Sussex using drone to fast-track work on project to reduce flood impact
Engineering consultants use light-detecting drone to collect accurate topographical data more quickly
Engineering technologists in the Town of Sussex are using a drone to help collect topographical data and pictures to help fast-track survey work for flood mitigation infrastructure.
The light detection and ranging drone uses light, invisible to the human eye, to measure the distance and position of objects in its path. That data is later used to create maps and 3D models of that location.
"We're able to filter out vegetation and buildings and other obstructions and get the true earth surface," Mike Allen said, the drone's pilot and a senior technologist with Gemtec Consulting, a New Brunswick engineering consultancy that helps conduct geotechnical, material and environmental tests and surveys.
Accurate topographical data in turn helps engineers and technicians to make better design decisions, he said
Allen said his drone can pick up millions of data points in an hour, mapping large construction sites, while the same work would take weeks to be completed manually by a surveyor using a hand-held GPS data collector.
"I do a lot of the post processing and design work in the office afterwards and when you have [the drone] data, you know what you're dealing with. There's no second guessing what's actually there," he said.
Allen said his colleague also collects specific data points manually, such as hydro poles, fire hydrants and culvert inlets, as a backup.
"If a car is passing over a manhole, we might not see that in the [drone] survey, but we collect that information as a due diligence and accuracy check as well," he said.
Scott Hatcher, the town's chief administrative officer, said this latest technology helps the town to fast-track the process of building flood mitigation infrastructure.
The town has had major flooding over a number of years, including in 2014, 2019, 2020, 2022 and early 2024.
Hatcher said building the infrastructure in a timely fashion is important to protect the residents from any further loss.
"The data would be used in several projects to make the overall strategy happen. And we're using the technology to speed up the process of the data collection and allowing our engineers to get to work sooner."
Sussex is building a flow-diversion channel at the town's eastern limits, another such channel on Parsons Brook and storm-water infrastructure upgrades in the town's northeast and northwest corners, including two overpasses and a new berm in and around the Meadow Crescent area, Hatcher said.
The first project in the plan — a $1.2-million berm behind Gateway Mall — was completed in 2019.
Hatcher has said the project is expected to cost more than $38 million, paid for by all three levels of government. But the Meadow Crescent berm will cost an additional $2.1 million, equally divided between the province and the town.
"Within the next couple of weeks, you'll see a public tender to construct a $2.1-million berm to protect 85 homes in that subdivision. That work we believe could be completed by late summer 2025 and would provide immediate effective control of adverse flooding in that neighborhood," he said, adding that the plan is to complete the larger project by the end of 2028.
Kurtis Carter, who lives in the flood-prone area of Meadow Crescent, will benefit from the berm. He said his family moved to the area in 2022 and has experienced "probably in total around 10 flooding events," with the last one leaving four feet of water in their basement.
He's grateful that work on the infrastructure is happening, as his neighbours have experienced flooding for more than a decade.
"They used to enjoy the sound of rain and now they kind of dread it," Carter said. "So ... if we could get back to a point where you enjoy the sound of rain hitting your roof and knowing that it's not going to be in the basement, then I think that's a wonderful thing."
Elmer Cole, who lives a few away houses from Carter, has had erosion on his property.
"I lose about five feet every time it floods," said Cole, pointing to a large hole in his backyard.
He has lived in the same house for 37 years and has been fighting floods for over three decades, he said.
He said the town's mitigation plan gives him hope that it could provide the best fix for his neighbourhood's extreme flooding.
"They're going to do it right. I know they are, because the berm is going all the way up and across by the elementary school," he said. "Hopefully it'll hold the water back."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
