Moving a capital city forward

Racing against the elements

With an ambitious deadline of just more than four years for such a large project, Tierie knew the team couldn’t allow for any disruption.

First, working in temperatures upward of 50 degrees Celsius in desert conditions, they needed to be able to trust the instruments to withstand.

“Due to our time schedule, there have been many days we’ve had to work straight through. We couldn’t wait for evenings or cooler temperatures,” said Tierie. “With the durability of our Leica Viva TS15 total station, we were able to perform high-accuracy stakeouts at any part of the working day. This enabled us to ensure everything was ready for construction to start on time.”

Using Leica Geo Office and Infinity software, the team was able to instantly transfer reality capture data back to the office from the field for quicker processing. This way, if there were extra measurements needed, the team could do so while on site without having to return later.

The team also used the Leica Rugby rotating laser and construction levels to perform accurate as-built checks. With almost all of Leica Geosystems instruments able to operate from -20 to 50 degrees Celsius, the Strukton team is on schedule to finish the project.

Next, as the largest city in the country and with a unprecedented growth in the past decade, the city’s utilities have created a complex infrastructure challenge. While constructing the Riyadh Metro Line, the team had to remain vigilant not to interfere with any of the buried utilities or lines running above, many times not knowing exactly where these utilities were located. Combining the Leica GS14 GNSS smart antenna with the Leica GR10 GNSS reference station receiver, Tierie and his team were able to precisely locate and account for rogue utilities. Saving precious time and avoiding dangerous utility strikes, the team was able to work quicker, safer and more efficiently.

“Due to precise locating abilities of these instruments, we were able to inform our designers in the early stages of the project exactly where the utilities were located so they could incorporate this new information in the metro design,” said Tierie.

Finally, the constant ongoing construction put roads and buildings in unstable environments. With the vibration from heavy machinery, such as when excavating trenches for cut and cover tunnels, these city assets were in danger of uneven and unsafe settlement. In conjunction with their measuring task, the surveyors were also in charge of monitoring the ongoing construction and its impact on the surrounding areas.

“With the accuracy of the Leica TM50 total station, we were able to quickly determine if construction operations were negatively impacting surrounding structures,” said Tierie. “Improving the safety for the crew and community, our work has been well received here in Riyadh.”

The team has future plans to supplement the monitoring process with Leica GeoMoS monitoring software for instant alerts to deviations in the structures.

Explore next chapter: Worldwide support

Story: Moving a capital city forward
Chapter 1: Finding common global solutions
Chapter 2: Racing against the elements
Chapter 3: Worldwide support