OCT 2022
To assist in the planning of a significant track capacity upgrade, Agonics’ client McConnell Dowell required an audit of the powerlines that crossed the rail corridor between Craigieburn and Wodonga – a distance of approximately 280km.
What we did
There were numerous low voltage, high voltage and transmission powerlines that passed over the rail easement and the vertical clearances of these wires needed to be measured so that powerlines with low clearances could be re-located.
Having previously recorded a high accuracy LiDAR point cloud and digital image dataset across this rail corridor on behalf of ARTC, Agonics used its XERRA LiDAR software to detect the individual conductors within each powerline circuit and measurements were taken at multiple locations along the conductor immediately above each track and at each cross-arm where that conductor was attached to adjacent powerpoles.
The onsite temperature at the time of data capture was recovered from the initial recording program so that powerline designers could accurately model the conductor span sway and sag performance under different environmental conditions before landing on the best powerline remediation or relocation plan. A detailed report of each crossing highlighting the lowest conductor was provided to McConnell Dowell with an image extracted from the XERRA software to add context.
