Chatted with a civil engineer at a diner and he blew my mind about drone mapping

I was eating breakfast near a job site in Austin last Tuesday and this older engineer started talking to me about how his firm quit using traditional surveys for grading. He said they just fly a drone over the lot for 20 minutes and get more data than a crew could in three days. Has anyone here actually made the switch and seen real cost savings on smaller projects?

3 comments

3 Comments

simon_carr15h ago

My firm switched over for residential grading last spring and it cut our site prep time by about 40 percent on lots under 2 acres. The drone data is way more detailed than what we got with total stations (like 5000 points vs maybe 200) so we catch drainage issues before ever moving dirt. Just keep in mind you still need a licensed surveyor to stamp anything official, the drone is just a tool for the planning phase.

amyh1214h ago

That 40% time savings is pretty wild, but I'm curious about the drone setup itself. How long does it actually take to get the drone up and flying on a typical 2 acre lot compared to just walking it with a total station? And are you dealing with any issues from trees or tall brush messing up your ground points? That's always been my worry with trying drones on the more wooded residential lots around here.

the_miles15h ago

Never really bought into drones for grading stuff until now. @simon_carr you make a solid point about catching drainage issues before moving dirt. Changing my mind on this one.