The New Normal: How PCL Works with Drone Data Every Day

Every morning, the PCL Construction team that’s building the 11-acre, 516-room JW Marriott Bonnet Creek hotel in Orlando, Florida, starts with the same routine: reviewing a high-resolution map of the site (captured by one of the firm’s daily drone flights) to effectively plan and coordinate the day’s work. A couple of years ago, using up-to-date drone maps for daily site and logistics planning was unheard of. Now, PCL project teams can’t live without them. This use case is part of a larger trend: drone data, once confined to the VDC team, has become a “must have” resource for entire project teams, owners, and more. In fact, on this JW Marriott project alone, there are more than 50 stakeholders regularly viewing their drone maps and models. In this session, PCL’s JW Marriott project team—Matthew Dodge, project manager; and Kevin Johnson, construction modeling specialist—will share the impact that drone data has had on this project and how other contractors can do the same.