How Drones Are Changing Project Delivery

Episode Transcript

Mollie (Host)
Welcome back to {Brief}ly Speaking, the SEH podcast where we tackle the topics shaping architecture, engineering, and construction with quick expert insights. I'm Mollie Sabo, your host. Infrastructure projects have always depended on field visits and manual inspections to understand existing conditions. But today, agencies are being asked to move faster, improve safety, and make decisions with more accurate information than ever before. Drone technology is helping to make that possible. From mapping large project areas to inspecting complex or hard-to-reach infrastructure, drones are giving project teams a clearer picture of conditions on the ground while reducing risk and saving time. Joining me today is Bailey Nelson, SEH's lead drone operations specialist. Bailey supports projects with everything from aerial cinematography to photogrammetry and LiDAR mapping, helping teams capture precise data and visual insights. She's also a licensed private pilot, bringing first-hand knowledge of airspace coordination and airport operations that allow drone work to safely happen even in complex aviation environments. So Bailey, welcome to {Brief}ly Speaking.

Bailey (Guest)
Hi Mollie, thanks for having me.

Mollie (Host)
For listeners who still picture drones, mostly as just taking pictures or videos, how would you explain what drone technology actually enables for infrastructure projects today?

Bailey (Guest)
I like to think about how drones can carry around different types of tools depending on the project, not just cameras. And we can also do more with cameras than what we used to be able to do. Some of the drones that we use carry LiDAR sensors, thermal sensors, gas detection sensors. It can just carry a really bright light for better visibility. And we can also use something simple like photos, like you just mentioned, and use photogrammetry to give us 2D and 3D data.

Mollie (Host)
Yeah, so these can be as simple as kind of the drones that we're seeing in everyday population, but they can also be a lot more complex. Before drones became widely used, What were some of the biggest limitations teams faced when trying to understand site conditions or inspect infrastructure?

Bailey (Guest)
Some limitations included access, time to do the inspections, and safety. So access could have looked like using bucket trucks, scaffolding, setting up lane closures or humans entering confined spaces. These are the projects that we were trying to find ways to use drones so that we can make it more safe for our workers and be more efficient.

Mollie (Host)
Which is all super important, especially as, like we said, communities are being faced with trying to move faster. They have to improve the safety of it. These aren't really choices that they get anymore. They're necessities. I mentioned in your intro, photogrammetry and LiDAR mapping. I think you touched on LiDAR there for a second too. Both of these can provide 3D data. In what types of situations could it be beneficial to the project to use a drone-based method to obtain this 3D data?

Bailey (Guest)
Some situations where a drone-based methods may be most appropriate are large areas. So think of areas that are hundreds of acres that you need to collect data for. Areas of difficult terrain or vegetation is also another one. Anywhere would be hard for someone to walk or to drive to collect the data. So drone-based methods in these scenarios would likely get you the data much faster. Another one that comes to mind is a project where the landowner was going to sell their land, but wanted one good last harvest out of it before they did sell that land. And our project did need to collect topography data. So what we did is we went out there and did drone based methods to get the 3D data we needed. And then that way we didn't have to physically touch the land or disturb anything. And then we also used traditional methods to gather data for areas that needed higher accuracy. When SEH is determining which tool is appropriate for the project, one of the factors we consider is the level of accuracy that is required. So some projects have components where accuracy needs to be sub-centimeter. In other areas, it doesn't need to be that high. And that's where we often use a hybrid approach and can use multiple tools and create one data set out of it.

Mollie (Host)
Okay, that answers a couple of my questions that I had as you were going through that, one, we can help people understand what type of drone outputs or data they need for their project. Because I feel like that's something that maybe people aren't aware of all the options. And then two, it's not a one-size-fits-all choice. You can have kind of that combination of different data sets and then combine them together to get one big picture.

Bailey (Guest)
Yes, exactly. Usually what we start with is what info do you need? from this project. And then we have a set of other questions that we also asked about the type of environment and then we decide what tool in our toolbox is going to be best for this project.

Mollie (Host)
I think that startoff/kickoff conversation that you guys had there is so important because I feel like people don't understand, like I said before, they see drones that the general population is using and kind of have that in the mindset. But these are way more powerful tools that we're flying and incorporating. So they might not just know that's an option. Now Bailey, a unique part of your role is operating near airports. SEH does a lot of work with airports in all kinds of planning, design. What makes drone flights in those environments more complex and how does your aviation background help make those projects possible?

Bailey (Guest)
Drone flights on or near airport property will involve some type of coordination and that will range from a low effort to a higher effort. The lower effort would be permission and awareness from the airport manager and owner. A kind of middle effort is a LAANC, which is an acronym for Low Altitude Automatic Notification Capability, which as the name alludes to, is a type of automatic approval to fly up to a certain altitude defined by the FAA in a certain area. And then the highest level of coordination would be a Certificate of Authorization, we call it a COA, from the FAA. And this is usually a application process. It is reviewed by the FAA and the airport, and then they come back with certain parameters that we need to stay within to be compliant with that Certificate of Authorization. So the airspace class that the airport is in will determine which level of coordination will be required. And a COA will often require us to stay in radio contact with a control tower if it does have one. But even in other situations, we like to use a handheld radio to listen for nearby traffic and also contact the pilot if we need to. A background in aviation is very handy for this to know which frequencies to tune into with the handheld radio and to know what they're saying. Aviation radio communication is designed to be very short and precise, but if you don't have experience with it, it can be very hard to understand what they're saying, where they are, where they're going, which are the types of things that they're trying to tell everyone around them. An aviation background is also very helpful in understanding the infrastructure on the airport. Looking at a map to determine where the runways and taxiways are, what their names are, and how an airplane would usually navigate on or around these will help us to make safe decisions when navigating the drone.

Mollie (Host)
I know aviation radio is like a whole nother language. So you having that background along with other team members is huge. Another thing that you bring up that I think either municipal leaders or decision makers might not be aware of is how many rules and regulations there are around flying a drone. You can't just pull over to the side of the road, fly a drone and be all set. There's a lot of different steps and coordination, like you said, that go into that. So having you guys on as the team, you can really take care of that. You know the rules, who you have to talk to and what permissions you have to get for each type of flight. And once drone data is collected, how does it actually get used by our engineers, planners, or construction teams?

Bailey (Guest)
If we're capturing more conceptual or qualitative data like photos and videos for an inspection, the engineer, scientist, construction teams, whoever is gonna be using this to understand the current site conditions and then using it to help make project decisions. An example of this would be seeing a defect in a bridge that needs to be looked at further, or in a big wetland bank where we're taking video, it might be seeing an area of invasive species that needs to be addressed. For photogrammetry and LiDAR data, so more quantitative data, it may be used in design to determine what needs to be done based on the current topography, or it could be used to simply help determine where water flows to do some sort of drainage analysis. We have multiple projects where the data is also used to determine the volume of piles of material, which is another simple way to use photogrammetry. And lastly, 2D orthomosaics could be used as a base map in project plans or to help quantify an acreage.

Mollie (Host)
So lots of different options for the uses or use cases of this data. Thinking again of kind of the post to now the pre, at what stages of a project do drones tend to provide the biggest value? And how does that value change from planning through construction? So if we're being proactive on this, trying to add drones into our project, when is the best time to do that?

Bailey (Guest)
I do think that drones in general can provide the most value when they are used in the planning stages of a project. That is where we can document site conditions, collect topography data, inspect the infrastructure that is there now to determine the next steps, which is often comes with a project. However, drones can be used in any stage of the project. So using a drone during construction can help the client and consultant and make informed decisions. And it can also show progress of a project for project stakeholders or the community members. Most often when we use for drones post-construction, it is to show off a project well done with a video that tells a story of why the project was needed and what was done.

Mollie (Host)
Again, it's not a one-size-fits-all situation here. I love that drones are so versatile. They could be used really for any stage of the project. I know we share out a ton of finalized project videos. which I think is great for communities to see the progression of it. They see the beginning and the problem that was addressed, and then they see the end and the solution. I've talked with one of our planners here at SEH on our podcast, and she said the visuals of project sites are so helpful in public engagement because people can really see exactly what's happening and why the project is needed, and then it helps make better decisions. What is something through your expertise or through your experience here, what's something clients often assume about drones that turns out not to be true once they see how they're actually used?

Bailey (Guest)
I think often clients will assume two major things, which are that drones are just used for pretty photos and that they're too expensive for their project. But once we tell them that drones can be used for inspections to make informed decisions and then also to obtain measurable data that can be used as part of the design and construction progress, and that can all be done for an affordable rate on our project. They often want to hear more and then that's where we can explain different levels of efforts that we can do with the drone on their project.

Mollie (Host)
Yeah, again, I think it goes back to that whole idea that the general population drones that we're seeing are what you're using and it's just simply not the case. We've heard time and time again, just in this short interview that there are so many use cases and so many outputs that you can get from the different tools in our toolkit that it's just such a wide span of options. Do you have an example where drone data helped a client better understand conditions or helped make a more confident project decision?

Bailey (Guest)
Something we did recently with our confined space drone is inspect an underground infrastructure called a pipe-in-a-pipe and also the bulkhead at the end of that pipe segment. And the visual data that we collected helped the consultant decide how to address any of the defects that they saw.

Mollie (Host)
I know this is always kind of changing for us, but we've talked about this toolkit over and over again, the different options that we can go through with clients. Can you give me a quick rundown of the drones that we currently have in that toolkit?

Bailey (Guest)
We do have drones that are in compliant with the American Securities Drone Act, which went into effect in December of 2025. I'll start out with our lower effort of drones and go up to those higher efforts. So we do just have your normal photo and video drones, which are the small ones that you're probably most used to seeing. And those do take those pretty photos that we talked about, videos, and they can help tell a story. We then move into drones that can be used for photogrammetry, so they take photos like the other ones do, but in a more specific way so that we can make a photogrammetry model. We can move into our LiDAR drones, which do have to be bigger so that they can carry a LiDAR sensor on them. And then we also have our confined space drone, which I had just mentioned is where we can put that into confined spaces that have GPS denied environments and collect a whole lot of conceptual data.

Mollie (Host)
Yeah, so we really do kind of run the gamut of options there. And I know we're always watching the industry and seeing what the needs are, what the newest technology is out there. So like I said, that's constantly changing, but in a good way. It's giving more tools in that toolkit. So Bailey, if a city, airport, or agency is curious about using drones but doesn't know where to begin. What's the first step?

Bailey (Guest)
First step you can take is I am always available for inquiries. If you want to e-mail me, my e-mail is bnelson@sehinc.com, or we do have a drone services page on the SEH website that kind of lays out all of our service offerings and gives examples, which is a great place to start if you're not sure what exactly you need, and then we can discuss more.

Mollie (Host)
Yeah, you can have that kickoff meeting that we talked about earlier. Well, as we heard today, drones aren't just about aerial visuals. They're about giving communities better information, improving safety, and helping projects move forward with greater confidence. Bailey, thanks for sharing how drone technology is helping teams see infrastructure differently and making smarter decisions along the way. And thank you for listening to {Brief}ly Speaking, where big industry topics meet quick expert insights. Be sure to click subscribe and we'll see you next time.