United States Department of Transportation
i
Best practices of MDOT's survey operation, organization and technology implementation.
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2012-05-01
[PDF-8.48 MB]
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Abstract:A critical activity performed by employees of the Mississippi Department of Transportation is surveying.
Surveying in some instances needs to be performed in hazardous environments such as rugged terrain and
high-speed traffic. New surveying technologies (i.e.: Global Positioning System) are increasingly being
adopted by surveying units of departments of transportation around the nation, because it has demonstrated
increased efficiency and cost savings in topographical surveys [Uddin 2008, Hall 2006, Krugler, 2006,
NCHRP2004, MDOT2002].
MDOT employees use a wide range of surveying methods and technologies throughout the state. Surveying
operations vary within MDOT from manual conventional surveying technology requiring large numbers of
field personnel to GPS and robotic technologies that are faster and require fewer employees to deploy. The
technology, methodology, standards, quality controls and delivered results of these surveying operations
need to be catalogued and evaluated to determine the best operational approach to use for the range of
surveying operations employed by MDOT.
In addition, surveying at the district level within MDOT is organized in many different ways. For
example, in some districts surveying teams are centralized with most jobs filled by the main office while in
other districts surveying tasks are spread among numerous field offices. These organizational strategies
need to be studied to determine the most efficient organizational model/process for MDOT surveying
operations.
Some MDOT locations have embraced modern surveying technologies such as GPS RTK systems, robotic
total stations, automated field data collection and CADD modeling procedures with great success. Others
have been slower to adopt the newest technology and have had less success in field deployment. A study is
needed to determine the best adoption strategies including potentially targeted training, field demonstration,
new equipment, phase in strategy and computerized work flow for most effectively rolling out new
surveying technologies (ex: GPS) to all MDOT districts.
The overall goal of this project was to evaluate the surveying processes throughout MDOT to move toward
providing electronic 3D surveys, improve accuracy and increase efficiency in MDOT survey efforts. This
goal was achieved by targeting each district office to determine: (1) Best operational approach to use a
range of surveying technologies, (2) Most effective organizational model/process to best utilize the newest
surveying technologies; and (3) Best roll-out strategy which will help MDOT districts move to the most
efficient surveying technology.
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