Approximately 250,000 m² of pavement measured across four Alberta corridors

The challenge

A paving contractor needed measured quantities across a live ring road corridor. Ground measurement in active traffic is slow, hazardous and difficult to verify afterward. Scope also expanded substantially between the original estimate and the work itself, so the quantities had to be solid enough to support a revised purchase order.

The site

Four corridors across Alberta: the Calgary ring road at approximately 125,000 m², the Henday northwest leg at approximately 50,000 m², and the Henday northeast leg together with Sherwood Park Freeway at approximately 75,000 m². Work was distributed along many kilometres, so multiple roadside launch positions were required on each corridor rather than a single set up.

Equipment and method

Continuous capture in overlapping passes with RTK positioning, flown from a sequence of launch positions along the corridor so no segment was captured at the edge of range. Each patch was then measured on the resulting scaled orthomosaic and numbered to match the site.

Airspace and safety

The corridor crosses into airspace associated with the neighbouring military aerodrome. Authorization was coordinated with the base before the work window opened.

Deliverables

Multi tab Excel workbook comparing measured against estimated quantities, a PDF scan report showing every measured polygon over the orthomosaic, the full resolution orthomosaic, and KMZ boundaries.

Result

Approximately 250,000 m² of pavement measured across the four corridors, delivered under issued purchase orders and completed in August 2026. Because several companies were working the same corridors, the measurements were coordinated so the provincial road authority and the paving contractor worked from one agreed set of quantities rather than reconciling two. Scope revisions were accepted because the quantities could be seen on the imagery rather than argued from a tape measure.

Read more about area and quantity measurement