Erdman Anthony ::: Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport Laser Scanning

Raw Point Cloud of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport

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The 4,000 ft-long runway 13/31, at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport was in need of pavement rehabilitation. To complete the design requirements for pavement rehabilitation, the runway needed to be accurately surveyed. Due to a current shortage of airport security staff the survey could only be completed with one survey crew on-site at a time.

The solution was to combine conventional survey Digital Terrain Modeling (DTM) data collection methods with the newest survey technology, 3-D laser imaging. This combination was employed to capture the digital data required to generate a DTM of the existing conditions of the runway. Conventional surveying methods were used during daylight hours for ease of operation and outside the runway area. A 3-D laser scanner was used to survey the entire length of the runway surface during one evening when the runway was scheduled to be closed. Capturing a majority of the project data in one evening's operation allowed the project to maintain its fast paced schedule and accurately mapping the runway with no interruption of air traffic was critical to airport operations staff. The combination of technology allowed data acquisition to be completed simultaneously and the project to remain on schedule, in spite of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, which occurred two days after the data collection was completed. Had conventional methods only been employed the project would not have been completed on time and the runway operations would have ceased for an unacceptable amount of time.