Earthworks monitoring equipment has been installed in a cutting by the Mytholmes tunnel portal on the heritage Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KWVR). This is the DYWIDAG Smart Guard system which continuously monitors tilt detection to provide instant alerts with real-time camera alert confirmation. Alerts are transmitted on the low frequency 868MHz band which can transmit to half a metre of sodden earth.
In addition to the Smart Guard system this site also has rain sensors, a total station to provide high-accuracy displacement measurements of multiple targets, vibration sensors to identify dynamic influences on earthworks, and a GNSS tracker to detect ground movement over time.
This monitoring equipment could be seen from a special steam train which carried over a hundred invited guests from Keighley as part of the ‘Track to the Future’ event which DYWIDAG held on the railway in April to showcase its infrastructure monitoring technologies.
The train’s destination was the end of the line at Oxenhope where the railway has an exhibition shed. Here DYWIDAG and its partner companies were exhibiting their products surrounded by preserved steam locomotives. The event was opened by the company’s UK managing director, Peter Assinder who described the company’s infrastructure monitoring systems. He stressed that these could not have been developed without the company’s partnerships with those present.
These included Worldsensing’s wireless connectivity, Osprey’s sensors, Consult Red for the development of intelligent AI systems, Mistras Group for acoustic monitoring, and Geokon for instrumentation.
This proved to be a fascinating day which brought together those with expertise on this topic for a day of informal discussions and insights. No doubt much was learnt about the benefits of its Infrastructure Intelligence monitoring platform, for instant reliable alerts. It was certainly an education for your writer.
Image credit: David Shirres