POB - Cover Story

The 'Can’ Man

In many ways, Clay Wygant is a typical surveyor. His tanned, weathered face and comfortable manner evince 20-plus years of working outdoors. Like many of his peers, his knowledge about the profession has come primarily through hands-on experience. ...

Suspended in Midair

On Labor Day weekend 2009, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and construction engineering firm C.C. Myers Inc. successfully completed an amazing “high-wire act” involving thousands of tons of concrete suspended 150 feet above the ground. ...

On the Right Track

The Arkansas and Missouri (A&M) Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates in a 139-mile corridor from Fort Smith, Ark., to Monett, Mo. Along the way, it interchanges with Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Kansas City Southern. ...

A Golden Image

The Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks, Alaska, produces about 330,000 ounces of gold annually, making it one of the largest gold-producing areas in the state. According to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Mining, Land & Water, the Fort Knox deposit has yielded nearly 179.6 million tons of ore containing 4.61 million ounces of gold since 1996. ...

The Need for Speed

When Chris-Craft co-founder Christopher Columbus Smith broke the 60 mph speed barrier with a Detroit-based hydroplane, the Miss Detroit, in 1915 to win the American Power Boat Association (APBA) Gold Cup on Manhasset Bay near New York City, he began a legend. Smith’s victory brought the Gold Cup race to Detroit the following year. ...

The Speed of Integration

When the CH2M HILL survey crew set out to bid on a project to map 1,500 sewer manholes for Oregon’s City of Woodburn, the challenge was to gather and organize a diverse group of data with a limited budget. The city’s wastewater collection and transmission system had been under continual expansion since it first entered service. ...

Precarious Positioning

On Oct. 3, 2009, thousands of people are expected to gather along the east and west sides of the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to celebrate the grand opening of the Walkway Over the Hudson--the longest pedestrian bridge in the world. ...

The Fabric of Jacksonville Beach

Inaccurate documentation of property boundaries poses many problems for local governments in the United States. Spatial inaccuracies within a land base can lead to the inadvertent placing of utilities or other publicly owned facilities on private property when originally intended for placement in a right-of-way. Moreover, erroneous parcel information can often lead to disputes over property lines. ...

Finding a Firm Footing

The significance of Port Arthur, Texas, is not lost on most professionals in the petroleum industry. Indeed, the Port Arthur Refinery (PAR), owned and operated by Houston-based Motiva Enterprises, is credited with ushering in the country’s modern-day oil industry and giving corporate life to some of today’s largest petroleum companies. ...

Professional Perspectives

How are surveying and mapping professionals faring in today’s challenging economy, and what does the future hold for these professions? POB’s annual research study on salary levels and benefits, developed in partnership with Clear Seas Research, provides some key insights. ...

A New Direction

In a traditional survey firm, data are collected as needed for each project. The surveyors provide clients with standard deliverables that they think the clients should have--generally in a CAD drawing or blue line format--at the price they think their work commands. The data are then stored with the project details in some type of file. ...

Flying High

The technology to collect LiDAR data from aircraft has been commercially available since the mid-1990s. As this technology has become more widespread and more familiar, it has been increasingly used to measure topography and create digital elevation models.

Connecting the Dots

Creating a compelling case for investing in new technology can feel much like a game of dot-to-dot. The crusader starts at point one--the demystifying dot--and slowly moves from one dot of persuasion to the next, waiting for each stakeholder to experience his or her “aha” moment ...

Controlling the Sway

When the new Pitt River Bridge opens to traffic later this year, this CA$198 million (approx. US$167 million), seven-lane cable-stayed structure, which connects the British Columbia cities of Pitt Meadows and Port Coquitlam, will support more than 80,000 vehicles per day, allow up to 52 feet of vertical marine clearance and provide paths for cyclists and pedestrians. ...

The First Footsteps

In 1768, astronomer Charles Mason from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon completed what is arguably one of the greatest scientific and engineering achievements of all time—the survey of the Mason-Dixon Line. ...

Turning the Tide

Spatial imaging technology improves erosion studies on coastlines and waterways.

A FIRM Grasp of GIS

One firm’s approach to GIS data management is refining FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Mapping (FIRM) process.

Tracing the Evidence

High-definition laser scanning aids disaster site investigations.

Rebuild and Recover

During peak rush hour on Aug. 1, 2007, Minneapolis’ Interstate 35W bridge−Minnesota’s fifth–busiest overpass carrying 140,000 vehicles daily--collapsed into the Mississippi River. Surveillance video showed the eight-lane steel truss-arch bridge crumple into a cloud of dust. Numerous cars and people fell from sections as high as 115 feet above the river.

An Eagle Eye

In 2005, I performed an ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey of a very large tract of property along Lake Erie in southeast Michigan. Sounds straightforward, but there was a challenge that lay before me: The lakefront property contained an active bald eagle nest.

Dodging the Curve

When Paul Young, project superintendent for Clark Companies, stepped up to the plate last fall to give Alliance Bank Stadium in Syracuse, N.Y., a facelift from AstroTurf to natural grass, he met some unique challenges.

Professional Paybacks

In an effort to identify the most current salary levels and benefit trends for surveying and mapping professionals, this year POB partnered with Clear Seas Research to conduct a comprehensive, quantitative study, which POB will publish on an annual basis.

Hacia La Excelencia: Toward Excellence

While many lament that new surveyors are entering the profession with insufficient mathematical skills or drive, this is not true of the surveying graduates at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). Surveying students at UPR are very comfortable with trigonometry and easily handle the calculus and matrix algebra necessary for least squares adjustments, map projections and physical geodesy courses. In fact, UPR students not only demonstrate a passion for their studies, they have a passion for surveying in general.

An A-MAZE-ing Feat

Rapid response and 3D laser scanning technology aid the rebuilding of California’s MacArthur Maze interchange.

Monitoring the Mighty Mac

A monitoring test on Michigan's Mackinac Bridge shows how GPS can be a useful tool in collecting moving data over time and space.

Scanning the Waters

Hydrographic surveying can be dangerous work. As surveying professionals chart near-shore features to help ensure the safety of vessels passing through our nation’s waters, they often encounter weather changes, rough waves, visual hazards and shoreline obstructions.

Optimizing Oak Creek

The year 2010 will be a huge year for the Oak Creek coal-generating power plant in southeastern Wisconsin--both physically and figuratively. By that year the Oak Creek Power Plant will have two new 615-megawatt generating units, a new coal storage facility, a new water intake and cooling system, and a new 550-foot chimney.

The Surveyors of Our Future

With each annual spring American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) conference, an increasing number of students from surveying programs across the country gather to demonstrate the skills they’ve acquired from their schooling.

For Trains, Planes* and Automobiles

In response to the “mobility crisis” that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Robert R. Kiley said the state’s metro area is in, numerous transit projects are underway.

More Than Just a Plan

In the fall of 1983, while an undergraduate at the University of Maine, I took a course titled “Cadastral Systems” in which the most fundamental theories of GIS were taught--even before the term GIS was created.