What is historic preservation? Preservation is often used as a broad term for saving old buildings. It is preserving and protecting structures and landscapes that embody elements of a time or place in history.  What makes a building historic and why do we care? Typically, buildings need to be at least 50 years old to […]

It was Christmas of 2015. In the midst of hanging garland and ornaments, my sister called. “Can you look into drones? I’d like to get one for Dad, but I don’t know anything about them” she said. Being her brother, and possibly being the name she’d drawn for the sibling gift exchange, I was more […]

It was Easter Sunday of 1984. The Detroit Tigers were on their way to a historic 35-5 start, and my dad surprised me with a Kmart blue light special Huffy bicycle, the Superman version if I remember correctly. Out to the front yard we went, both of us eager to accomplish this rite of passage. […]

In early august, the City of Roseville detected an anomaly in their water consumption. On August 6, 2020 there appeared to be a significant increase in the City’s flow rate. The below graph illustrates how the City’s daily pattern of water consumption shifted upwards by approximately 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD). For perspective, the […]

Part 3 of 3 In the first two articles of this series of three, we have established that there would be error in the surveys. Regardless of the skill and care of the surveyor, error would accrue from the following sources: Environmental conditions. Instrument limitations. Creating square townships on a spherical surface. It was understood […]

Knowledge is power, as the saying goes. GIS, as a whole, is one giant knowledge base. Whether it’s sewer and water main information, property ownership data, or even aerial imagery and LIDAR, a plethora of import decisions can be made by analyzing the GIS. However, depending on the decision being made and the sensitivity of […]

On February 17th, 1815, the War of 1812 ended with the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent. The United States had defeated Great Britain. The treaty included, among other issues, the transfer of British held lands to the United States, opening up the western lands to expansion. The United States became a land-rich nation, which […]

In recent years, asset management has become a very popular discipline in the public works community. Simply put, asset management revolves around the optimizing of resources. In the public works realm, finances are finite. It is important to know that monies are being spent in the most responsible and well thought out way possible. Identifying […]

You have the wife and kids packed into the station wagon. It’s a nice fall day, and you are out for a drive. The wife is reminding you that when you get home, the trash needs taking out, the lawn needs mowing, the windows need cleaning, and on and on. In the back seat, the […]

We learn something new about Coronavirus on what seems like a daily basis. This was especially true back in early March. There was so much uncertainty surrounding the pandemic that all of a sudden everything was either shut down or cancelled. During the early stages, before workplaces were ordered to close, we wondered what type […]

It can be very overwhelming to try to follow all the news on the Corona virus. What is known about the virus and its long-term effects advance daily, but one thing is for sure: everything is changing. Many aspects of everyday life have already changed for most of us, and modifications will need to occur […]

Replacing your local road might not seem like much of task. It may look like the alignment of the road didn’t change at all or it may look like the new road was just put back exactly where it was before. When a road is replaced, some of the most significant geometric changes to the […]