Surveying Archives

Surveying

Maintaining Precise Positioning and Saving Time on Remote Pipeline Projects

For projects spanning large areas, a Michigan–based engineering and construction firm discovered satellite-delivered corrections could solve the challenge of high– precision global navigation satellite system (GNSS) reliability in remote areas. Atwell, LLC, is a national consulting, engineering, and construction services firm with 33 offices throughout the country and more than 1,000 team members. The company …

The Straight Talk on Staking Electric Lines

The American Great Plains is known for its wide open spaces, views that can stretch for miles and lines of electrical poles that seem to run straight into the horizon. But before these poles and wires go up, the lines must first be designed and staked – a process that demands fast, accurate and easy-to-use …

three young men doing a survey in Rwanda on a mountain

Breaking Down Borders

The residents of Mwendo, a community of 3,000 people in remote Rwanda needed to carry 20-litre jerry cans to obtain water. The Engineers without Borders plan to rehabilitate a large water tank and install a pipe direct to the local school faced challenges—due to their use of a gravity-fed system. The elevation change and the …

Precise GNSS helps researchers understand the behavior of active volcanoes.

Measuring vertical gradients of gravity on the slopes of Mount Etna helps forecast volcanic hazards. While Mount Etna is surrounded by geodetic control points, conducting real-time GNSS observations was challenging, and quite dangerous. Inconsistent cellular service made connection to Italy’s real-time GNSS network difficult and constraints on radio licensing ruled out conventional survey approach. Approach …

Surveyor using the Trimble R2 device at sunset near wind turbines

Surveyors Achieve Productivity and Accuracy Remotely with Trimble RTX

Cape Survey Ltd. was selected to determine the location for 61 large wind turbines, capable of powering 120,000 homes. While the site provided excellent conditions for GNSS, its remote location made it difficult to achieve the required accuracy and ties to South Africa’s reference system. There was no connection to cellular service, and the nearest …

Trimble R10 device sitting in a field near a fence

Accuracy and Efficiency in Remote Locations

Surveyors using GNSS in South Australia face challenging conditions, working across vast terrain without the investment or population distribution to support a statewide real-time network. As a result, surveyors in outlying areas must rely on static techniques to establish local control. They can then use single-base RTK for specific project operations, while multiple RTK bases …