Three dimensional work at Swiss Cottage in London

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Aug 9, 2005

Survey Systems has been carrying out some extensive three dimensional work at a complex site at Swiss Cottage in London.

Survey Systems, one of the UK's largest independent surveying company, has been carrying out some extensive three dimensional work at a complex site at Swiss Cottage in London.

The work, which involved liaising with three different parties on site, started in May 2003 for McArdle Construction, when initial survey work was carried out prior to demolition and site excavation.

One of the more interesting elements in the early part of this particular contract was the rigorous pre-defined monitoring programme of the adjacent building, a listed building.

The new construction was to be built right up to the adjacent foundations and the local council were keen that no damage be done to the library.

At an early stage Survey Systems was responsible for regular re-establishing of site control networks.

This involved setting out control stations and then frequently re-establishing them to ensure the site was accurate.

Grid lines and datums were also set out at this stage so that the trades on site could take account of absolute height measurements.

One of the main problems with any site is that where a building is designed to be built and where it actually ends up are two very different things.

Survey Systems carried out interval 'as builts' to assess where things were on site versus the original plans.

This general quantification of the construction environment was continued as the job progressed.

The work was handed over to Ardmore Construction who completed the ground beam before handing over to Barratts to complete the visible construction.

It is now nearing completion and Survey Systems is continually revisiting the site to help out the under-resourced site engineers for Barratt West London.

Survey Systems is able to bring some very niche skills to this particular type of work.

Because of the training surveyors receive, they are able to work using three dimensions as a complete methodology.

"Because of our familiarity with co-ordinate systems and their flexibility, coupled with our ability to manipulate drawings in AutoCAD on site in real time, we are able to get things done that construction engineers only dream of being able to do," comments Martin Penney of Survey Systems.