Geospatial surveyors are key collaborators with many different professions. They can be part of many processes and also can contribute to the form and shape of projects beyond their timelines. It’s important to ensure that land surveyors become involved at as early a stage as possible, so that clients can ensure they get the team they want, with the right expertise on site and the work can be built into the supply chain pipeline. From any project’s inception, surveyors can provide invaluable insight into realising a site’s potential. Our initial ground surveys, for example, can both demonstrate and dictate what those possibilities can be.
Insights and analysis
A topographical survey scopes out the contents and position of elements of a site, prior to the planning and design stage. They gather data on the ground of the natural and manmade features of the land, and the contours of the terrain itself. This data is then analysed and interpreted into a 3D, easy-to-understand, base plan. An underground utilities survey can add shade and depth to a topographical plan. It can provide a great deal of insight into the ground conditions and obstructions that may be prevalent on the site sometimes resulting in the controlled excavation of areas where verification of services is important. Working with planners and designers, this information can be combined and used to plot out where new buildings can be placed and built, what utilities are available and the possible hazards that may arise.
If you are working on an existing building, a measured building survey would be useful, to establish and plot exact measurements and the current condition of building elements. Again, this could be shared with designers and architects, to collaborate on a project going forward. Boundary surveys, which determine the exact parameters of a site, can be shared in collaboration with legal representatives, in cases such as boundary disputes or questions of access.
Place and space
Site engineers will be involved with the setting out of buildings, utilities and other structures on site as a project commences. They will be working with a variety of different professions and disciplines, which include site managers and quantity surveyors, as part of the construction. They will also be collaborating with the many tradespeople that are involved in the building of the project. This might mean those carrying out the excavations, piling or steel fixing, or bricklayers, joiners, and roofers, later on in the process.
The siting of various elements of the building will need to be pinpointed by a site engineer, who has access to the latest version of the plans. This is where digital sharing and accuracy across multiple platforms really comes into its own. The way digital data captured during a project’s early stages – and utilised in the design process – can then be shared through a common data environment such as Building Information Modelling and across multiple platforms and devices, is a great example of collaboration taken to the next level.
When it comes to the use of geospatial surveyors on your project, there are so many instances where it is advantageous and beneficial for the same geospatial team to remain involved throughout the project’s lifetime. Once a team has created a topographical survey and set local control, it is worthwhile using the same team to provide any setting out work, underground utilities services, measured building or as-built surveys. Establishing control and sticking to it, is imperative to the success of the placement of drainage, buildings and roads on a site. Swapping and changing surveyors or survey companies increases the likelihood of errors and remediation works required to rectify any mistakes from too many contractors establishing their own control on site.
If you would like to find out more about what our surveyors can offer your project on so many levels, then get in touch today.
