How Land Surveyors Set The Stage For A New Building

Posted by Adam Hoffman on

This Is How We Do It…

This sequential photo montage highlights all the phases involved in preparing a site for the construction of a new building.

  1.  The undeveloped, overgrown site in Hamden, CT at commencement of survey work.
  2.  Site conditions during field work with survey gear.  As we often do, our crew contends with towering, tangling vegetation.
  3.  A year later, after site design and the permitting process, the finished plan set is delivered to the town permitting agency.
  4.  The site is cleared and prepared for construction.
  5.  The crew and survey instrument are in position to locate and mark 384 points for Helical Pile installation.  (These piles, or piers, are used to stabilize soil to support the building foundation).
  6.  The pier stakeout is complete and the site is ready for the pile driving crew to commence work. Each location is identified by the  pink whisker flag and orange numerical identifier.

Once the piers are installed the foundation will be marked out for construction.

Stay tuned for updates as we follow this project to completion!

GHH Supports Future Surveyors

Posted by Adam Hoffman on

Lyman Hall Launches Survey Module

GHH is pleased to play our part in this new and exciting program…

In September 2022, Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford launched a surveying module in the Agriculture Science Department. The objective of the one semester course is to provide exposure to the career field and basic skill training. Students who take the course are immersed in basic surveying, mapping concepts and introduced to the standards of work and expectations for the surveying profession.

Throughout the course students gain skills in operating tools for land measurement, reading and making maps, operating unmanned aerial systems (drones), to collect remote sensing data, researching land records, and manipulating data in software such as AutoCAD, Access, Pix4D, and Carlson Photo Capture.  Assignments are associated with real world scenarios. To support the technical side, a wide range of surveying equipment and software was procured through two separate Perkins Career and Technical Education Grants. Students will have opportunities to get hands-on instruction and experience with set up and operation of total stations, data collectors, prism poles, tripods, GPS rovers, RTK and non-RTK UAVs.

Curriculum development was supported by The Institute Of Real World Education and Curriculum Advancement (IRWECA) at Southern Connecticut State University.  The objective of IRECA is for the interdisciplinary educator teams to be able to “develop and implement interdisciplinary curriculum modules aligned with industry needs and best practices in education.” (https://biopath.southernct.edu/irweca)  The team for Lyman Hall consists of Emily Picard,  Wildlife Biology teacher from the Agriculture Science Department,  Ryan Sheehan, Engineering STEM teacher  from the Science and Technology Department, Marjorie Drucker, curriculum facilitator from Drucker Educational Consulting LLC and Calvin Weingart, a licensed surveyor with Godfrey Hoffman Hodge LLC filling the role of industry consultant.

The team has met monthly since January 2022 to share ideas and goals, learn about the surveying profession and ultimately support the development of the curriculum now underway. We are confident that these high school students will come away from the course with the knowledge that the surveying career field is relevant, accessible and intriguing.  Ultimately, the hope is that the students will bring their youthful enthusiasm and passion for learning to the surveying profession.

We are glad to be a part of this exciting program – it’s always a thrill to share our knowledge and help push the profession forward!

Printing the President’s Face: 3D Scanning

Posted by Peter Grunawalt on

describe the imageThis week (December 2014), using some of the most advanced camera and laser scanning technologies, “[a] bust of President Obama was created by a Smithsonian-led team of 3D-digital-imaging specialists, Autodesk and 3D Systems, in collaboration with the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies” (whitehouse.gov).

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