Real-time monitoring during trenchless tunnelling in Los Angeles

Bending the River is an infrastructural artwork that utilizes Los Angeles’s first water commons and demonstrates how the currency of water can create social capital and serve social needs. A percentage of water will be redirected through a diversion vitrified clay pipe running under the railway tracks to Metabolic Studio where the water will be lifted into a treatment wetland comprised of native plants. The regenerated water will then be distributed to a network of public parks.

Sixense Northern America was hired to carry out the displacement monitoring program that controls the potential impact of the trenchless operations on the ground, in adjacent structures, and Metrolink’s rail tracks. Two solar-powered Automatic Total Stations (ATS) were installed to continuously monitor arrays of reflectors (prisms) installed along the alignment of the 1 m diameter and 49-meter-long tunnel. The monitoring data was delivered in near-real-time through our web platform Beyond Monitoring, including automatic alerts triggered if any of the threshold values were exceeded.

We are grateful to be a part of this unique social impact project that took more than a decade to come to fruition and will enrich the local and native communities. Thank you, Pacific Hydrotech Corporation, for your trust & support! Congratulations to Lauren Bon, METABOLIC STUDIO, and Geosyntec Consultants.