Valve Tower internal 3D laser scans to survey and facilitate design

Confined space access into Yorkshire Water’s large group of valve towers requires a professional on-site safety team with rope access training and familiarity with the highly intricate procedures required to bring a casualty up and out of the deep reaches of these submerged structures.

The utilities company has tasked MMB with designing a safe system of access, egress and rescue for their personnel who enter these irregular spaces at intervals, in order to guarantee the safety of their operatives across the large number of reservoirs in Yorkshire.

For the more complex tower arrangements, along with a confined space entry survey, a 3D laser scan has been carried out to rapidly capture the detail of these cluttered structures, some of which are 60m deep and contain ten or more intermediate landings, to aid the design. The output data can be tailored for all the major design software such as Revit, CAD 3D and Navisworks to create 2D drawings, isometrics, sections and elevations, 3D solid models, mesh and so on.

This paper will describe the project directives; challenges due to the nature of the environment; the technologies used to gather accurate information to provide a more reliable and detailed solution for the client; and the applications of Health and Safety in design.