Build and maintain transportation infrastructure with accurate site data
Bring surveys, design files, and field updates together on one shared map. Establish existing conditions, explore preliminary earthworks options, and document progress from planning through maintenance.
Built for roads, rail, airports, and DOT construction programs.
Where Propeller fits in transportation & infrastructure
Roads & highways
Track earthwork quantities, verify grades, and document conditions across road and highway projects.
Rail & linear corridors
Bring a shared site record to long, distributed rail projects, with alignments and stationing available to field and office teams.
DOT & public agency programs
Build survey records that support pay quantity reviews, agency submittals, and long-term maintenance.
Access roads & civil infrastructure
Capture field conditions for utilities, drainage, trenching, and site access across remote or distributed work.
Heavy civil contractors
Track progress, compare as-designed to as-built, and support payment applications with high-precision site data.
The problem with linear infrastructure projects
Long, distributed projects are hard to manage because the job keeps moving and the proof disappears behind it.
By the time a crew reaches the next station, the grade has been set, the utility has been buried, and the quantities have been approved. If the right record does not exist when a pay application, inspection, handoff, or dispute conversation happens, teams are left recreating proof after the fact.
The friction is not the work itself. It is the gap between what happened in the field and what can be shown to the office, the owner, or the DOT.
Propeller gives teams the proof before they need it.
One platform, every phase of the project
Plan: Know what’s there before you build
Capture accurate existing conditions along the corridor before work starts. Analyze alignments, measure right-of-way constraints, identify drainage issues, and assess hydrology early so your survey and estimates start from real data
Use Propeller CAD to explore preliminary access roads, ramps, and work pads on your survey terrain before detailed engineering.
- Capture existing ground and corridor terrain from drones, GNSS, total stations, or LiDAR
- Upload LandXML files to reference alignments and stationing before a shovel moves
- Analyze cross sections, offsets, and right-of-way boundaries across the corridor
- Identify drainage and surface runoff risks before construction begins
- Create and refine preliminary earthworks concepts for access and temporary work areas
Explore: Survey Explorer, Composite Builder, and Workspaces · Hydrology and surface runoff tools · Propeller CAD
Build: Track progress and verify work as the project moves
Keep field and office teams connected with survey-based progress measurements, digital stationing, and design comparisons. Review changes as new surveys are added and identify differences that need attention.
- Reference alignments in the field using digital stationing tools
- Compare as-designed to as-built surfaces across the full corridor
- Measure earthwork quantities and compare cut/fill across survey dates
- Capture field conditions with Propeller Mobile and share updates instantly
Explore: Digital stationing and alignment · Compare to design, cut-fill, grade checks, and area progress · Propeller CAD
Verify: Confirm every layer and support payment applications
Compare subgrade and finished surfaces against design, and support pay quantity reviews with dated survey evidence. Check results against your project’s tolerances, submission requirements, and sign-off process.
- Compare finished surfaces against design to confirm each layer meets grade
- Measure earthwork quantities for pay application support
- Use AeroPoints and high-precision drone processing for centimeter-level accuracy across long corridors
- Generate Measurement Reports for DOT submittals and audits
Explore: Grade checks, cut-fill, and design comparison · AeroPoints · Measurement reports and volume calculations
Maintain: Keep a reliable record for the life of the asset
Give DOT teams and owners a historical survey record to support inspections, maintenance planning, and agency reviews.
- Track surface change over time along roads and corridors
- Organize survey history and field documentation to support agency inspections and long-term upkeep
- Use slope and hydrology analysis to manage stormwater and drainage risk
- Identify and measure areas needing repair using current survey data
Explore: Timeline, media, flythroughs, and markup · Hydrology and surface runoff tools
Road construction surveying, digital stationing, and corridor mapping
Corridor mapping and AeroPoints
AeroPoints are Propeller’s portable ground control points built to scale road construction surveying across long corridors. Easy to deploy and highly portable, AeroPoints deliver centimeter-level accuracy for corridor mapping, alignments, and stationing tasks.
Combined with PPK drone workflows, DOTs and contractors can verify pay quantities, validate as-builts, and measure earthwork quantities across miles of roadway.
Digital stationing and alignments
Import engineering alignments in LandXML format and reference stationing, chainage, and offsets on your site map. Review cross-sections and give field and office teams a shared location reference across the corridor.
In Propeller Mobile, positioning accuracy depends on the device and positioning source. Digital stationing supports field reference; it does not replace the survey equipment required for precision staking.
Plan access roads, ramps, and work pads
Use Propeller CAD to create preliminary earthworks concepts on your real survey terrain. Describe what you need, refine the layout and elevations, and share the concept for qualified review before detailed engineering or field use.
Compatible with the tools you already use
Propeller works with Civil 3D, OpenRoads, Trimble Business Center, and other industry-standard CAD and GIS tools. Import design files to compare against real site conditions, and export data in formats your team already uses.
How Nova Rota do Oeste keeps a 150 km highway project moving
On the BR-163/MT highway duplication project in Brazil, Nova Rota do Oeste uses Propeller to centralize survey data across multiple construction fronts and subcontractors. The team reduced data turnaround from 7–14 days to 48 hours and used Propeller data to identify and resolve a 175% volume discrepancy.
“The average turnaround time for results ranges from 7 to 14 days [before Propeller]. With Propeller, we have data back in 48 hours.”
— Paulo Eduardo Palma Baptista, Construction Coordinator, Nova Rota do Oeste
Build and maintain transportation infrastructure with confidence
From planning through maintenance, Propeller gives DOTs and contractors a modern approach to road construction surveying, combining drone mapping, alignments, and digital stationing tools in one secure system.
Frequently asked questions
Stationing is a linear referencing system used to describe positions along an alignment, such as a road or rail corridor. It is often expressed as station values, chainage, or milepoint. Digital stationing connects these references directly to design alignments and survey data.
Propeller CAD supports preliminary earthworks concepts such as access roads, ramps, and work pads on survey terrain. Use it to explore options before specialist review and detailed engineering. It does not replace engineered highway or rail design, and its concepts require qualified review before field use.
Keep imported LandXML alignments separate from CAD output: the documented CAD exports are DXF and TTM, not LandXML alignments.
Yes. With Propeller Mobile, field teams can view alignments, stationing, and offsets directly on their device using real-time GPS.
Propeller compares drone and ground survey data against design surfaces to measure earthwork quantities and confirm as-built conditions with high accuracy.
Propeller supports DOT surveying workflows with AeroPoints, PPK processing, imported LandXML alignments, and measurement reports. These tools help teams compare surveyed conditions with design and prepare records for quantity reviews and submittals. Required accuracy, formats, tolerances, and acceptance processes depend on the agency and contract.
Yes. Design files such as LandXML can be uploaded and overlaid on drone-captured 3D maps to track progress relative to design stationing.
Digital stationing uses cloud software and GPS data to reference locations against a design alignment, replacing manual staking with faster and safer workflows.
Drones capture high-resolution data remotely, reducing the need for surveyors to work in active traffic zones or on unstable terrain.
Yes. Propeller data can be exported in formats compatible with Autodesk Civil 3D, Trimble Business Center, and other industry-standard CAD and BIM tools.
High-precision accuracy on road construction projects requires three connected tools: PPK-enabled drones for high-resolution capture, ground control points like AeroPoints for centimeter-level positioning, and digital stationing software that connects drone-captured surfaces to design alignments. Together, these tools connect survey surfaces with project alignment references. Check survey quality and positioning accuracy against the requirements of the intended task and contract.