CIVIL ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION SUPPORT
Key to all building & construction work is accurate setting out! Too many projects have suffered from lack of effort and / or resources being spent at the start of the job.
ROAD SURVEYS
Land & Marine Surveying have a keen interest in roads and some 40% of their turnover is derived from this work.
We have been involved with Opus Consultants recently, assisting them with collation of raw survey data they use to re-design & improve our local roads & State Highways.
A recent initiative of Transit NZ has been to adopt the New South Wales road standards for data collection, design, and infrastructure recording purposes. This standard is known as RTA and we have a 12d module that is specifically designed to work easily within this standard. In the coming months we will be exploring the benefits of the RTA module and working with TNZ & companies such as Opus so we can deliver to their expectations and better.
Most of the roads we work on are in full use so it’s vital we understand the risks associated with operating within traffic. All our personnel are trained in traffic management & safety matters, and we frequently engage our local traffic management provider Sight Traffic Management, to ensure both ours and road users’ safety. As every site is different and the risks can vary from day to day and hour to hour, we make sure our people are properly briefed to ensure safety always comes first.
We use RTK GPS systems for most of our road surveys and utilise reflector-less total stations to infill those areas where GPS cannot cover. If accurate levels are required we use automatic levels to improve accuracy. With the advent of laser-scanning techniques it can only be a matter of time before we start deploying GPS and laser scan on our work vehicles to collect the data even more accurately and efficiently. The poor designers will end up getting too many survey points.
Setting out of roads is another important role we play. Contractors require this information so they only need to string between our points to check on grading, levels, volumes etc. We can provide these datum points efficiently, accurately and with a smile so you the contractor can rely on the information and concentrate on other project matters.
CONSTRUCTION
Key to all building & construction work is accurate setting out! Too many projects have suffered from lack of effort and / or resources being spent at the start of the job.
We are proud to be able to offer our services to you, ensuring your project is stress-free, accurate & within budget. Our experience with construction is vast from North Sea oil & gas construction to London Underground and many other projects worldwide.
We are also very keen to learn from you about your construction problems specific to your project so we can assist by offering inventive ways to do the job!
UTILITY COMPANY SERVICES
Utility companies frequently contact us for all manner of surveying-sourced information. Most commonly they will require property boundaries to be determined in relation to physical features such as fences, electricity poles, roads etc.
We often provide site survey information to them electronically within a day of obtaining the works order, meaning the design process is not greatly interrupted and their own staff are not required to travel to collect the information themselves.
ELECTRICITY LINE CATENARY SURVEYS
With the advent of GPS & Reflector-less total stations we are able to offer cost-effective and accurate surveys of electricity cable catenaries.
Using the onboard software on our Nikon reflector-less total stations (2D Plane – based on the line hanging vertically), we can determine the line catenary by simply knowing the XYZ position of either end (exit from the insulator fitting), and by measurement of the horizontal and vertical angles to the line at points along the line.
With other total station systems, surveyors were of the belief that they actually had to measure the distance to the suspended part of the line which caused a lot of frustration and time delay.
We have used this system on many occasions and had to present our data for a construction project where a crane was operating, on a barge, in close proximity to lines.
Call us to discuss your needs.
RAILWAY SURVEYS
Ontrack NZ have been spending a considerable amount of money recently, upgrading our precious railway lines.
The transport dilemma New Zealand has been facing for decades hinges on whether we abandon the railways or keep and improve them. The notion that railways should replace heavy trucks is, in our opinion, ill-founded as the sheer convenience of trucks means for most freight this is a very sensible mode of transportation!
With the cost of liquid fuel more than doubling in just 3 years, the benefits of exploring alternative modes of transportation are very real! Electrification of more of our railways could potentially bring further benefits to New Zealand.
Railway remains, potentially, the most efficient and safe mode of transporting large volume & mass long distances. To make the railways more efficient and cost-effective to customers, the basic infrastructure must be reliable, capable of being added to and improved, and safe.
The modern railway line requires accurate positioning in position and height, and track separation (gauge). Most derailments occur as a result of poor track alignment, foundation support & gauge setting. Rolling stock must be kept in good condition so it does not wear the tracks out and the tracks too must be maintained so they don’t wear the rolling stock out! Ensuring the latter two requirements are met is not easy as the bodies responsible for each are not one and the same!!
Land & Marine Surveying have extensive experience of railway surveys. Wade Roest, our senior surveying technician, worked for the London Underground for two years while abroad. The tolerances for track setting-out are typically 5 times tighter than those for conventional road surveys, which means the correct equipment and methods are vital!
The improvement work that is being done on our rails can be done while the tracks are still in use, but this means safety and 3rd party interferences have to be factored into the contracts.
Our software suppliers 12d Solutions have recently added a special railways design module that will assist us enormously with performing all manner of railway surveys and redesign of track alignments as required. The module deals with all manner of design geometry, out of straightness surveys, offset targets used in field survey, control levels & positions and gauge variation on corners.
The information we collect can be integrated with the rail-provider’s dynamic data and used in the design process to improve the lines.
We hope to be a part of improving New Zealand’s railway system