Application of Mobile Laser Scanning for Lean and Rapid Highway Maintenance and Construction

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) requires survey grade measurements for many projects such as bridge and pavement construction, major accident investigations, and roadside asset management tasks. Caltrans has started the use of a relatively new technology called Mobile Terrestrial Laser Scanning (MTLS), which enables surveyors to work safely from within a vehicle. Utilization of this technology has introduced several technical challenges including understanding the most cost effective options (in terms of purchasing and operating versus contracting) for utilizing this new technology, the need for guidelines for control point spacing to achieve certain accuracy, understanding the technical issues in utilizing different associated software packages with such systems, and finally identifying best methods of post-processing laser scan data to improve efficiency that can lead to leaner operations.