Measured Surveys of Development Site
Our geospatial survey team has been kept busy this summer exploring a piece of Exeter’s history, to help prepare for a major new residential development.
Exmouth Junction is a former railway interchange site near Exeter city centre. In its heyday the 15-acre site boasted a huge engine shed, coal depot and concrete works. However, the last 30 years has seen the site become increasingly derelict and it is now used for open storage.
Case Study in Detail
In 2019 Eutopia Homes put forward a plan to transform the area into a modern, sustainable residential community of 465 homes, to help fulfil Exeter City Council’s housing requirements. Following consultation and approval, work began on site early in 2020.
Glanville Geospatial Services was initially commissioned by engineering consultancy Hydrock to provide a measured survey and condition survey of a 500m-long culvert on the site. This was undertaken using a combination of CCTV and laser scanning using our Faro 150s. The tight working conditions in parts of the culvert proved challenging, so we called on our colleagues at Glanville Environmental to lend their expertise with deploying CCTV cameras and supporting us with confined space working protocols.
Having completed this first tranche of work, we were commissioned to undertake further surveys above ground, starting with a topographic survey of a selected area of the site using our RTK GNSS and Trimble SX10 total station.
Using both electromagnetic location (EML) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) we undertook a utility survey to scan for buried services and assets. This approach was chosen to ensure that both metallic and plastic/clay/asbestos cement services would be detected. Dual frequency ground penetrating radar (350/800mHz) was used to collect high-resolution data near the surface while also optimising depth penetration, which would not have been possible with a single frequency system.
Finally, we were commissioned to undertake a measured building survey of a water tower at the site. Although its metal tank has long-since been removed, the brick structure with distinctive arch detailing remains. Due to its architectural significance, it is now locally listed and is incorporated into the development plans for the site. We provided a point cloud and imagery of all four elevations and the internal structure.
All the required deliverables were supplied to the client in the form of CCTV footage, CAD drawings, a point cloud and imagery.
