Kentucky

USACE Louisville contracted with SEAS to provide professional surveying, mapping and related services for the Rough River Lake and Mississinewa Lake Dams under Contract No.: W912QR-14-D-0027 task order No. 0010.

SEAS has completed two of three high precision topographic surveys at Rough River and Mississinewa Dams. All planimetric features were collected. SEAS utilized a FARO Focus 3D X330HD Terrestrial Laser Scanner for the data collection. The X330 can collect up to 976,000 points per second at a range of 307 meters. SEAS provided a control plan for each dam and the control points were surveyed by the Louisville District.

DATA COLLECTION: A survey plan and general layout was created before each field survey took place, with scanner positions and supplemental tie points, which was modified in the field to ensure survey coverage. The USACE set approximately 122 control points between the two sites. Approximately 90 temporary points were rough staked and occupied during the data collection. 2.0m range poles and bipods with custom 12” spheres on top were used for targets. Over 185 scans were taken to ensure overlapping coverage of the survey areas. Due to construction activities at Rough River Lake Dam, scan positions and temporary targets points had to be modified and surveyed on the fly to ensure data coverage and accuracy.

DATA PROCESSING: FARO’s SCENE software was used for processing and geo-referencing. Visible control point targets within each scan area were digitized. All the targets were located and registration was performed. This process is where the software will mathematically compare the digitized targets to a control point file to find matching control points. Once this process was completed and the scans were “referenced” to the control file it was checked graphically to look for any data gaps or obvious blunders. Upon completion of this QA/QC process the data was then exported to disk in the form of XYZ files. These files contain the XYZ coordinates of each data point along with their corresponding reflectivity reading and color values. Once the data was processed, Certainty 3D’s TopoDOT was used with Microstation for the feature extraction and creation of the digital terrain models (DTM). All features such as: edge of pavement, utilities, trees, buildings, sidewalks, fences, etc. were to be drawn.