TrackIntermediateExam opens 11 Jan
GIS for infrastructure: utilities and rail
For BIM people on linear projects: where GIS fits on utility, road and rail work, alignments and chainage, how far utility records can be trusted, coordinates over long corridors, what rail adds, and handing the finished network over to the owner's GIS. Ends with an exam and a certificate.
3 chapters · 6 lessons · about 36 minutes
Finish all 6 lessons to download a certificate of completion.
Chapter 1. Where GIS fits
0/2 done- 1.1 GIS on linear projectsRoads, railways, pipelines and cables run for kilometres across land owned by many people, under rivers and roads, past protected sites and existing networks. That is GIS territory. BIM covers the structures along the way; GIS holds the corridor they sit in.
- 1.2 Alignments and chainageOn a linear project, everything is located by its distance along the alignment and its offset from it. That distance is called chainage (or stationing in the US, mileage on older railways). Learn to read it, and to check a vertical curve from a real drawing.
- Chapter recap
Chapter 2. Ground truth
0/2 done- 2.1 Utility records and quality levelsMost existing pipes and cables are known only from the owners' records, which may be decades old and metres out. Utility survey standards grade every line by how it was found, from a desktop record to a line exposed and measured. The grade decides how close you may design and dig.
- 2.2 Coordinates over long corridorsA map grid is a flat picture of a curved Earth, so distances on the grid differ slightly from distances on the ground. Over a building nobody notices; over a 20 km railway it adds up to decimetres or metres. The scale factor turns one into the other.
- Chapter recap
Chapter 3. Rail and handover
0/2 done- 3.1 Rail for BIM peopleA railway is a system of systems: track, structures, overhead power, signalling, telecoms and drainage, all working within millimetres along hundreds of kilometres, and all built while trains keep running nearby. Here is what a BIM coordinator needs to know to work on one.
- 3.2 Handing over to GISWhen a utility or rail project finishes, the owner doesn't want a model: it wants its network updated in its own GIS, with the right attributes, connected correctly, in its coordinate system, so that operators can find, maintain and isolate every asset.
- Chapter recap
The exam opens on 11 JanA new track exam opens every week. Finish the lessons now and you’ll be ready on the day; the certificate goes on your LinkedIn profile.The release calendar →
Your learning route
Each station is a chapter; completed lessons are ticked.
- 1Where GIS fitsChapter 1 · 2 lessons
- 2Ground truthChapter 2 · 2 lessons
- 3Rail and handoverChapter 3 · 2 lessons