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Pipeline routes may change their position due to the force of the soil they are loaded with. Knowledge of these displacements is important with respect to planning possible future maintenance activities. This paper presents a procedure for measuring displacements on partially and fully excavated pipelines on a selected section. For the partially excavated pipeline, a first measurement was carried out, where reference points (for defining the coordinate system) were defined at the pipeline ends of the excavation and measurement points were marked on the pipeline. The spatial coordinates of these points were determined by measurement. Repeated measurements were made on the fully excavated pipeline at the same measurement and reference points. The measurement on the partially excavated pipeline determined its initial shape and, after complete excavation, the resulting shape of the pipeline and the displacement of parts of the pipeline were determined by subsequent measurement. The methodology and results of the measurement on the in-service pipeline are presented in the paper. The TRITOP optical system of GOM GmbH was used and the measurement errors were determined. The results are presented for both straight and curved pipe sections. The measurement detected the change of the shape of the pipeline in full excavation compared to the shape in partial excavation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]