Network Rail, the owner and manager of most of the UK’s rail networks, has completed a full 3D model of the 176-year old Whalley viaduct, using drone imagery and lasers to come up with a clone that will reveal the places and kinds of repair needed to continue using the structure for passenger and freight transport.
Built between 1846 and 1850, the Victorian era structure is celebrated as an architectural gem, as well as a key link in Lancashire’s Blackburn to Clitheroe railway line. But age, elements, and constant vibrations from trains passing in both directions have undermined the 48-arch Whalley viaduct’s stability, leading Network Rail to undertake the most recent in a series of periodic reviews and repairs. To do so, it used sensor-equipped drones and land-based lasers to create an exact model of the 550-meter span, whose analysis will determine where and how repairs are carried out.
According to National Rail, a total of 300 LiDAR and drone scans were…
