on Friday, September 28, 2007 - 11:08 AM GMT Posted by : Admin
Survey techniques have come a long way. One of the most reliable and now seemingly underused concepts is that of boning rods. Standard General Construction use Boning Rods all the time.
Boning Rods were good enough for the Egyptians. Some of their construction still stands today and they did it with simple slopes and gradients. The principals are sound and very cost effective in short term results and long term training and retention of key Grademen.
The basic concept is line of sight. If you have three or even two people with good eyesight on your crew then boning rods are the way to go. So throw out that laser level and sign up for a course on boning rods with a company that uses them.
I'll give you a quick primer. For example your building a Tank Pad at Suncor or Jackpine sites. Typically, this would consist of numerous levels of aggregate or fill placed in lifts accompanied by geotechnical support material between the intervals. What you have is a large diameter circle. How would you use boning rods instead of a laser to bring the tank pad to grade or why would you.
Survey would come and plot out the center of the pad and also points along the outside. They could even give survey shots inside the circle if they wanted to. The more points of reference for boning rods the better. It only requires two points of known reference to utilize them.
Once you have your points surveyed all you need to do is place the bottom of the fixed rails on those points and look across at the other fixed rod through the adjustable rod to realize your plus or minus elevation. The complicated part is making the adjustment to the middle boning rod.
So you have a crew of three boning the tank. The worker in the middle just stands there and will call out all the grades. The guy in the middle will carry the adjustable rod and a can of spray paint. The other guy verifies the line of sight calls made by the first guy. The worker in the middle then writes the deviation on the ground with spray paint so the Finish Grader Operator can see how much to cut or fill and by doing so defines a good Finish Grader Operator and Grademen.
That definition could also be supported by a Grademan running the laser level making grade marks with paint or giving hand signals. The use of laser receptor mounted on a Motor Grader also helps to define a task that is on grade. A good visual overview of high and low spots for the task is important at the outset.
I'm sure you can configure your boning rods to be more precise but for rough dirt work for a large diameter tank pad the tolerance is something like +/- 2 inches. Also the use of boning rods gives your ground people something to do and serves to find those interested in basic survey. From there these individuals frequently go on to other paths associated with survey like Civil Engineering.
on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 07:00 AM GMT Posted by : TiMax
Canadian Oil and Gas Business Cards are a great way to advertise your Oil and Gas Business. New and old business cards are always welcome. Interesting news and stories are also welcomed.
