A Big Data Mess: Surveying Multiple Lines in the Same Trench
Everyone’s been there. You’re running a project with three lines going through the same right of way. It’s really efficient, because you can string everything at once, trench it all at once, collect the as-built all at once and backfill it all together. Everything is peachy until the data nerds start to do their work back in the office. And that’s when the problems and the complaints start to arise.
Three identical Connect The Dots puzzles overlaid on each other. This is a mess!
It’s because the as-built survey data was collected all at once, with no way to organize it by line. There seems to be a common assumption that this data can be organized back in the office, but that’s easier said than done. Actually it’s incredibly difficult. And when I say “difficult” I mean time-consuming and prone to lots of errors. It would be like overlaying three Connect-The-Dot puzzles on each other and offsetting them each by an inch. And the three puzzles are similar, but not identical. But the “Dots” you are supposed to connect are in an Excel spreadsheet, not drawn on a piece of paper.
What this results in is a massive delay in everything associated with that data. Data QA/QC is delayed. Alignment sheets are delayed. Reporting is delayed. Ultimately the project schedule is impacted, sometimes devastatingly so.
Organize
The easy way to solve this problem, like most data-related problems, is to organize things before you collect the data. We need to know which line every single shot belongs to. If we know this, we can easily sort the data out in the office. We can actually sort it out within a few seconds, instead of days or weeks.
The simplest way to organize the data is to add a Line ID attribute to every single survey code. This Line ID should be a Menu, and the menu should contain the names or the unique IDs of the lines in the trench. There are two important details:
With some way to differentiate from each other, completing the puzzles become manageable.
You must add this attribute to every single code that pertains to the line. Adding it to only the Welds or Joins will still result in days or weeks of clean-up in the office. Add Line ID to every single code that pertains to the line. This means any material, weld, or component that is attached to the line. Do not add it to crossing codes, or codes like Culvert, Fence, or Structure.
You must make it Required. If you add it, but only half of the shots have it populated then you will still have weeks of clean up in the office.
Adding this attribute is easy. You can add it through Trimble Business Center. Or if you have DASH, we have just added a feature called Global Attribute. This feature lets you add an attribute, like Line ID, to every code. Then you can export an .fxl file to load onto the Trimble devices.
An Alternate Solution
There is another solution, other than using a Line ID attribute. The other solution is to have a surveyor out there collecting data for every line, on a different device. I don’t think you’ll find a customer who will pay for triple surveyors though. So, let’s just organize our data before we collect it, and everyone will be happy.
Want to see what the picture actually is? Here’s the final image!
