• A white survey drone hovers in the foreground above a Colorado earthwork site, with rough, realistic dirt stockpiles, terraced benches, equipment tracks and snowy foothills below.

    Drone Photogrammetry for Earthwork Volumes: Accuracy, Part 107, and Colorado Limits

    Drone photogrammetry builds a dense point cloud from overlapping aerial photos, then measures cut, fill, and stockpile volumes by comparing surfaces. Here is how accurate it is, what FAA Part 107 requires, and the two Colorado-specific wrinkles — federal-aid hardware restrictions and land surveyor licensure — that decide how the data can be used.

  • Bulldozer with satellite antennas grading a dirt pad at sunset with mountains behind

    3D Machine Control on Earthwork: How RTK Grading Cuts Rework

    Rework averages around 5% of total construction cost, and on earthwork a large share of it comes from grading to the wrong elevation. This is a plain explanation of how 3D machine control works: what RTK positioning actually delivers (roughly ±10 mm horizontal, 2 to 3 cm vertical), why accuracy degrades with baseline distance and blocked sky view, what correction infrastructure exists in Colorado, the field sequence from building the model to verifying on known control, and the limits the technology does not fix.