seem to have the interest, and it’s absurd.”

Read the rest of this article by Russell Nichols and Ryan Holeywell here."

Infrastructure Inspections 
(The 7th way to fix our nations infrastructure)

In addition to figuring out how to best fund revitalizing our infrastructure, it is important for us to better budget existing infrastructure dollars. As the article points out "where do we start".  One place to start would be to understand the condition of the existing infrastructure and to best schedule and budget repairs starting with the most deteriorated infrastructure assets. To make repairs early in an assets lifecycle would extend its lifecycle given us many extra years of use. In addition, avoiding untimely repairs would save billions in infrastructure costs.

Then we need to do employ the latest inspection technology so we actually understand the condition of our infrastructure.  How can we possibly budget and make repairs without knowing what needs to be repaired?  Today's inspections are conducted today pretty much the same way they were 50 years ago. If we don't upgrade our nations inspection guidelines, then its only a matter of time before the next disaster strikes. 

#Cable Stay Inspections

Bridge Inspection with lane closures and bucket trucks. In many              Bridge Inspections with IPC's Robotic states these inspections are conducted at night.                                                                 Service. No lane closures, bucket trucks                                                                                                                                                     or nighttime inspections.

Above is just one example of how Infrastructure Preservation Corporation is changing the way bridge inspections are conducted.  Inspections are safer for the inspector and the public.  These robotic inspections can be conducted during the day and have a much higher degree of accuracy than the old method. They are also being conducted within the department of transportations budget and producing a much more detailed assessment than older methods.

#Post Tension Cable Inspections

The Flashlight method                                                                   IPC's Post Tension Cable X-Ray

#Bridge Deck Inspection

Today's Method                                                                              IPC BridgeScan® peers through concrete
Dragging a chain and listening for changes                                 Locates delamination, debonding, rebar
while traffic zooms by at 70mpg                                                   fill density, abutment water intrusion















When the public's tax dollars, the public's safety and and economic vitality are at stake,  shouldn't we do everything we can to make improvements.  To find out more go to http://www.infrastructurepc.com.

#Bridge Inspections

#Infrastructure
#Bridge Deck Assessments

Robotic Transportation Infrastructure Inspections Save Billions!

http://www.infrastructurepc.com/single-post/2017/01/27/Robotic-Transportation-Infrastructure-Inspections-Save-Billions



Infrastructure Preservation Corporation

50 year old manual inspection services are updated with robotics to help save billions in infrastructure.

Complex Bridge Inspection Services help locate early stage deterioration, create assessment reports that by attending to issues early can help extend the service life of our valuable infrastructure assets.

For more information contact info@infrastructurepc.com
Infrastructure Preservation Corporation
727-372-2900

Updating 50 year old transportation infrastructure inspections with Robo...

Infrastructure Preservation Corporation introduces Robotics into Bridge inspections and high mast light pole inspections updated 50 year old manual inspections with modern technology and robotics.

IPC provides quantitative data to the Department Of Transportation so they can properly allocate assets with limited budgets.

#Bridge Inspections, #High Mast Light Pole Inspections

High Mast Light Pole Inspections come of age

High Mast Light Poles have been inspected the same way for the past 40 years.

The inspector goes out and looks up and down the pole from the ground sometimes using binoculars to view to the luminaries.

 Infrastructure Preservation Corporation , "IPC" has created the first automated robotic inspection unit for the 21st century.  Developed in Florida after years of R&D, the patented high mast light pole inspection unit easily glides up and down the hmlp reporting inspection data back to a base station.

Florida Ancillary roadway inspections just like all contracts and inspections are using subjective methods that have not changed in years.IPC has created a number of robotic devices to not only inspect high mast light poles but a new way to inspect other infrastructure assets.

 Almost all of IPC's devices work without lane closures or the need to lease any heavy equipment.  These new methods not only product more a quantitative inspection results save the asset managers and the tax payers money while helping to ensure the public's safety.

Inspection Results are archived so future inspections can show deterioration progression over time.  For more information go to http://www.infrastructurepc.com

Infrastructure Preservation Corporation is a nondestructive robotic engineering firm specializing in advancing inspection technology for the transportation industry with their patented/proprietary robotic inspection services and assessment reports.

High Mast Light Pole (HMLP) Inspection Services Video 2016

High Mast Light Pole Inspection Service

High Mast Light Pole Inspection Services.  IPC is a non destructive testing

and robotic engineering firm specializing in assessments of our nations

infrastructure with the next generation of patented, robotic inspection

equipment. See more at http://www.infrastructurepc.com or email

info@infrastructurepc.com.