(The following story by Khurram Saeed appeared on The Journal News website on April 21.)
Don’t worry about a funky, low-flying helicopter you might soon see – it’s just doing its job.
NJ Transit is surveying its railroad tracks. Its helicopter, flying 300 feet above the ground, is using laser scan technology to collect information to update the rail maps.
The information will also be used to help speed response in emergencies and provide training.
The work started yesterday in central New Jersey. The helicopter will be in Rockland at the start of May to survey the Pascack Valley Line to Spring Valley and the Port Jervis Line up to Harriman.
“We wanted to give everyone plenty of notice that we’re going to be doing this so they won’t be surprised,” NJ Transit spokeswoman Courtney Carroll said.
Carroll said the project will update work that began in 2003.
The helicopter has two antennae extending from its sides, and looks something like a big bug.
It uses Light Detection and Ranging technology, known as LiDAR, which creates a three-dimensional image of NJ Transit’s railroad right-of-way. The helicopter will produce 3-D scan data, aerial photographs and video footage. Using that raw information, a digitized electronic map, along with the photography and video, will be incorporated into the agency’s Geographic Information System.
“It helps us with everything from training locomotive engineers to planning for an emergency response,” Carroll said.
Warren Flatau, a spokesman with the Federal Railroad Administration, said the benefits derived from LiDAR were significant and were used by utility companies in the 1990s to survey power lines.
“Various railroads, big and small, have used this, but as I understand it, it’s a very expensive, high-cost way of surveying,” said Flatau, noting that the Federal Railroad Administration also is using LiDAR in a pilot program.
Gordon Wren Jr., Rockland’s fire and emergency services coordinator, said he was pleased to learn that NJ Transit was dedicating time and money to emergency preparedness.
For example, parts of the Port Jervis Line run along the Ramapo River, which is narrow and deep in certain spots. Although Rockland officials have aerial photographs of the county, Wren said it would be a plus to have more information about nearby access roads, rock outcroppings and other changes that may have occurred over time.
“The more accurate information you have during a disaster, the better,” Wren said.
John Chance Land Surveys of Lafayette, La., is the project contractor. NJ Transit said the firm has performed similar work along more than 2,000 miles of railroad corridor across the United States.