In early 2021, Denver experienced one of their typical spring snowstorms that produced a lot of heavy wet snowfall. That heavy snow caused some of the iconic white canopies at DIA to tear and collapse. BirdAir was hired to design the replacement canopies. To complete that design, they needed precise mapping of the existing columns and support structures. Dallas met with the client on-site and proposed a unique solution using a Trimble X7 3D laser scanner provided by Frontier Precision. The team created high-density point cloud of the canopy support structures and capture features that would have been difficult to measure with any other methods. Most of the features needed were at least 16 feet above the bottom of the support columns and in some cases needed to be measured from above the canopy. The scanner and our work plan were able to capture all this data and more with literally no impact to the daily operations of the airport. The Denver International Airport Canopy survey was a success.
Owner | BirdAir, Inc.
Subconsultant | Frontier Precision
SurvWest Team
Dallas Wilson
Nate VanRaemdonck
Eliot Kershner