Case Study: Old Mine Workings

Driven 160 yards into the hillside by hand in 1790 the old adit of The Great Laxey Mine runs near the Lady Isabella up the Mooar River valley. It is hoped that at some point in the future the adit could be opened up to give the public access to the Engine shaft where the massive T-Rocker can be seen at work in the shaft. Subsurface laser Scanning were called in to help assess this possibility. By measuring the voids spaces between the collapsed areas of the adit a better feasibility study could be carried out.

Client:
Location:
Cavities:
Duration:

T.L. Excavations
The Great Laxey Mine, Isle of Man
2 Voids
1 Day

The disused audit has collapsed in places. Visitors to the valley number 40,000 per year.  Site investigations are ongoing at the mines to determine the feasibility of opening the collapsed adit as an added attraction for visitors to the mines and the nearby iconic Lady Isabella water wheel.

 

During the site investigation works 5 boreholes intersected voids, 4 vertical and one inclined at 10⁰.  The C-ALS (Cavity Auto Laser Scanner) is specially designed to be deployed through a borehole into a dry cavity to accurately scan the interior in 3D dimensions giving a geo-referenced position and volume.
C-ALS deployed at Laxey Mines
The scanner uses a time-of-flight laser and is a mere 50mm in diameter. The data collected is in the form of a 3D point cloud.  The underground position of the cavity is geo-referenced using bore-track rods and the survey position calculated from the inclinometer readings at incremental depths during deployment.

The point cloud data can be used to create a 3D model for annalysis, plans, sections and volume calculation. In this instance it was possible to derive a complete 3D model of the audit and shafts from a combination of the existing survey information and the newly acquired adit locations from the void survey.

Subsurface Laser Scanning Ltd. work primarily in the U.K. and Ireland and can deploy teams world wide if necessary. Contact us for more information.

Spread the word

Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin