Are you a Ghostbuster?
Are you a Ghostbuster ?, ….. a Tellytubby ?, ….... TV Licensing ?
These are just a few of the questions that the personnel from Pelorus are being asked by the residents of Birkenhead, and the Wirral as they cycle up and down every single road within the Borough Councils adopted highway network.
The reason for this? Pelorus have recently been awarded a GIS (Geographical Information Systems) data collection contract to position approximately 60,000 drainage gullies along 2100 km of the councils adopted highways. Our intrepid surveyors are using mountain bikes, Shanks's pony and differential GPS backpack systems (hence the Ghostbuster comments) to survey the position of all the drainage gullies on the Wirral.
The requirement for the survey is to record the position of each gully to an accuracy of within 1m relative to the Ordnance Survey National Grid. In addition to recording the position. The asset type i.e. whether it is a storm drain, drainage channel or footpath gully is also recorded along with a unique reference number. To do this, Pelorus is utilising two of its own Trimble and one Leica differential GPS systems. These differential systems are usually used to position vessels during hydrographic surveys or a pontoon with a drilling rig onboard so using them for GIS data collection is a new and developing market into which the Pelorus can make inroads.
The project is set to take 13 weeks to complete and has taken us into the new year. This could mean that 2003 may be the first year on record that new years resolutions about loosing weight and getting fit are kept for more that a week !!!
So far the majority of personnel within the survey department have been involved with this project and is a great use of our personnel generally involved with our marine surveys during the quieter winter periods. If anybody would like more details on this, spend a day cycling or find out more about the range of services and projects undertaken by Pelorus, the new name for the Land and Marine Survey Division, they should contact Mike Wilson on 01244 288200 or by email at mike.wilson@mesg.co.uk |
