Technology company thinkWhere has been working with AWPR Construction Joint Venture to improve collaboration and communication on Scotland’s largest road infrastructure project.

Providing online access to multiple layers of live project maps and geographical data, thinkWhere’s groundMapper software is a tool for a diverse and dispersed workforce. Using its web-based viewer, construction workers, managers and stakeholders on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, can instantly access up to date ‘constraint maps’ saving valuable time and money.

“Due to the extensive area affected by the project and the vast array of datasets available, we needed a solution that would allow us to effectively access, share and communicate geographically referenced information in real time,” said Angela Gardner, environmental manager the AWPR joint venture.

Developed by thinkWhere, groundMapper is an online Geographical Information System (GIS) viewer that brings together location-based data. Described by GIS specialist, Annie Meyer, groundMapper allows users to search for and view multiple datasets.

Hosted on a dedicated website, data accessible via groundMapper includes aerial photographs, private water supplies, ecological features, blasting areas and site office locations, for example, all overlaid on the basic route layout. Users can search the online datasets by postcode, drawing sheet reference, chainage or structure and then quickly get an overview of all features within the vicinity.

“Using thinkWhere’s groundMapper tool we can instantly access the most up to date constraint data and we have dramatically reduced the need to produce costly and time-consuming paper maps, and the associated paper waste,” added Gardner.

“Additional functionality such as the bookmarking tool, annotation and map management functions, combined with its easy online accessibility and integrated base maps, has made groundMapper one the key management tools for this project; useful from a site level right up to the board room.”

The £550m ‘Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie to Tipperty’ project, comprises 54 kilometres of dual carriageway around Aberdeen.

Designed to create an alternative route from north to south Aberdeen – currently the only dual carriageway route is through the city itself along an original bypass built in the 1930s – the project is predicted to support more than 14,000 new jobs in region and provide £6bn to the local economy over a 30-year period.

Aberdeen Roads Limited was awarded the contract in 2014 and construction is expected to be completed this year.