Category Archives: Surveying
Monitoring a Historic Bridge Replacement
A survey manager describes how monitoring improved construction processes for the replacement of an 85-year-old bridge connecting Illinois and Iowa. The Savanna-Sabula truss bridge added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, carried passengers along U.S. 52 and Illinois 64 over the Mississippi River, connecting the towns of Savanna, Illinois, and Sabula, Iowa....
Real Surveying?
How often do you ask yourself, “What is land surveying?” Is land surveying a narrow field of specific expertise or a wide expanse of overlapping skills joined together in a common cause? Is a surveying license the only way to demonstrate competency, or can one have skills that lie outside the commonly tested criteria? More...
A Taste of the Country Club Golf Life
My brother chose a career in information technology, which has worked out well for him. However, the problem with being a computer wizard is that your skills are often sought after to assist family and friends as a “favor.” For a surveyor, those requests are very rare, if ever. I have often joked with him...
The Future of Office Software
Cloud-based computing offers advantages in speed and cost, and desktop software is adapting to leverage the benefits. It seems like just yesterday we had dial-up internet connections using 56k modems. It is amazing to observe how technology has evolved and how much our lives depend on being connected. That evolution is driving fundamental changes for...
2022 Monumental Changes, Part 2
The U.S, National Geodetic Survey continues its examination of the impacts to passive geodetic control networks by the planned 2022 reference frame modernization. Editor’s note: A Field Notes article by Scott Martin posed the question, “Are HARNs on Death Row?” and Dru Smith began answering that in the December 29017 xyHt cover story. Here in...
Surveyors: An Identity Crisis
It seems that during my entire career as a proud professional land surveyor, surveyors have been waging an image battle. We often hear that we aren’t perceived by the public as—or paid on par with—other professionals, such as our next-of-kin, engineers, and even lawyers and doctors. I continually hear and read discussions that we aren’t...