Engineering Surveying with Robotic Total Station in NSW Rail Infrastructure

Engineering Survey 1
ENGINEERING SURVEYING
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Engineering Survey 2
Engineering Surveying
INTRODUCTION
Engineering surveying is a division of surveying profession that deals with the planning
and execution of survey works for determining suitable location, designing, constructing,
operating and maintaining various engineering projects. This project involved application of a
subdivision of engineering surveying called railway engineering. This branch of engineering
surveying deals with the definition and management of spatial information in a rail network in
connection with the vertical and horizontal alignment of the railway track, relationship of the
alignment with adjacent alignments and other civil structures, such as overhead wiring structures
and platforms. This essay report discusses one of the surveying equipment that are used in New
South Wales (NSW) rail infrastructure. The instrument discussed is total station. This is one of
the most advanced and innovative equipment in engineering survey [1].
The railway network in NSW is very extensive (as shown in Figure 1 below) and
therefore requires precise measurement of both vertical and horizontal alignments during design
stage and structural monitoring of the railway system so as to develop a network that is
functional, safe, efficient, sustainable and cost effective. Therefore total stations were mainly
used in this project to achieve a coordinated rail track alignment. The NSW rail transport
network project was owned and management by Transport for NSW, an agency of NSW state
government. The main government entities involved in the project included the following: asset
owner (RailCorp); operator and maintainer of the railway infrastructure (Sydney Trains); and
operator of intercity and regional train service (NSW TrainLink). Several other persons involved
in the project included: civil engineers, surveyors, architects, designers, project managers,

Engineering Survey 3
construction specialists, contractors, transport stakeholders, interest groups and local community.
This project was aimed at facilitating easy movement and goods to and from NSW.
Figure 1: Railway network in NSW
EQUIPMENT USED
As stated before, the equipment selected for this project report is robotic total station.
This instrument is used to collect a wide range of data on the rail infrastructure, including:
location of the rail, vertical profile of the rail, gauge elevation and super elevation. Some of the
benefits that the equipment offered in this project include: more accurate and faster layouts, more
accurate and faster quality checks, greater accuracy, reduced rework and errors, more inspection
points, data accessibility in real-time, more efficient communication between field and office
personnel, less manpower, faster completion, greater productivity and improved handover [2].