Regional Joint Use Survey
Dominion Resources
An expansive project lasting nearly three years, Timmons Group provided GPS, GIS and Geospatial and consulting services to field locate and verify Dominion’s pole inventory and joint-use pole ownership in all common Dominion and Verizon service areas. Included in the survey were 625,000 Dominion-owned poles, 130,000 Verizon joint-use poles, for a combined total of approximately 330,000 joint-use power/telephone poles.

As a data collection application and quality-control measure, Timmons Group created an ArcGIS-based “joint-use collection tool” whereby surveyors performed in-field adjustment of GPS located poles to Dominion’s GIS Landbase. GIS and associated databases were provided to Dominion and Verizon on a weekly basis and were subject to stringent quality assurance standards for attribute and pole count accuracy.

For More on this Project, See our article in ESRI’s ArcNews.

TRADOC GPS Inventory and Electric Database Development
Dominion Resources
As an initiative of the Department of Defense Privatization Program, Dominion purchased all government-owned Training and Documentation (TRADOC) electrical facilities on both Forth Monroe and Fort Lee. Timmons Group provided GPS and GIS consulting services to Dominion for the field location, verification and conversion of TRADOC facilities into Dominion’s ESRI Based Geodatabase format.

Incorporating Dominion’s algorithm for assigning grid addresses to features such as underground facilities, utility poles and streetlights, Timmons Group developed a unique field collection application for the project. The application’s real-time field processes allowed surveyors to stencil structures while assigning grid addresses in a “one-pass” system, which brought substantial benefit to Dominion from a cost standpoint.

GPS Field Inventory of Water System
North Wales Water Authority, PA
The North Wales Water Authority contracted with Timmons Group to design, develop and implement an enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS). When completed, this ESRI – based GIS will support NWWA’s daily mapping, customer service, infrastructure management, and engineering planning / design work flows. As part of the Enterprise System Implementation Effort, Timmons Group GPS field personnel collected approximately 25,000 customer and 3,000 hydrant locations at meter level accuracy. The GPS collectible included field verified asset attributes for each feature.. The corrected GPS was utilized in support of the paper to digital conversion into and ESRI Geodatabase Water Model designed to manage NWWA’s facilities in an integrated Geospatial repository.

Utility Location Services and GIS Development
Dominion Virginia Power
Virginia Power contracted with Timmons Group to provide GPS and GIS services to field locate and verify joint use pole ownership in all common Virginia Power and GTE service areas. The survey consisted of approximately 55,000 joint-use poles. Approximately 165,000 total poles are located in the common service territory of Virginia Power and GTE. Timmons Group was tasked to identify and capture locations, attributes and ownership determinations of all GTE / Virginia Power joint-use poles statewide. Collected data is converted into ESRI Shapefile and Coverage formats, and specific attributes inventoried for each pole location are supplied to conform to Virginia Power’s existing GIS database standards. GIS and associated databases are provided to Virginia Power on a weekly basis and are subjected to stringent quality assurance standards for attribute and pole count accuracy.

Timmons Group field personnel utilize advanced Trimble Navigation ProXRS real time differential Global Positioning Systems (GPS) units to perform the pole inventory activities. Joint-use pole positional accuracies approach the 3-5 foot range without the need to post process information. Timmons Group also utilizes our GIS capabilities to manage joint-use pole inventories. Quality control and assurance maps are generated and provided by Timmons Group utilizing Virginia Power’s ESRI ArcStorm Landbase and utility inventories with overlaid joint use pole locations.

GPS Services for Stormwater Infrastructure
Loudoun County, Virginia
The Loudoun County Department of General Services is in the process of developing a regional stormwater management program to eliminate illicit discharges, maintain the infrastructure, minimize local flooding, and mitigate pollution from stormwater run-off. In support of these efforts, Timmons Group was retained to locate, identify and assess the County’s stormwater infrastructure throughout multiple urban / suburban areas of the County. To accomplish the program tasks, Timmons Group employed an integrated GIS / GPS solution that enabled the accurate “real-time” collection of stormwater facility data.

To ensure rapid and accurate collection of the stormwater infrastructure data, Timmons Group field crews were deployed with GIS / GPS field data collection solutions. Daily GIS / GPS files were processed and corrected for positional accuracies and then appended to the master project GIS Geodatabase.

Deploying the GIS “real-time” in the field enabled the capture of infrastructure location and condition information directly into the pre-established GIS data model. This approach leveraged the feature class and domain criteria established in the GIS data model; forced the use of valid features and attribute values and connectivity rules; and introduced an inherent level of “real-time” quality control.