Surveying for Electric Transmission Lines

Topographic has been providing land surveying services for the construction of electric transmission lines for more than thirty years. Although John Keating’s focus in the early years was providing surveying services to oil and gas companies, the offering of services expanded as his company matured. By 1975, Topographic was taking on the difficult surveying challenges of electric transmission line construction in the dense woods of east Texas. Our experienced surveyors and their crews were also tested in similar terrain in Louisiana.

As early as the late 1970’s, Topographic was working very hard to use new technology to do a better job of surveying for power line construction. In those days EDM’s (Electronic Distance Measuring devices) were just beginning to be used, and we used them to set project control and establish centerline PI’s. We also applied computer technology, digitizers, and USGS topographic maps to the problems created by the difficult conditions created by the hills and dense vegetation in east Texas and Louisiana. We used digitized coordinates from identifiable points on USGS topographic maps along with descriptions of land parcels to piece together the puzzle that was the land ownership of those projects. Those procedures are commonplace and expected today. In the late 1970’s, those procedures were cutting edge.

Today, our crews all use survey-grade GPS receivers, electronic data loggers, data dictionaries, total stations and other advanced equipment to perform their work. Knowing where you are in the world in relation to everything else is much easier today. However, the basic requirements of our customers are still very much the same. Our customers still need preliminary surveys to help them determine their route and ownership of the land. To design the power line and determine the placement of their towers, they still need accurate plan and profile sheets from us. Our customers still need to know whose property they are crossing, and they need very accurate descriptions of the right-of-way for each tract. They need signed and certified property plats showing those rights-of-way, and they need them on time. They need survey crews in the field for centerline staking and tower-site construction staking.

The plats we deliver to our customers have changed but not all that much. How we create those plats, with digital files from the field, COGO and CAD software in the office, has changed a lot. Using today’s technology, we are faster, more accurate, and more efficient both in the field and in the office.