This is an excerpt of an article by Ryan Wall that appeared in Power Engineering.
America’s infrastructure is past its prime. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives it a D+ grade. The ASCE notes that many bridges, roads, the energy grid, railways, ports, airports, and water systems are past their designed lifespans. But maintaining infrastructure takes investment. For the decade spanning 2016 to 2025, we’ve managed to allocate less than half of what’s needed to maintain and repair surface roads and bridges alone. That leaves a gap of $1.1 trillion.
Drones make it a lot easier to check interstate bridges for cracks, survey thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines, monitor pipelines, and so much more. I recently shared eight examples of how drones are helping public agencies and engineering firms save money on infrastructure inspections with Power Engineering. Read “8 Ways Drones Are Lowering the Cost of Infrastructure Inspection” in Power Engineering.