Drone Flies To Rescue of ABP In Immingham

HBPW’s ‘flying’ skills have come to the rescue of Associated British Ports after the firm’s in-house drone pilot, Will Withers, spent hours mapping a huge coal yard at the Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal.

Plans are in place to build a new storage shed measuring 52m x 180m, however, dock management were keen to ensure that there would be no dimensional interference between its huge adjacent stacker & reclaimer machine and the planned building.

Will said: “The stacker reclaimer is a massive piece of kit that runs on a rail directly parallel to the planned storage shed and, due to the heavy loads it is required to lift, has large concrete counterbalances to its rear to prevent it from overtoppling.

“It was imperative to ensure that these concrete counterbalances could in no way come into contact with any part of the proposed building.”

Will spent three hours mapping 10 acres of a larger 45-acre site, subsequently downloading his images into specialist software to produce irrefutable 3d drawings for ABP’s review.

“The drone is revolutionising the way in which surveys are done. Not only have I been able to survey the site in a hugely efficient manner, but I also produced 3d scans rapidly so that port managers were in a position to make decisions quickly based on strong evidence driven heavily by evolving technology,” added Will.