Bridge is Known for Repeated Crashes
The ‘canopener’ bridge, located in Durham, North Carolina, has been renowned due to its repeated crashes for over 12 years. Through the viral publicity of the crashes, the damages caused were justly advertised on a well-known YouTube channel. Despite the attempts to raise the bridge to an eight-inch height, the incidents still frequently occurred. Due to these repeated and widely documented crushes, Matthew Blackwood saw an opportunity to show the world the accurate build of the bridge using 3D laser scanning services.
This opportunity led to the emergency of Scanning Cars LLC company which uses 3D scanning services to produce visuals from scanning data, animations and simulations, meshes, and scenes.
With the bridge not far away from his residence, the company’s owner, Matthew Blackwood decided to take his 3D scanning services on the road and try to scan the bridge. Blackwood decided to take it upon himself to show his fans how the bridge works through his 3D scanning services. In his demonstration, Blackwood uses a 3D scanner to scan the surroundings of the bridge, the crossroads, and the measurements and generates an animation from the collected results.
The Data 3D Laser Scanning Services Provide
According to Blackwood, a 3D laser scan provides accurate data down to the last millimeter or when captured from hundreds of meters away. He was able to discover that the actual height of the underpass is actually higher than what is highlighted on the sign. According to his analysis, this explains why despite the clear warning and addition of extra inches the tracks continue to crash.
Through the 3D scanning services, some new information concerning the bridge has been represented to many fans. It has provided visualizations that allow the audience to see and have a clear understanding of the concept and even offer their analysis and suggestions on the crashes.
One viewer theorizes that due to the low positioning of the sensors, drivers of the trucks may be getting wrong positives which leads them to misread the warnings. Another viewer suggested that drivers may be speeding up to beat the red light which is triggered by the overheight sensor in order to avoid waiting.
In an interview, Blackwood explains that he aimed to use the 3D scanning services on this particular project to demonstrate some of his 3D scanning skills to the world. His plan worked so well and the video became viral. Viewers began sending back their suggestions on how to fix the problem.
