After the overtopping of the dam in Oroville, California, Seattle City Light initiated major safety reviews of its six dams, including Diablo Dam on the Skagit River. To improve survey safety and efficiency, as well as minimize risks inspecting the 160-foot-high dam amid a global pandemic, HDR’s team was asked to provide aerial drone services to supplement physical inspections. They wanted to use the captured data to create a digital twin model of the structure.

They selected ContextCapture and the Bentley iTwin platform to create a digital twin, accurate within two centimeters, from over 82 million survey points. The team could merge architecture, engineering, and construction data with artificial intelligence across the lifecycle of the structure, identifying current and future maintenance and repair needs to ensure safety. The digital twin provides a single reference point for the owner to understand the structure and reduces project costs, while increasing surveyor safety and facilitating decision-making.