Kent County Council’s highways maintenance provider, Amey, is beginning work on phase two of its drone trial technology project
This phase is a bid to inspect vegetation (soft landscape) and highways assets around the network and identify any defects in power and water utilities infrastructure around Kent.
The trial, which is part of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) SMART Places Live Labs programme, will look at how effective the technology can be used for capturing wildlife habitats, understanding any future repair works regarding utilities infrastructure whilst still using the technology for highway inspections potentially further proving the case for it to be used more widely in the future.
The ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs programme is a two-year £22.9m project funded by the Department for Transport and supported by project partners SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business, EY, Kier, 02, Ringway and WSP.
Nine local authorities are working on projects to introduce digital innovation across SMART mobility, transport, highways, maintenance, data, energy and communications.
Live Labs is part of ADEPT’s SMART Places programme to support the use of digital technology in place-based services.
Capturing the condition of highways assets
Carol Valentine, highways project manager at Kent County Council, said: “We’re excited to be working with this technology to understand the benefits it can bring to improving our services to people in Kent.
“These trials will help us better understand the health and ecosystem of our soft landscape, highways assets and the condition of power and water infrastructure.
“The trial data will be assessed, and we could potentially be using this technology across the county in the future.”
Ramin Akhyani, programme manager at Amey, added: “This is a great opportunity to investigate the potential of using drones for capturing the condition of highways assets, soft vegetation and utilities in the area as well as highlighting the benefits of using drones in the areas of health and safety, cost, data and proactive asset management.”
