Utility, Engineering + Surveying - Summer 2019 - 2

Guest Column

Celebrating Surveying/Geomatics
Welcome to the Summer 2019 issue of Utility Engineering + Surveying
magazine, which is focusing on the theme of Surveying/Geomatics.
My introduction to surveying came in engineering school many
decades ago, when surveying was typically a part of the civil engineering student's curriculum, as it well should have been. Sadly,
this not a common belief among today's civil engineering schools,
as you'll read more about in the Surveying Education Committee
article on page 10. But I digress.
Following graduation, I accepted a job with a consulting engineer
designing water and wastewater treatment plants, water lines and
sanitary sewers. Often the first step in design was a survey of the site
for the future plant or pipeline. It involved boundary surveys for plant
sites and easements for pipelines, baselines with topographic surveys
for plants, baselines on or parallel to pipeline routes with features located left and right and locating other utilities. Various elevations for
underground structures and manholes would also be collected.
This was the mid-1970s, and all notes and data were collected by
hand and brought back to the office for interpretation. When ready, a
draftsman would transfer the notes to plan or plan/profile sheets to be
used as the base sheet for the project design. Heaven forbid that anyone spilled a cup of coffee on the notes or sheets during the process!
This must seem like the dark ages to those in the surveying business today, but it worked. Our surveyors were very dedicated, kept
neat notes and guarded those notes with their lives. And we did
make technological advances.
One was the use of photo plan/profile sheets for sewer design.
Google Maps was nowhere to be found, so this involved hiring an
aerial photographer to fly the sewer route and take still photographs.
The photos were transferred to plan sheets using known, surveyed
landmarks for size consistency.
Another advancement was on a project for the U.S. Corps of Engineers where we surveyed the alignment of a portion of the Missouri River. Prior to beginning the work, we purchased all new electronic instruments.
I left consulting engineering in the mid-1980s and joined the world
of trenchless technology, principally pipeline rehabilitation. These
projects involve an internal survey of the pipeline in question. The
technology advanced from rudimentary black-and-white, pulled cameras to digital full-color and tractored cameras with pan-and-tilt and
zoom features, and the video stored in the cloud. Other assessment
technologies such as sonic, radar, sonar, laser and more have evolved.
So, with this issue of Utility Engineering + Surveying magazine, let's
celebrate Surveying/Geomatics and its critical importance to civil engineering projects. The projects I managed would not have been possible without those hand-written survey notes and, as reflected in this issue, technology has vastly expanded geomatics' role in today's world. *

Lynn Osborn, P.E., F.ASCE
Owner, LEO Consulting LLC
UESI President-Elect

Utility Engineering + Surveying SUMMER 2019

Upcoming
Industry Events
ESRI Users Conference: GIS,
the Intelligent Nervous System
July 8-12, San Diego Conventional
Center; San Diego, Calif.
(888) 377-4576
esri.com/en-us/about/events/uc
MAPPS 2019 Summer Conference
July 14-17, Deer Valley Resort;
Park City, Utah
diane@mapps.org
(443) 640-1068 x1108/
mapps.org
UESI Pipelines 2019 Conference
July 21-24, Renaissance Nashville
Hotel; Nashville, Tenn.
(800) 548-2773, +1 (703) 295-6300
pipelinesconference.org
EWRI Operations & Maintenance
of Stormwater Control Measures
Aug. 4-7, Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis; Minneapolis, Minn.
(800) 548-2773, +1 (703) 295-6300
omswconference.org
Surveying and Geomatics
Educators Society (SaGES)
27th Biennial Conference
Aug. 4-8, Nicholls State University;
Thibodeaux, La.
(985) 448-4724
balaji.ram@nicholls.edu
APWA-PWX (Public Works) Expo
Sept. 8-11, Washington State
Convention Center; Seattle, Wash.
dforbes@apwa.net
(816) 472-6100 x5242
www.apwa.net/PWX
WEFTEC 2019
Sept. 21-25, McCormick Place;
Chicago, Ill.
(800) 666-0206
weftec.org
ASCE Convention
Oct. 10-13, Hyatt Regency Miami;
Miami, Fla.
asceconvention.org
(800) 548-2773, +1 (703) 295-6300
American Council of Engineering
Companies (ACEC) 2019
Fall Conference
Oct. 13-16, Sheraton Grand
Chicago; Chicago, Ill.
(202) 347-7474
acec.org

Utility Engineering + Surveying
Editorial Board
CHAIR: Joseph P. Castronovo,
P.E., F.ASCE
(214) 403-5134
jcastronovo@gmail.com
Lynn Osborn, P.E., F.ASCE
LEO Consulting
(314) 378-1275
lynn.osborn14@gmail.com
Shaoqing Ge, Ph.D., P.E.
American Water,
(856) 855-4369
shaoquing.ge@amwater.com
Charles (Doug) Jenkins,
P.E., M.ASCE
O'Brien & Gere
(770) 781-1720
Doug.jenkins@obg.com
Tom Pilarski, PLS, LS, M.ASCE
PSOMAS
(213) 223-1400
tom.pilarski@psomas.com
Ricardo Jose Vieira, P.E., M.ASCE
Black & Veatch
(786) 347-1288
Vieira@BV.com
Alec Grkovic, PLS, LS, M.ASCE
AECOM
(407) 992-4397
alecgrkovic@gmail.com
John C. Matthews, Ph.D., M.ASCE
Louisiana Tech University
(318) 257-2852
matthews@latech.edu
Jason Lueke, Ph.D., P.Eng.,
M.ASCE
Associated Engineering
(780) 969-6344
luekej@ae.ca
Diane Swecker, M.ASCE
Director, UESI, ASCE
(703) 295-6312
dswecker@asce.org
Susan Reid, Aﬀ. M.ASCE
Manager, UESI, ASCE;
Senior Editor, UES
(703) 295-6299
sreid@asce.org

http://www.esri.com/en-us/about/events/uc http://www.mapps.org http://www.pipelinesconference.org http://www.omswconference.org http://www.apwa.net/PWX http://www.weftec.org http://www.asceconvention.org http://www.acec.org

Utility, Engineering + Surveying - Summer 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Utility, Engineering + Surveying - Summer 2019