A team of dedicated volunteers, including AEW GIS Specialist and Historian Anthony Kowalchick, worked for the past six years with the Michigan Historical Center to achieve the new marker that serves to preserve the history and generosity of Elizabeth and…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
My GIS colleague, Jeff Miller, wrote a great article titled “Demystifying GIS.” His article stated that he is in the business of making maps. He does make maps and they are awesome, or as we like to say, “AEWsome.” I…
Allow me to give you a glimpse into a conversation that I and many of my GIS colleagues have had when discussing what we do for a living with a new acquaintance.“So what do you do?”“I’m in the GIS department…
July, 2020 Many changes have occurred in our office in the past year. AEW is undergoing a complete interior renovation. Since we were still occupying the building (prior to Stay Home Stay Safe orders[1]) the renovations needed to happen in…
June, 2020 I love tools. I always have. I am lucky to have been married for 38 years, and it has all been great, except for one thing. The Bridal Shower. The blushing bride gets all sorts of cool kitchen…
June, 2020 What people think architects do When talking about architects, most people imagine a circle-framed glasses wearing, Frank Lloyd Wright-esk designer, sketching out designs on napkins. These designs are pure works of art that someone else will have to…
June, 2020 Ah, the old pen and pad. For years the gold standard when it came to recording quantities and jotting down field notes that would eventually find their way to the GIS database, the medium certainly served its purpose.…
May, 2020 Most of us who live in the Metro Detroit area enjoy the convenience of clean, reliable drinking water at the turn of a faucet. The local municipalities that we live and work in deliver water to our plumbing…
May, 2020 Welcome to Inside AEW – a blog created by our very own team members to pull back the curtain on the intricate world behind the many projects we complete on behalf of our clients. From paving a road…
Have you ever wondered who’s held responsible for the drinking water in your community? The simple answer is, a water operator! Safe Drinking Water Act, PA 399, declares that a water works system shall be under the supervision of an…
Gary Leideker and Fred Huysentruyt reviewing some plans in the early 1970’s. Way back in the 1960s, Warren Anderson, known to acquaintances as “Andy,” had thoughts of beginning his own engineering firm, but it was a somewhat daunting task. He…
Potholes are damaging motorist’s tires, wheels and suspensions, with no relief in sight. From Wikipedia: The alkali–silica reaction (ASR), more commonly known as “concrete cancer”, is a swelling reaction that occurs over time in concrete between the highly alkaline cement…
AEW’s newest addition to our equipment stable includes two specially modified bicycles to facilitiate gathering Geographic Information Systems (GIS) datapoints in an urban environment. The bikes are outfitted with a GPS data collector and receiver, a device to mark already…