PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: FRBA offers 3D laser scanning

In October F. Robert Bell & Associates announced its continued success in the firm’s use of the Trimble GS200 3D Laser Scanner. The 3D Laser Scanner allows for increased productivity and efficiency for civil engineering, construction, and survey projects on Alaska’s North Slope, across the State, and overseas.

The Trimble GS200 is a scanning laser used to measure physical structures or landscapes and convert them into a digital format. The lasers are used for accurately determining level, grade, vertical alignment, and distance.

The scanner uses an oscillating laser that paints a structure or feature with a light beam and uses the reflected data to produce a horizontally and vertically accurate rendition. This dimensionally accurate information can be imported in 2-D or 3-D CAD applications.

FRBA has already successfully completed numerous survey and civil engineering projects with the use of the scanner.

In 2005, FRBA and Chugach Alaska Corporation formed a Joint Venture, CMSI-Bell, J.V., to monitor the trans-Alaska oil pipeline using advanced GPS and 3D scanning technology.

FRBA also holds a term land surveying contract with BPX(A) BP Exploration, Alaska. Currently, the scanners primary use is FRBA’s North Slope oil and gas contracts to perform as-builts of facilities and slope stability surveys, FRBA also has experience using 3D Laser scanning for much smaller projects such as acquiring data for as-builts of historical properties.