Landscaping digital: How to solve the documentation chaos with GPS & smartphone
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With SitePlan, DB documents entire track sections much more efficiently. According to estimates by the DB Bahnbau Group and the LWL project team, this leads to a time saving of around 65% when creating track access reports.
Initial situation
At Deutsche Bahn, route inspections, surveys and documentation along railroad lines have long been among the most time-consuming tasks.
Paper plans, measuring wheel, tape measure, scattered photos and post-processing on the PC were standard. This not only led to delays, but also to incomplete evidence and unclear planning principles.
Why SitePlan?
As part of DB mindbox's „Construction Site Technology - Digital Awakening“ programme, the SitePlan app was therefore introduced together with DB as a digital geo-documentation solution - specially developed to digitize analogue processes and make them immediately applicable in practice.
Deployment at the DB Bahnbau Group
Project: Fiber optic expansion along the railroad lines
Location: Germany-wide
Company: DB Bahnbau Group GmbH
Client: DB InfraGO
Initial situation: Several thousand kilometers along the rail network had to be inspected and documented for the broadband expansion.
SitePlan was used in conjunction with a GNSS antenna for the planning inspections. The teams documented the existing situation digitally, noted agreements directly in the plan on a site-specific basis and digitally marked out potential new construction routes at bottlenecks. The results were then evaluated in the SitePlan web application.
Statement from the DB Bahnbau Group
As SE Equipment of the DB Bahnbau Group, we are currently using SitePlan to support various planning inspections as part of a project to expand the fiber optic network along railroad lines.
SitePlan enables us to create inspection reports much more time-efficiently - not least because photos and notes are clearly assigned to each other on site. This means that no more information is lost.
The precise location of the photos and measuring points in the centimeter range also makes the documentation of the inspections an ideal basis for the subsequent planning phase. In other projects, SitePlan is primarily used to document construction progress and for digital as-built surveys.
Andreas Saft, Head of SE Equipment - DB Bahnbau Group
Results and added value
According to estimates by the DB Bahnbau Group and the LWL project team involved, SitePlan reduced the time for track access protocols by around 65 %
Before:
- Manual measuring with tape measure and paper plans
- High accuracy fluctuations
- Subsequent digitization in CAD time-consuming and error-prone
With SitePlan:
- Photos, notes and measuring points automatically linked on plans
- GPS-based documentation with centimeter accuracy
- Seamless export to CAD (DWG/DXF) without loss of accuracy
- BIM-capable database: 3D point data incl. time stamp (BIM 4D)
The app replaces traditional, manual documentation work with a fully digital, practical process - as simple as Google Maps, but accurate to the centimeter and audit-proof.
Conclusion
Deutsche Bahn uses SitePlan to speed up and simplify its documentation and planning in infrastructure construction.
The result:
- 65 % less time required for inspection reports
- Full traceability thanks to GPS data
- Faster planning processes through immediate digital evaluation
- Seamless integration into existing CAD systems
SitePlan makes documentation in railroad construction digital, fast and precise - directly on the site, with smartphone and GNSS antenna.
