Revista Technology & More -Surveying and Mapping- 2008-1

A Publication for Surveying and Mapping Professionals

Issue 2008-1

Open Pit Mining

Network Integrity

The Case of the Shrinking Volcano

Beijing Summer Olympics

Preserving NASCAR History

Retrofit-by-ReplacementINSIDE:

Welcome to the latest edition of Technology&more!

Trimble Engineering & Construction5475 Kellenburger Rd.Dayton, OH, 45424-1099Phone: +1-937-233-8921 Fax: +1-937-245-5973Email: T&[email protected]

Published by: Editor-in-Chief: Omar SoubraEditorial Team: Angie Vlasaty, Lea Ann McNabb; Heather Silvestri; Eric Harris; Susanne Preiser;Stefan Schiepe; Emmanuelle Tarquis;Grainne Woods; Christiane Gagel;Lin Lin Ho; Bai Lu; Maribel Aguinaldo;Masako Hirayama; Stephanie KirtlandArt Director: Tom Pipinou

Dear Readers,

We have always believed our customers are involved in some of the most exciting projects around the world. In this issue of Technology&more you’ll read about some of them: a $1-billion-dollar freeway upgrade in Australia; open pit mining in Germany; a “retrofit-by-replacement” bridge project in the U.S.; and the massive preparations underway for the Summer Olympic Games in China. Each of these projects—and many others—has a common denominator: the maximum efficiency and productivity gained through the use of Trimble® technology.

This issue also takes an in-depth look into how the growing availability of real-time kinematic (RTK) networks has triggered the Global Navigation Satellite

System (GNSS) user community to revisit its processes, procedures and results when using RTK for produc-tion survey work. This renewed focus has helped yield firm conclusions about best practices, and has further established RTK networks as a stable, essential utility for rapid development of large infrastructure projects.

In addition, we introduce Trimble’s Power, Plant and Process (PPP) business segment. Trimble PPP integrates Trimble LASERGen™ software with our survey products to transform the Connected Site™ model into the “Connected Plant” for energy plants, refineries or offshore platforms.

For those of you who could not attend Trimble Dimen-sions 2007, we include post-conference coverage. So

don’t forget to mark your calendars for the next Trimble Dimensions, which will be held in February 2009 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.

And finally, if you have an innovative project you’d like to share, we’d like to hear about it: just email [email protected]. We’ll even write the article for you!

We hope you enjoy reading this issue of Technology&more.

Jürgen Kliem

© 2008, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Trimble, the Globe & Triangle logo, DiNi, NetRS and Recon are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited or its subsidiaries, registered in United States Patent and Trademark Office. Connected Site, FX, GPSNet, GX, Juno, LASERGen, MS750, NetR5, RealWorks Survey, RTKNet, Survey Manager, TSC2, VRS, VX and Zephyr Geodetic are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

* A longer version of this article ran in POB Magazine: see www.pobonline.com

Jürgen Kliem General Manager, Survey Division

China

Ireland

U.S.

South Africa

Pg. 5

Pg. 10

Pg. 16

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-1- Technology&more; 2008-1

On Labor Day weekend 2007, one of the busiest bridges in the U.S.—the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge—underwent a daring

feat of infrastructure. Immediately after shut-down on Friday, August 31, a section of bridge was sliced up and removed from its supporting columns. Rails were then set in place and 16 massive jacks went to work, sliding a 106.68 m (350 ft) long, 6,500-ton replacement section 30.95 m (101.54 ft) to settle into the new gap. Though the project was massive, tolerances were ex-traordinarily tight. Bent pins on the new deck, which fit into sockets in the newly built columns at the old bridge site, needed to be within 6 mm (0.24 in) of as-built positions, so designers and surveyors worked within tolerances of 3 mm (0.12 in).

To meet this tight standard during the two years of careful survey work that preceded the Labor Day slide, R.E.Y. Engineers, Inc. used Trimble R6 and R8 GNSS receivers and a Trimble S6 Total Station. Existing control for the project was provided by California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), but R.E.Y. Engineers’ Jim Brainard, PLS, found that some values were as much as a centimeter out of constraint, probably due to seismic disturbance. GNSS work tied the control network to California Coordinate System (CCS) 83, and the Trimble S6 and a digital level were used to “tighten” control to required accuracies.

The “retrofit-by-replacement” strategy meant that a wider, safer section of deck was built alongside the older deck on temporary columns. These matched all new permanent columns added to accommodate the new deck’s greater width. As-built surveys of the new columns found variances from plan, and temporary columns were built to match. As-builts of the temporary columns after construction revealed departures from the layout that wouldn’t have been significant by most construction standards, but on this project led to repositioning the bent pin to ensure proper fit. On the day of the slide, R.E.Y. surveyor Martin Gonzales, PLS, devised a plan to quickly verify that the new deck was staying in alignment during transit. Tripods and reflective targets were placed at corners of the deck and after each 1-m (3-ft) move, the Trimble S6 and a Trimble TSC2™ Controller had 30 seconds to measure deflection. Seventy hours after beginning deconstruction of the existing structure—11 hours ahead of schedule—the bridge was again open for traffic, with local news organizations declaring the move “as smooth as sliding in a drawer.” Drivers on the replaced deck noticed little difference, and there were certainly no bumps—after two years and one long weekend, precise surveying and good technique put the massive piece of bridge in the exact right place.*

Retrofit-by-Replacement


Germany’s RWE AG is one of the largest energy suppliers in Europe. The power plants of subsidiary company RWE Power produce over 180 billion kilowatt hours

of electricity annually, providing about one-third of Germany’s electricity requirements and around nine percent of Europe’s. With 100 million tons of lignite—often referred to as “brown coal”—mined per year, RWE Power is the world’s largest lignite producer. About 90 percent is converted into electricity.

RWE Power oversees the Garzweiler opencast mine, one of three in the Rhenish lignite mining area, the largest continuous lignite deposit in Europe. About 20 excavators mine 100 million tons of lignite each year. The raw material is transported to several nearby power stations by means of conveyor systems and company-owned railway tracks.

The Garzweiler opencast mine has lignite deposited in three seams with an average thickness of 40 m (131 ft). Since mid-2006, after 20 years of planning and 20 months preparation, the adjoining Garzweiler II field has been opened. It has 1.3 million tons of lignite at a maximum depth of 210 m (689 ft), and should continue to produce until 2044. This new field has an area of 48 km2 (18.5 mi2); 13 villages with 7,600 inhabitants will need to be moved by 2044. This is necessary to allow about 40 million tons to be mined annually, providing about 6 percent of Germany’s electricity supply for around 40 years based on current projections.

Garzweiler’s showpiece is the Bagger 288 bucket wheel excavator, one of the world’s largest movable machines. It is almost 100 m (328 ft) high, up to 240 m (787 ft) long, weighs 13,500 tons and moves up to 240,000 m3 (8,475,519 ft3) of coal and spoil per day. “If this material were transported by a convoy of trucks, they would line up from Cologne to Stuttgart, a distance of 370 km (230 mi),” comments mine manager Lutz Kunde.

The Garzweiler team was the first in the world to use Trimble grade control equipment for a bucket wheel exca-vator, as well as on the Bagger 288. Garzweiler also uses the Trimble GSC900 Grade Control System on several excava-tors and dozers. Because the grade control systems provide all the information inside the cab, the team is able to finish the work on stockpiles of lignite or excavated material faster and with less manpower. The Bagger 288 and other

The Measure of PowerCover Story


excavators get the needed data from the mine’s Trimble NetR5™ Reference Station located at the central conveyor collection point. About 35 different Trimble products are utilized at Garzweiler, including the construction grade control equipment and GNSS surveying systems. With four surveyors and 13 other surveying staff, Garzweiler uses 15 Trimble GNSS rovers including the Trimble 4800, 5800 and R8 GNSS receivers. Mine surveyors use the GNSS receivers when measuring coal heaps or constructing a power plant, checking company railway tracks or piping.

Garzweiler also uses SAPOS, the SAtellite POSitioning Service of the German State Survey. Providing RTK service, SAPOS will integrate the GALILEO European satellite system in the coming years. SAPOS RTK service transmits the required data via cellular GSM to the appropriate rover. GNSS technology can thus be effectively used in areas far away from the opencast mine’s reference station.

“We use Trimble products due to the dataflow handling and the integration of their various systems,” says Garzweiler mine surveyor Thomas Bulowski. “In addi-tion, since 2006 we’ve utilized a Trimble R8 GNSS System, which allows us to receive GLONASS, when used with our Trimble NetR5.”

The mine surveyors were particularly relieved to reduce their workload by using the Trimble Recon® Controller using Trimble Survey Manager™ software combined with a Trimble 5800 GPS System. Prior to using Trimble, the Garzweiler surveyors had to travel to the excavation heap for every survey to determine how much room was available for additional material. Coal not immediately used is first stored in heaps and from there transported by means of conveyor belts and railway wagons to the

power stations. Spoil is immediately deposited on the other side of the excavation according to specified res-toration plans. Only the topsoil is excluded as it is only filled in at the end.

“Surveying work on the excavation stockpile took up a lot of time,” said Garzweiler surveyor Thomas Keulertz. “In addition to the surveyor, a survey assistant also had to go along. Surveying required a lot more personnel on site.”

The Garzweiler surveying department came to Trimble with their request for a simpler solution for checking cut/fill differences between the actual position and a digital terrain model (DTM) design. Trimble developed an easy-to-use program for showing the cut/fill based upon existing software. The Recon field computer contains the DTM design for the excavated material. Simply by making a few entries, a worker can graphically see whether the calculated cut/fill value has been reached.

“Trimble’s solution was a great relief for the field service,” says Bulowski. “We now get quicker and more accurate data and it is available whenever we need it, independently of the planned field activities of the survey team.”

“We couldn’t manage today without our GNSS rovers,” he said. The entire Garzweiler mine survey team agrees. The rovers have enabled many additional survey tasks to be carried out. Thanks to GNSS, surveying work can be done even if it is foggy or misty. Even places on coal heaps with difficult access can now be measured without risk.

“Trimble products not only provide us with improved measurement accuracy,” says Bulowski, “but they have also helped us speed up our evaluation of results, because we get the data so much faster.”

Melbourne’s One-Billion-Dollar Upgrade

Five different organizations have been involved in the construction of Melbourne’s 37.5-km (23.3-mi) Monash–City Link–Westgate Freeway over the past 40 years. During that time four different survey datums were used, so anomalies exist in design data produced for the various sections. Over the same period, temporary bench marks were used for the addition and modification of many route structures and services, so the task of pooling and rationalizing all survey data was virtually impossible.

A complete resurvey of the current freeway alignment, using Australia’s latest survey datum, Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA94), was considered the only means to ensure data used for the redesign truly represented what was in situ.

Multiple teams worked on the project over several months, surveying much more than just road pavement alignment and levels. Positional data on utilities, buildings, overhead signage, tunnels and the undersides of overpasses and elevated freeway sections were all important.

An early job involved establishing a new system of major control points related to GDA94 to bring consistency to

the design, construction and future transport manage-ment systems. It was important to place these points where they will be readily and safely accessible with minimum traffic disruption.

At the heart of the survey work is MELBpos, an RTK net-work of continuously operating GNSS reference stations around Melbourne. MELBpos uses Trimble VRS™ technol-ogy to stream live real-time correction data to network users, without requiring additional base stations.

Trimble GNSS receivers and antennas provide the foundation for much of the MELBpos network, while Trimble R8 GNSS rovers, Trimble S6 and 5600 total stations and Trimble control units were the preferred tools for most survey teams. The reflectorless total stations helped obtain data from inaccessible locations and where disruption to the 160,000 vehicles per day was not an option.

The advanced technology simplified the surveyors' work considerably; however, the project’s complexity and the requirement for vertical accuracy of +/-10 mm called for special innovation.

Heat shimmer and the reflection of satellite signals off buildings as close as 4.7 m (15.4 ft) to the freeway provided challenges for surveyors. In other places, to ensure data was collected from particularly crucial points, Trimble DiNi® Digital Levels were used in conjunction with mini prisms hand held by technicians working from elevated work platforms and mobile cranes.

The accuracy of positioning from the MELBpos network, the capacity to draw data from different collection methods into one database, and a little innovation from survey crews enabled a massive and complex task to be carried out quickly and efficiently.

Now that the survey work is complete, the builders have an accurate, 3D model of the entire freeway, simplifying the designer’s work and allowing many of the problems that usually crop up during construction to be addressed before they occur.

Survey work on Melbourne's Westgate Freeway continued day and night.


In Melbourne, Australia, a proposed $1-billion upgrade to the city’s most heavily used and economically important transport route has commanded the services of nine different survey companies and the accumulation of more than half-a-million survey points.

A Smooth Road to the Summer Olympics

A Smooth Road to the Summer Olympics

In addition to playing an important role in the construction of Olympic sites and stadiums, Trimble VRS technology is contributing to the success of one of the Games’ most excit-ing events: road cycling.

The planned road cycling race course will showcase some of the most beautiful scenery in Olympic road-racing history. Starting at Yongdingmen Gate south of Beijing at the Temple of Heaven, the cyclists will encounter sites as important and impressive as Tiananmen Square, Yonghegong Palace, the Temple of Earth Park, and the Beijing Olympic Tower. The winner will cross the finish line in the northern Bada Mountains.

However, with gold on every rider’s mind, it's likely the route’s distance and elevation will be more of a concern than the historic landmarks they race past.

In April 2007, the Beijing Institute of Surveying and Map-ping Design and Research (BISMDR) contracted the survey of the official road cycling race course, a route on existing roads composed of two parts: an urban and rural road section of 78.8 km (49 mi) from the start to Yuntai, and a loop section of approximately 23.8 km (14.79 mi). The actual distance includes midline and slope of the road to a precision of 100 m (328 ft) in length and 0.1 m (0.33 ft) in elevation. To survey the route, the BISMDR measured all main crossings and winding roads as well as elevations of mountain rises and flat sections at every 5 km (3.11 mi).

The BISMDR obtained all required survey data with exceptional speed and efficiency using network RTK techniques: BISMDR is responsible for managing the relatively new (operational since 2006) Beijing GPS Integrated Application and Service System (BJGPSIS), an RTK network based on Trimble VRS technology. The system employs 15 Trimble NetRS® Reference Stations, plus Trimble GPSNet™ software, and covers approximately 16,807 km2 (6,489 mi2)—the entire Beijing region. The BJGPSIS network provides Beijing surveying and Geographic Information System (GIS) organizations with a modernized reference service for high-precision 3D measurements in real time.

Since its development, the BJGPSIS system has been widely used for topographic surveying and mapping projects in ever-expanding Beijing. Along with BISMDR, a growing number of Beijing organizations are experiencing greater accuracy and efficiency via the system.

But it’s in the race against the clock to ready Beijing for being host of the 2008 Summer Olympics that the network is proving itself invaluable. As BISMDR’s road cycling race project demonstrates, measurement accuracy, speed and efficiency are what will contribute to the success of the Olympic events—and to the success of their host city, Beijing.

With the 2008 Summer Olympic Games just around the corner, preparations in Beijing are moving forward at a tremendous pace. Numerous engineering projects are underway—and Trimble technology is helping ensure the Olympic Games will open smoothly.



The Case of theShrinking Volcano

Stretching north to south for 7,242 km (4,500 mi) along South America’s west coast, the Andes form the longest mountain range in the world. With 102 peaks above 6,000 m (19,685 ft), the range is also one of the worlds highest.

Argentina’s Aconcagua, at 6,962 m (22,841 ft) is the highest peak in the range—and, in fact, in all of the Americas. However, it has been debated for years whether Cerro Pissis or Cerro Ojos del Salado is the second highest. Both are located in the remote Puna region; Pissis in Argentina, Ojos del Salado in Chile near the border of Argentina. And, since both are volcanoes (Aconcagua is not), the taller of the two would be the highest volcano in the world.

The Instituto Geografico Militar (IGM) Argentina lists Pissis at 6,882 m (22,579 ft) and Ojos del Salado at 18 m (59 ft) lower. IGM Chile had Ojos del Salado at 6,893 m (22,614 ft); this was confirmed as the most likely elevation number during a mapping project of the University of Technology, Dresden, in March, 2002. However, NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data and measurements with recreational GPS units showed that Pissis is likely no more than 6,800 m (22,310 ft), although it could not determine the exact height. If Pissis’ lower height could be confirmed, Ojos del Salado would without doubt rise to the rank of world’s highest volcano.

Peter Schön, a 22-year-old Austrian geography student, already an experienced mountaineer and Andean aficio-nado, was one of the first to provide an accurate height reading for Pissis. His story shows that fancy vehicles, elaborate support parties and lots of money aren’t always necessary. Schön did it with a friend, bicycles, skis, a tent, and a Trimble 5800 GPS Receiver. And guts. Lots of guts.

Together with his 30-year-old Belgian colleague Andy Debakker, Schön set off for Chile on October 7, 2005. They traveled by several buses from Chile’s capital of Santiago to the small Argentinean town of Fiambalá. Because Debakker had gotten sick, they were several days behind schedule. Ruth Jonson, the daughter of a local mountaineer, gave them a ride for 90 km (56 mi) from Fiambalá to an old mine road, at an altitude of 3,500 m (11,480 ft).

Schön says: “During the next few days, we rode or pushed our heavily loaded mountain bikes, transporting heavy luggage and our backpacks, until we reached the foot of the mountain. Most of the time, we had to double back to transport our remaining luggage, because the sandy road did not allow us to transport all of our belongings by bike.”

They left their bikes at the foot of the mountain (4,300 m; 14,100 ft) and began their ascent on foot. On November 13, they established base camp at 5,300 m (17,390 ft).

There’s a new #1 on the list of the world’s highest volcanoes. And part of the credit for this change in rankings belongs to Austria’s Peter Schön, his bicycle, and a Trimble 5800 GPS Receiver.


They had to wait out a violent storm there for four days before starting their climb to the summit.

On November 18, Schön set off at 4:40 a.m. to allow time to make his measurements before being joined by Debakker, who left camp at 6:00 a.m. Carrying his equipment and skis, Schön reached the summit after a tough, 10-hour, 1,500-m (4,920-ft) ascent. “I felt the height cruelly and was never as slow as that morning,” he reported. “Above 6,000 meters (19,685 ft) at roughly –13° F (–25° C), I needed to rest every three steps to fill my lungs with oxygen.” At 3 p.m., after regaining his breath, Schön began his measurements to determine the mountain’s exact altitude.

Schön said: “I proceeded fastidiously. Using a spirit level, I accurately set up the photo tripod I had prepared to fit the Trimble 5800. The instrument is easy to use, which is of enormous advantage under these extreme conditions.” He performed his measurements at intervals over a span of about two hours. The accuracy of the results increased with the number of values captured.

Schön describes his descent: “I started my descent around 7:00 p.m. At about 6,500 meters (21,325 ft), I reached the edge of the Pissis Glacier and put on my skis. Exhausted, I skied down the glacier, not an easy feat due to the thin air and the undulating surface. I was able to ski down close to our tent, which I reached with the last rays of sunlight. Andy, who had aborted his ascent shortly below the peak due to exhaustion, was expecting me.”

“The last four days we rode our bikes the 180 kilometers (111 mi) back to Fiambalá. Overcoming sand, passes and uphill passages was extremely exhausting and time-consuming. Our food supplies ran out during the last legs of the journey. We reached Fiambalá at 10:00 p.m. on November 21—exhausted and famished, but relieved to have made it.”

“While still in Fiambalá, I sent the collected data to Trimble Europe in Raunheim, Germany. Then we returned to Santiago. Shortly after-wards, Andy was on his way home. And I set off on another 11-day, High Andes expedition—again traveling with my Trimble 5800 and my skis.”

The results of the differential processing at Trimble Raunheim recorded the ellipsoidal height with decimeter accuracy. The result-ing orthometric height is 6,793 m (22,287 ft). “Inaccuracies in the EGM-95 ellipsoid currently available to us amount to approximately ±5 meters (16.4 ft),” says Schön.

Schön’s measurements (closely corroborated by subsequent groups, most recently one in 2007) clearly establish that Cerro Pissis at (a rounded) 6,795 m (22,293 ft) is about 100 m (328 ft) lower than Ojos del Salados. This elevates Ojos del Salados to its new status as the world’s highest volcano. And it proves that meticulous scientific work, with experience, enthusiasm and extreme physical exertion, can overcome almost any obstacle.


Efficient Equipment ChoicesWith five offices in South Carolina and West Virginia, Dennis Corporation has been using Trimble GNSS re-ceivers, controllers, and survey instruments since the company’s beginnings in 2005. “We like maintaining a single database of points and the TSC2 is great for that,” says Dennis Corporation’s Steven C. Bailey, PLS. “For example, we have one employee who specializes in GPS, and he’s able to work on nearly all our projects and transfer his data easily to the surveyors who’ll be doing the day-to-day staking work. It helps us to be more ef-ficient.”

Dennis Corporation uses another specialist on the SC-DOT project—surveyor Jeff Gwin, who works alone 80 percent of the time. “One of our most experienced guys, Jeff has been doing this for 23 years, and has lots of cer-tifications in heavy construction inspection, materials testing, things like that," Bailey says.

On SC 5, Gwin has been working with a Trimble S6 Robotic Total Station and a Trimble TSC2 Controller.

He does all his own calculations, working from paper plans. “I might call the office for a calc because some-times the plans don’t have all the information I need,” he says. "But other than that, I’m able to do it all with the TSC2.” When office assistance is needed, Bailey will typically fax the calculations to a job-site trailer, as that is most convenient for Gwin.

Another Trimble TSC2 feature that Gwin finds par-ticularly useful is the automatic tracking of points set. Because Dennis Corporation is being paid by the point for restaking—and because there are a lot of points to account for—it’s a big help to know instantly where he’s already worked: “I just pop up a map that tells which points are restakes, with the station information, and I can send that to the office for billing. It works out pretty well.” The controller works so well for him that he’s able to keep a much simpler paper field book. He typically records just setup information and almost nothing else.

Gwin also likes being able to set control quickly and accurately. Since he’s working on a construction site,

Efficient by Choice

Much of South Carolina Highway 5 (SC 5) is little more than two-lane country road, but thanks to

a local funding initiative called “Pennies for Progress,” 15 km (9.5 mi) of SC 5 in York County is being upgraded to a four-lane divided highway. With new paved shoulders and ditches, and upgraded culverts and bridges, the multi-lane section is projected to be much safer. It’s a big staking job for South Carolina’s fast-growing survey and engineering firm Dennis Corporation; they expect to stake well over 8,000 points during the life of the project—and about 75 percent of those points will be calculated and set by one man, working by himself. In fact, the job is turning out to be a laboratory for one-person staking technique using Trimble technology.


points are often knocked out and he has to set new control before moving ahead. With the Trimble S6, he’s able to work from the prism pole and turn ten times between the backsight and new control, averaging angle and distance readings, in the time it would take an operator to turn just two shots. This increases the accuracy of his control net—and his confidence in it.

He isn’t overburdened compared to the rod man on a two-person crew. The controller is mounted on the rod, and he carries his field book, flagging, hammer, stakes and a few other items in a bag, and one piece of equipment that isn’t strictly survey-related: a radio. “I do get a little lonely sometimes,” he admits, “and talk radio helps pass the time.”

Saving Money and TimeAll things considered, Gwin believes he’s faster than a two-person crew because he can respond more quickly to the contractor’s needs. “I believe the contractor is getting 100 percent of what he’s paying for, because he’s not paying for an instrument man,” he says. Gwin is also on site consistently, where a two-person crew would be rotated to other jobs. The contractor likes the constant availability.

Bailey agrees, and believes he’s saving employee time in the field and in the office. “With someone less experienced,” he explains, “I’d have to have a two-person crew, plus a CAD technician shadowing them in the office.” So the field computer and robotic station are helping Dennis Corporation leverage the expertise of one of their most senior workers, and Bailey couldn’t be happier: “Whatever I’m paying Jeff, it’s 60 percent or less of what I’d be paying for a crew.”

There are times when a two-person crew is needed, particularly when staking is being done in a wooded area—Gwin likes to have someone working a brush hook to clear sight lines. But usually it’s just him, and that’s the way he likes it. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on this project. It’s working out for the company and the contractor is happy too, because I can keep up with him so easily and switch quickly to whatever he needs. It’s really working great.”

By standardizing equipment and making a commitment to one-person crews, Dennis Corporation has been able to maximize their investment in progressive technology and experienced personnel, while also providing accurate, timely service to some of their most demanding customers. So in addition to saving money, they’re also getting jobs done faster and keeping quality high. It’s not just the equipment of course, but intelligent use of advanced survey technology is part of the reason this progressive firm is one of the fastest-growing consulting engineering firms in the South.


GNSS Comes to South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, long known for its diamond and gold production, is now gaining recognition for its GNSS infrastructure. Developed by the Chief Directorate: Surveys and Mapping (CDSM), the TrigNet network consists of more than 40 active GNSS reference stations. TrigNet provides

Differential GPS (DGPS) coverage over the entire country; RTK positioning in much of the country; and RTK networks in two urban areas. CDSM offers the service free-of-charge to users.

Building a Reference NetworkTrigNet has grown from 4 reference stations in 1999 to today’s 44 stations spaced roughly 200–300 km (124–186 mi) apart over most of the country. Data from all stations is available for post-processing applications. Thirty of the stations have real-time telecom infrastructure, enabling users to do RTK positioning.

Nine of the 30 RTK-capable stations are configured into two network “islands,” which use Trimble VRS technology to improve real-time survey accuracy. Four stations encompass Johannesburg and Pretoria; five stations service Cape Town.

In 2006, CDSM equipped the entire network with Trimble NetRS GPS receivers. Trimble GPSNet and Trimble RTKNet™ infrastructure software tie the stations together to provide countrywide DGPS correction service, as well as RTK service within 30 km (18.6 mi) of the RTK-capable stations.

In 2007, the nine receivers in the VRS networks were upgraded to Trimble NetR5 GNSS Reference Stations, which support the modernized GPS L2C and L5 signals as well as GLONASS L1/L2 signals.

Verifying Network AccuracyTo verify the accuracies TrigNet users could rely on, Optron Geomatics conducted a series of tests to measure network RTK solution repeatability; initialization times; and to compare the network RTK solution to that of a single base station.

The repeatability of the network RTK solutions and the single-base RTK solutions was excellent; all points fell within less than 1 cm of each other. The initialization times averaged 8 seconds, except where the baselines were longer than 30 km. In addition, all DGPS positions fell well within sub-meter accuracy.

The tests verified that the TrigNet network provides extremely accurate results and excellent ease of use for surveyors in South Africa. As South African surveyor Mark Straughan, PLS, says, “VRS rocks!"*


The growing availability of RTK networks has caused the GNSS user community to revisit its processes, procedures and results when using RTK for production survey work. This renewed focus has helped yield firm conclusions about best practices, and has further established RTK networks as a stable, essential

utility for rapid development of large infrastructure projects.

Due to increasing reliance on RTK networks for critical field operations, administrators must focus on tech-niques for managing data accuracy and assuring network integrity. Attaining these objectives requires assessing three main areas: communications; atmospheric modeling methods and quality; and management of reference station position dynamics.

The Communications Component Communications is key to effective RTK network operations. Both communications links—from the permanent reference station to the central server and from the central server to the field rover—must be highly reliable with low latency.

The rover-server link plays a critical role in network performance and is supported by one of two main communications choices: unidirectional (or broadcast) or bidirectional (or two-way) communications.

For network operators, this communications choice determines the network modeling format and services offered. For end users, two main considerations help determine their communications choice. First, what communications method does the network support? And, equally, what method does their equipment support?

UnidirectionalUnidirectional or broadcast communications requires a radio transmitter such as UHF or spread spectrum. Radio-based infrastructure requires an initial setup cost for both network operator (radio towers and transmit-ters) and user (receiver). While there are no ongoing access costs, there are additional issues with radio including line-of-sight requirements; transmitter power and broadcasting antenna height limitations, reliability of the link and governmental restrictions such as licensing and other operational limitations.

RTK Network Integrity


BidirectionalBidirectional communications, which include Internet-based cellular or wireless local area network (LAN) connections, have become crucial for RTK users. Be-cause of radio spectrum issues, more users are utilizing bidirectional modes today; increased investment and development by telecommunication providers have made these methods more reliable and available.

An additional benefit of using a cellular link is the growing number of augmented services available, such as access to Internet-based information in the field.

User considerations for both choices include assess-ing the method that carries the fewest issues, such as: up-front expenses versus recurring service costs; and communications coverage and reliability. In addition, it is critical to know the modeling formats local networks support before making this decision.

Ensuring Accurate ModelingAny time-of-flight measuring technology, whether optical or GNSS, RTK or network RTK, must deal with atmospheric errors, usually expressed in parts per million (PPM). Correcting optical total station measurements for local atmospheric—temperature and pressure—conditions is commonplace. Correcting PPM errors inherent in GNSS is more complex.

GNSS signals incur potentially significant errors from ionosphere and troposphere atmospheric conditions. While users can’t necessarily correct for PPM errors at the rover, the complex algorithms—or modeling for-mats—available in network RTK software can. Due to its real-time operations, network RTK modeling allows us-ers to deal with the dynamic and changing atmosphere. From the users’ perspective, two approaches exist for applying a model for network RTK: rover-centric and server-centric.

Rover-centricIn rover-centric solutions, the central server pre-processes raw GNSS data to make the reference station data consistent. It then broadcasts information to the rover to create its own model.

Examples of predominantly rover-centric solutions are FKP (Flächenkorrekturparameter or flat plane cor-rection) and Master Auxiliary Concept (MAC), which use two different methods. In MAC solutions the rover

receives all data from the server to re-create the raw reference station data and create its own model. This method depends on the rover for complex atmospheric modeling; without the massive processing power of a central server, rover-generated models are generally less complex and may not take into account some residual atmospheric effects. Additionally, in this method, two rovers can operate side by side and attain different re-sults. Because the rover does the modeling, the quality of atmospheric modeling applied to the rovers is highly dependent on embedded firmware of the rover used.

Rover-centric solutions are normally broadcast using unidirectional communications links. These solutions are useful to fill in areas that do not have cell phone coverage; they must, however, deal with the radio issues noted earlier. In addition, these formats are not back-ward compatible: If the user’s rover is not compatible with RTCM 3.1net, it cannot be used in rover-centric RTK network solutions.

Server-centricThe server-centric approach relies on two-way commu-nication between rover and server. The server receives raw GNSS data from the reference stations and creates data consistency to solve ambiguities for all network stations. Rather than sending the data to the rover, the server computes sophisticated models to estimate the network’s PPM errors. In addition, the rover sends its position for use in interpolating the model; the server then provides customized data for that rover’s location.

The server-centric method means that complex mod-els and analyses are performed by the network and monitored by network administrators; less processing power or post-processing is required of rovers or field personnel.

The server-centric method also allows for backward compatibility with older receivers since legacy RTCM formats can be used. Because the server is continually receiving data to produce a model, it only needs to update the model as opposed to producing it from scratch for each user. Rather than the rover producing the model after connection, the model is instantly available as soon as the user connects to the system. As a result, the system has enhanced quality control.

Today, the most widely used server-centric approach is the Trimble VRS method. A common misconception of


Trimble VRS technology is that it is not tied to anything physical. In reality, however, all data is tied with vectors back to the nearest physical reference station. As this method archives modeling information and raw data, the data can be easily re-created with post-processing methods.

Most networks can provide multiple formats, both rover- and server-centric. What is actually used depends on which communications method is chosen or available—and what options users’ equipment will support.

Managing RTK Networks for Reliability Today, network operators have numerous ways to ensure system availability including backing up com-munications lines to provide greater than 99 percent uptime. However, how do operators know that the sys-tem is performing correctly, that nothing has moved, that reference station results are consistent and that network results are correct?

In order to monitor and ensure network integrity, net-work operators need to evaluate the subtle or obvious movements of reference stations. Network integrity and positioning results rely on the known positions of its stations. But reference station location is surpris-ingly dynamic: Sources of movement include acute, localized movement (accidents, weather or vandalism); acute, widespread movement (tectonic movement and earthquakes); and chronic movement (shifting due to aquifer flows, mining activities, drilling, etc.).

Two considerations are paramount in evaluating reference station dynamics: understanding the level of movement that requires concern, and determining the given time to detect that movement and notify the operator.

Network operators can get millimeter-level results by applying long-term post-processing techniques; however, detection time on those results is much longer. Conversely, operators can detect movement quicker by other methods with slightly lower accuracy.

A network operator needs multiple methods to deter-mine motion; movement verification should not rely on one analysis method alone, which would result in false alarms. By using several different cross-checked analyses, operators can analyze and verify movement

is real and guarantee users are receiving reliable data. Monitoring software used by operators can be configured to sound alarms when movement rates (as quick as 3 cm/sec between epochs) or magnitudes (in the mm to cm level) exceed preset values. These tools give network operators additional high-level data for informed decision making.

Performance Expectations and Considerations for Users The practical outcome of utilizing reliable communi-cations links, proper modeling and system design, and network dynamics management of network RTK is clear: reliable, accurate positioning ability. This is the benefit of highest importance to users. When using RTK networks, however, users must take into account several field considerations.

RTK networks work well for providing precision re-peatability, or how well observations fit over time. But in determining accuracy, it is crucial to make sure the geodetic reference frames between the reference sta-tions and the control being evaluated are consistent.

RTK solutions and techniques provide a double-differ-ence, fixed-ambiguity solution. The advantage of this solution is that its availability is quick and accurate; the main drawback is that solutions are highly depen-dent on satellite geometry and are still susceptible to multipath at the rover.

So while modeled RTK solutions eliminate some error sources in GNSS solutions, there are still errors inherent to RTK techniques that require proper survey procedures to be addressed. Site calibrations, especially for the vertical component, are still necessary to ensure optimum results.

Managing Integrity for Reliability Managing the different system integrity issues of RTK networks makes them more reliable and provides greater product quality for the end users. With expert system administrators operating and managing the networks in real time, RTK network systems today are significantly more reliable than any surveying technol-ogy available in the past.

See feature article in POB’s October 2007 issue: www.pobonline.com


Norway Movesto GNSS

Norway is a land of extremes. Its topographic features—a coastline of more than 25,000 km (15,500 mi), about 150,000 islands and 26 mountain peaks over 2,300 m (7,550 ft) high—present Norway’s national mapping agency Statens kartverk (Norwegian Mapping Authority) with

unique challenges.

Since 1999, Statens kartverk has relied on the benefits of its own fixed GNSS network. Initially using Trimble MS750™ and Trimble NetRS GPS receivers, Statens kartverk expanded and updated the system in March 2007 to its current state-of-the-art equipment. Statens kartverk has installed 35 Trimble NetR5 GNSS Reference Stations and Trimble Zephyr Geodetic™ 2 Antennas; both reference stations and antennas are able to track GPS L1, L2, L2C, L5 and GLONASS signals.

Because the Trimble Zephyr Geodetic 2 broad-spectrum antennas are Galileo-compatible, no further antenna hardware costs will be incurred when Galileo frequencies become available. Due to the greater satellite signal availability, positioning performance has been enhanced in reception-critical areas, such as foliage canopy areas and zones with extreme topographic conditions.

Statens kartverk is also utilizing Trimble VRS infrastructure software—Trimble GPSNet and RTKNet—to provide an accurate real-time correction service. Statens kartverk offers a correction service with various degrees of accuracy through the GNSS network: CPOS, DPOS and MPOS, for centimeter, decimeter and meter-range accuracies, respectively. In addition to these real-time correction services, Statens kartverk also offers a post-processing correction service called ETPOS.

Because of Norway’s size and varied population density, the entire country is not fully covered with the dense network required for the RTK service CPOS. The network now covers large parts of the country along the coast, where the population density is the greatest. The rest of the country will be covered by the network within a few years. The operator forecasts a significant increase in end users in the coming years, particularly in the construction sector, which, as an emerging user of the correction technology, has expressed strong interest in the services. In addition, the technology is employed by users in other industries such as energy supply or agribusiness.


Built in 1949 by Harold Brasington, South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway was the first superspeedway built specifically for NASCAR

racing—and its peculiarities delight fans and drivers alike. The track’s narrow west end has a tight radius and steep banks (to accommodate a minnow pond, according to legend) while the east end is broader, and thus faster. The egg-shaped configuration makes it hard for drivers to get into a groove; Darlington is said to reward driving skill, not just fast cars. In fact, a good performance at Darlington is a badge of honor; when rookie drivers hit the wall there, as they often do, they’re said to have earned their Darlington stripes.

So in 2007, when owners launched a $10-million repaving project on the Lady in Black (so called be-cause the track was the first paved superspeedway in NASCAR’s history), preserving track characteristics was an important goal. But they also wanted to ap-ply some of the knowledge that’s been gained about high-speed racing in the 60 years since Darlington was built—subtle tweaks can improve speed and safety. These contradictory goals, preservation and improvement, would both be served by a highly accu-rate computer model. Since job specs called for shots every 7.6 cm (3 in), with vertical tolerances of 3.0 mm (0.01 ft) and horizontal tolerances of 9.0 mm (0.03 ft), millions of highly accurate shots would be needed on the 2.25-km (1.4-mi) track. The project’s lead contrac-tor decided that 3D scanning was the best available

technology—and Sanborn Map Company, Inc. was hired for the job.

Sanborn established 21 primary control points using Trimble GPS equipment and rapid-static technology, us-ing South Carolina State Plane Coordinates to facilitate aerial photography overlays. A Trimble GX™ 3D Scanner was selected for the work; due to the low angle of inci-dence for most track shots, a 76-m (250-ft) maximum scan distance was set. A Trimble 5600 Total Station was used to densify control so that multiple points would be available at each of more than a dozen scanner setups.

The GX Survey Workflow feature proved to be essential. Sanborn Vice President James P. Peterson II, PE, PLS, said, “Without Survey Workflow, each scan would have started at arbitrary coordinates of 0, 0, 0, and in the field they all would have been stacked on each other. This way, we were able to check scan data as it was gathered.” Trimble RealWorks Survey™ software was used to fur-ther refine data and produce the track model. Peterson noted that the GX scanner’s galvanometer indexing, atmospheric corrections, dual-axis compensator and other features also made work more like conventional surveying for field crews, and kept work accurate even in a brutal Southern summer.

Millions of shots gathered were within tolerance, so scanning technology will faithfully preserve a piece of NASCAR history for future fans.*

Preserving NASCAR History


Lighting the Way in Dublin

For the past ten years, Dublin has been at the center of Ireland’s explosive economic growth. With more than 500,000 residents, Dublin is the

Republic of Ireland’s capital and largest city.

A youthful city and popular tourist destination, Dublin has a strong arts scene, famous shopping districts and a vibrant nightlife—which is one reason the Dublin City Council is diligent about maintaining its 46,000 city streetlights.

Until recently, the Dublin City Council’s night scouts, who are responsible for checking the city’s streetlights each night, recorded details about malfunctioning lights, time and date of their light checks, necessary repairs and other information on paper forms. Look-ing for a more efficient system, the Dublin City Council adopted the use of GPS technology for tracking and recording streetlight data in 2004.

“The handheld computers with GPS receivers that we were using were a great solution when they picked up a signal, but a lot of our work is done around tall build-ings in very urban areas,” said Shay Fogarty, electrician for the Dublin City Council. “We needed a GPS receiver able to pick up location data in the heart of the city and could still be used to record all the light check information.”

As a result, the Dublin City Council purchased two Trimble Juno™ ST handheld GPS receivers for field data collection. A compact, fully-integrated field computer powered by Windows Mobile® version 5.0 software, the Juno ST handheld provides 2 to 5 m (6 to 16 ft) GPS positioning in real-time or after postprocessing.

The Juno ST handheld uses a high-sensitivity GPS receiver that has been specifically designed to work well in challenging environments, such as up against tall buildings or under forest canopy.

Today, two teams of night scouts take to the streets each evening equipped with Juno ST handhelds as they drive more than 80 km (50 mi) over 300 streets, checking more than 3,000 streetlights per night.

“Dublin is split into 16 routes and our scouts work in teams of two: one driver and one scout,” said Fogarty. “One team takes a route on the north side of the city, the other is responsible for the south side, and over seven or eight hours they check and record the status of every light on their route.”


Both of the Dublin City Council’s Juno ST handheld units run customized ArcPad mobile GIS software from ESRI. Using ArcPad, the night scouts are able to view a map of the entire route’s streetlight infrastructure on the pocket-sized handheld.

As the night scouts travel to each light, they select one of three icons to represent the condition of that particular light: black for a burned-out light, red for a light that is running low, and green for a fully functioning light. On average, the night scouts find 20 to 30 burned-out lights each night.

The Juno ST handheld also keeps a track log, or an automatically generated log of where the user has been, which includes information including date, time and vehicle speed.

“The Juno ST handheld units pick up a GPS signal even in the most urban areas where the vehicle is surrounded by buildings, so we’re able to get very accurate, consis-tent track logs,” said Fogarty. “Correct track logs are a requirement for us because the authorities often need to confirm the status of a streetlight, as well as when it was last checked, at the scene of an accident.”

Once the route is complete, the night scouts return the handheld units to the office, where the morning crew downloads all of the data collected the night before into the city’s GIS, which is linked to its public light and management database.

Once in the public light and management database, city workers can view a history of any particular light or section of lights to determine if something unusual is happening to cause light failure, and work orders are issued so that the burned out lights can be repaired the next day.

As a next step, the Dublin City Council is considering moving to an entirely electronic workflow, including equipping electricians with Juno ST handhelds and creating electronic work orders.

“The Juno ST handhelds are the perfect solution for us,” said Fogarty. “They’re small, lightweight and easy for our workers to use, yet highly productive all across the city. We can’t wait to eliminate even more paperwork by issuing electronic work orders.”


Finding Strength in NumbersIt takes more than just wearing the same shirts.

Commitment, respect and passion are what make a team.

Implemented just one year ago, the Trimble Survey Team loyalty program is providing an important service to the surveying community. Through the team, members have access to a wide network of other Trimble users and Trimble experts who all share a common bond: surveying experience. Maximizing the value of the collective experience is what the team is all about. Every day, all over the world, users are discovering easy solutions to particularly complex surveying challenges. Through the help of this network, those solutions are made available for the greater good.

Membership BenefitsToday the Trimble Survey Team is rapidly growing. This demonstrates the value members are deriving from the program. And, because team members are actively involved, the rate of new ideas and new contributions is escalating every day.

The Locker Room The Trimble Survey Team website is like the team locker room: Members gain elite access to privileged information including surveying tips and tricks. In addition, Trimble surveying application specialists are available to answer your surveying and technology questions. You can even read and share innovative surveying field stories!

In keeping with the theme, the website also contains a sports scores ticker, an event calendar, a team forum and much more. The Trimble Survey Team website is updated with new content regularly to keep Trimble surveyors up-to-date with the latest techniques and solutions.

No Tryouts NecessaryBecoming a member of the Trimble Survey Team is easy. Contact your Trimble Survey Distributor today for details on how to join. Or send an e-mail to:[email protected]

The job of today’s surveyor can be lonely work. There are times when it feels like you are the only one in the world who can understand the challenges you face. These are the times when it helps to know that someone else out there knows exactly what you are going through.


The world’s largest mountain carving is being blasted into existence in South Dakota’s Black Hills: a bust of Crazy Horse, the Native American Lakota Chief. When complete, the model will rise to a

height of 172 m (563 ft) and a length of 195 m (641 ft), a stone colossus of the renowned warrior astride his horse.

Compared at times to Mount Rushmore, the work in progress marries the fine arts not only to explosives but also to high-tech Trimble technology. In October 2006, two Trimble surveyors spent one-and-a-half days on the mountain face outside Custer, S.D. Using two Trimble 3D scanners, the surveyors collected 14 million data points, which, after post-processing, became an invaluable tool for moving the project forward.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a complex job with a long history: In the mid-1940s, a young Boston-reared sculptor named Korczak Ziolkowski was recruited by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear for the Black Hills’ project. “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes also,” the chief told Ziolkowski.

Ziolkowski moved to the land around the future memorial in 1947, carved from marble a 1:300 scale model of the mountain sculpture he envisioned—a second 1:34 plastic model was carved in the mid-60s—and personally hand-drilled the bore holes for the first dynamite blasts in the rock face in 1948. Ziolkowski died in 1982, but his family has kept on with the project. June 3, 2008 will mark the 60th anniversary of the dedication of the Memorial and the first blast on the mountain.

The Memorial is a non-profit enterprise depending on private philan-thropy. The project remains ongoing, without a scheduled completion date. Due to the project’s non-profit, ongoing status, Trimble’s loan of 3D scanning technology and staff surveyors was an important contribution.

3D scanning is ideal for a colossal job like Crazy Horse, because of its abil-ity to quickly cover the entire mountain in intricate detail. The October scanning project used a portable Trimble GX 3D Scanner.

On the mountain, the surveyors capitalized on the Trimble GX’s ability to use conventional survey routines to orient, set out control and provide quality control checks to ensure the quality of field measurements

Data processing with Trimble RealWorks Survey software also allows efficient handling and analysis of large data sets to easily create desired outputs for the design team. At Crazy Horse, the scanner data provided an accurate 3D model of the mountain. This enables continued refinement of Ziolkowski’s scaled model to accommodate the changing geology exposed by on-going blasting. As geologists, engineers and blasters do their work, the model is refined, then scaled back up to the mountain face for more finely-tuned blasting of the image. With the help of Trimble technology, the mountain is better adjusted to the model—and the model to the mountain—and the imposing image of Crazy Horse continues to emerge in the sacred hills.*

Carving a Mountain


Rhetorical questions, perhaps, but if you are the plant or project engineer for a power plant, refinery, petrochemical or similar plant, you need to know your assets’ locations very precisely. A processing plant is a living entity. There is always maintenance being carried out in one part or another. Shutting down a refinery even to just change a valve or pump can cost thousands of dollars a minute, especially with the current rise in the price of natural resources. One of the challenges of a plant owner-operator and/or its engineering procurement company is to make sure that the replacement part or the addi-tion made to the production line is designed to fit the existing facility exactly (or with a minimum of rework). Bottom line, workers in the field can then install the new equipment quickly and easily, getting the plant back on line, on time and on budget.

This is the daily life of a plant operation and this is why, to the plant engineering and design industry,

3D scanning has become standard practice for most plant retrofit projects. In 2006, Trimble acquired BitWyse Solutions, Inc., a plant design and existing conditions software company, and formed the Power, Process and Plant (PPP) business segment. The new segment serves that industry’s customers and assists them in applying Trimble’s industry-leading 3D imaging, positioning and tracking solutions to maximize productivity and create a safer work environment at their facilities.

Trimble is uniquely qualified to meet the as-built, dimensional-control and life-cycle data needs of engineers, designers and constructors of plants. Trimble offers a portfolio of products and solutions to address these needs. The products include: • the recently introduced Trimble FX™ Scanner, which was specifically designed to meet the requirements of scanning in congested plant environments;

The Connected Plant

You’ve got a $100-million retrofit project running hundreds of feet of pipe, equipment and/or high voltage power through a facility that already includes miles of these items crammed like spaghetti into a tight space. Every day that your project is delayed in order to field-fit or re-route assets can cost

your company millions of dollars.

How important is it for you to know the precise location of the existing items and improve the integrity of the design of the new items?

And how important is it for you to know whether the pre-fabricated pipe, steel and equipment will fit properly in the existing plant?


• the Trimble GX 3D Scanner for scanning objects that can be captured from a distance (like towers and conveyors); • the Trimble VX™ Spatial Station for survey and dimensional control and locating discrete connect points; • and the Trimble R8 GNSS Receiver and Trimble S6 Total Station to provide control and accurate positioning of assets around the plant.

Along with Trimble LASERGen software, these instruments provide the solutions for customers to measure and 3D-image as-built conditions of a plant asset and to integrate that data into their plant design, engineering and life-cycle management work-flow.

Another related challenge and opportunity comes with today’s global market. The new equipment and/or pipe might be fabricated in one continent for installation in another or on an offshore platform. In this case, engineers want to make sure that the part has been fabricated strictly in accordance with the design, and that the design fits with the existing facility within the small allowed tolerances. Because plant parts may be huge and weigh from hundreds of pounds to several hundreds or thousands of tons, the part may need to travel on a ship for a month before being installed. This is not an easy overnight shipment that can be returned to the manufacturer the next day if there is a problem. Therefore, integrity of design and fabrication is crucial. Again, the Trimble FX Scanner provides scanning measurements at the site, and/or the Trimble VX Spatial Station may be used to find the precise location of connect points for the equipment and pipe, making sure the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle go together correctly.

Trimble’s PPP business segment focuses on solving the positioning and tracking needs for this market segment and offering existing Trimble solutions into these

environments. With today’s high demand for energy, customers need an efficient solution to be able to connect their entire plant, refinery or off-

shore platform geospatially. The integration of LASERGen software into the Trimble product offering has provided a means for transforming the “Connected Site” model to create the “Connected Plant.”

Through the Connected Plant model, Trimble PPP is expanding and developing technologies that are familiar to the surveying world, but are just beginning to be known to the plant market. Because the success of any scanning project depends not only on the scanners themselves, but also on the survey and control management at the site, Trimble’s cutting-edge survey technologies have PPP applica-tions as well.

For example, Trimble VRS networks enable plant owners to maintain accurate and repeatable control networks at their facility, including

the ability to precisely locate assets while constructing new projects in a plant. The installation of a Trimble VRS network on a plant site, combined

with the use of the Trimble R8 GNSS Receiver and the Trimble S6 Total Station, provides additional benefits such as enhancing as-built documentation, regulation compliance, and many more.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

Trimble FX Scanner

An Elevated Tripod


Survey Systems faced several obstacles:• Surveyors had no access to the heap• There was a very high, dense hedge adjacent to the heap• The area was in the middle of open but inaccessible land• No electrical power was available

The surveyors rose to the challenge, confronting each obstacle with creativity and skill to determine the best solution:

No access q Survey remotely with 3D scanner q Survey remotely with reflectorless total station

The hedge q Use a very large tripod plus box for surveyor to stand on q Construct a Bilby Tower q Elevate the instrument q Chop the hedge down

How to get there q Lay temporary track plus a mobile platform q Use available farm machinery q Use a 4 x 4 with an elevated platform

Power q Use a very long extension cable q Use vehicle power (24 volts) q Use a generator

Shown in the photo, the solution used a Trimble 3D scanner mounted on a Terex loader. The scanner provided efficient data collection and the loader provided an elevated platform to “see” over the hedge. A 110-volt petrol generator powered the scanner and a laptop computer, via a long crossover cable.

Technology—ingenuity—improvization. Job done. Customer satisfied, with the help of Trimble.

This story and photo were submitted by Paul C. Taylor, BSc (Hons), Chief Land Surveyor of Survey Systems Ltd. This photo wins one of the honorable mention prizes.

Located in Wilmslow Cheshire, U.K., Survey Systems Ltd. was commissioned to calculate the volume of a spoil heap of waste material to determine if the quantity of waste was within local planning regulations. As with many such cases, the land owner would not allow surveyors to enter the land; the survey had to

be conducted from a neighboring field.


Photo Contest

This month’s Honorable Mention winners, who will each receive a Trimble watch, include Elevated Tripod on page 22 as well as the photos below:

Step Into My OfficeSurveyor Bob Keylar of LandPartners Limited in South Brisbane, Australia, titled his photo, “Step Into My Office,” as this particular topographic survey was a "must complete" project and could not be impacted by the pouring rain. The project was the construction of a 90-km (56-mi) gas pipeline from Condamine to Braemar in southeast Queensland. The pipeline would supply gas for a new power generation station at Braemar. LandPartners provided initial survey control, route detail surveys for engineering design, right-of-way delineation for clear and grade, set out surveys for pipeline construction and cadastral surveys for ease-ments over the pipeline. All surveys were carried out using Trimble GPS equipment in both static and RTK methods.

Locating Leftovers from 1944Engineer Ulrich Gaesing of the City of Bielefeld, Germany, submitted this photo with a fascinating explanation. Using old aerial photographs that showed the points of contact of unexploded ordnance from World War II, Gaesing and his crew used a Trimble R8 GPS Receiver to locate each of the still-dangerous ordnance. Specialists then defused and disposed of the ordnance. The challenge at this location was that the former World War II meadow had been transformed into an artificial lake. So Gaesing placed buoys using coordinates from the aerial photographs, enabling the specialists to find several unexploded 250-kg (550-lbs) ordnance. The ordnance were from a 1944 Allied Air Force attack that destroyed a bridge on the main train route from Berlin to Cologne, successfully interrupting the transport of Nazi military supplies.

We continue to receive many creative photographs of projects using Trimble equipment around the world for the Technology&more photo contest. Because of the uniqueness of each shot, it is a challenge to choose the top winners. And so we again have several. First place—and a Trimble jacket—goes to surveyor Thomas

Keulertz of RWE Power AG for the impressive shot of a Trimble R8 GNSS Receiver and Trimble S6 Total Station being used in front of the Bagger 288's impeller (radius of 21 m; 69 ft). You'll see the photo on page 3 and on the back cover.

Technology&more; 2008-1 -24-

By now, you may have heard about the Trimble Dimensions Conference 2007. You may have been told about it by colleagues or read about it in

industry publications. But unless you experienced it first-hand, it’s hard to understand what makes Dimensions so unique and electrifying. Maybe it’s the balance of gain-ing in-depth and practical technological information, hearing from exciting and well-known keynote speak-ers, networking with users from around the world, and enjoying creative entertainment. Whatever the reason, the outcome has been consistent: satisfied attendees who plan to return. And that’s the best endorsement for future Dimensions conferences—so take a look at some of the feedback Trimble has received:

“Trimble did an amazing job with the Dimensions conference. We were impressed with the event's international scope, both in the attendees and the unique technical presentations from around the world. It was well worth our time and investment.” —Prof. Gao Zhendong and Dr. Lou of Wuhan University, China “Trimble Dimensions 2007 was a successful and well-organized event. The range of topics was broad and covered all survey applications. Partners Pavilion exhibits provided information about the latest technological developments in equipment and applications and showed where the "future of survey" is head-ing. I made many new contacts and have maintained them since the conference. I would definitely attend again!”

—Juergen Weber, Managing Partner, IU Plan GmbH Consulting Engineers, Germany

“I consider Dimensions the best training opportunity available. Trimble's commitment to having the people who "build" the prod-ucts available is invaluable to me as a user. The presentations are

fantastic; it’s great to listen to those who are using the products to their limit. Networking with Trimble employees is very valuable to me and client networking opportunities are plentiful.”

—Tom Ruby, PLS, GPS Survey Manager, J-U-B ENGINEERS, Inc., U.S.

“Dimensions was extremely informative, particularly in the areas of software development, hardware development and the Connected Site. Leighton Contractors is a major user of Trimble products and it was great to see that Trimble is moving towards the future with survey and construction-based software and hardware. I will certainly be recommending to anyone using Trimble products that they attend the next Dimensions in 2009.”

—Brad Chambers, Acting Survey Manager, Leighton Contractors PTY LTD, Australia

Now the basics of the event—and more attendee feed-back: Held November 5-7 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Dimension’s theme—Transform Your Business with the Connected Site—provided insight into how surveying, engineering, construction, mapping and geospatial professionals can apply process integra-tion, positioning and communication technologies to streamline processes and improve profitability.

“Trimble Dimensions is the one conference I look forward to each year. I learn more than at any other conference. This past year I appreciated the increased focus on mapping and GIS, which benefits those of us who utilize both surveying and MGIS solutions.”

—Matthew C. Shellenberger, P.E., Sr. Engineer, American Electric Power (AEP), U.S.

More than 2,500 people from over 50 countries learned how building a connected site allows businesses to

Trimble Dimensions 2007


incorporate seamless workflows, reduce rework and maximize productivity. The more than 300 sessions across multiple tracks focused on increasing productivity in field and office.

“Dimensions’ technical instruction sessions were very helpful—after the conference we were able to directly apply the knowledge we gained for immediate cost savings! The executive track provided valuable business insight on the use of technology at the corporate level and the popular panel discussions involved the audience and provided a forum to express questions/comments.”

—Devin Kowbuz, Chad McFadden, Senior Project Managers, Flatirons, Inc. Surveying, Engineering and Geomatics, U.S.

Keynote speakers included Trimble president and CEO Steven W. Berglund, who spoke of the practical benefits of integrating the Connected Site approach; explorer, Mt. Everest climber and author Peter Hillary, who balanced his exciting adventure stories with input on how to develop skills valuable in any field; Daniel Burrus, founder and CEO of Burrus Research Associates and international best-selling Technotrends® author, who spoke on capitalizing on the next wave of technological change; and Dr. Robert Ballard, legendary explorer and discoverer of the Titanic, who talked about discovering the shipwreck, the advanced technology used, and what’s ahead for the future in deep sea exploration.

“The most valuable part of Trimble Dimensions 2007 were the keynote speakers, all very informative, well prepared and with motivating messages.”

—Kyle Rich, Party Chief, Otter Tail Power Company, U.S.

The Partners Pavilion showcased Trimble construction, survey, engineering, aerial and mobile mapping, GIS and infrastructure solutions, including products from Applanix, INPHO, Meridian Systems, Pacific Crest, Quantm, Tripod Data Systems (TDS) and XYZ Solutions.

“Another great conference—I will never miss one!!! For me, crossing the surveyor and photogrammetry worlds by having Applanix's user group at the same time makes it even more worthwhile.”

—Jim Peterson, PE, PLS, Vice President, Sanborn Map, U.S.

Highlighted solutions and technologies included GNSS; total stations; field computing and data collection; 3D scanning; pre-design construction planning; 3D visualization; construction project management; aerial mapping; wireless communications; data transfer; and field and office software applications.

“The biggest benefit of Dimensions was seeing Trimble products used in different applications than I am used to. This has given me ideas about future projects and how Trimble technology would benefit them.”

—Mark Hannam, Surveyor, INB HUB Alliance, Australia

Other technology providers who are Trimble partners participated to extend the conference’s range of products and applications. Sixteen sponsors also participated in the event.

"Trimble Dimensions was a great event, both on the educa-tional and networking levels; attendees were able to exchange information and develop personal relationship globally and regionally. The Las Vegas venue was unique and fun."

—Prof. Yun Soo Choi, Dept. of Geoinformatics, University of Seoul, Korea

Trimble Dimensions 2009 will be held in February in Las Vegas. See Trimble website for more information.

“Dimensions reinforced my belief that Trimble is the only manufacturer making a real effort to supply the surveying and civil engineering industries with real solutions to manage the juggernaut of technology.”

—Byron Watkins, Survey Data Manager, Survey & Technology Applications, Thiess, Australia

Photo ContestEnter Trimble’s Technology&more

Photo Contest!

The winners of the Trimble Photo Contest receive Trimble prizes and the photos are published in Technology&more. This issue’s first place winner is the Garzweiler mine shot submitted by Thomas Keulertz. Honorable mention winners are published on pages 22-23. Send your photo at 300 dpi resolution (10 x 15 cm or 4 x 6 in) to [email protected]. Make sure you include your name, title and contact information.

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Revista Technology & More -Surveying and Mapping- 2008-1

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