The Survey Section is under the RI Department of Transportation, Transportation Development Division. Our mission is to provide program management, assistance, services, and systems for statewide surveying efforts.

• Perform Construction layout, geodetic, topographic and right of way surveys for the Department.
• Provide cost-effective, productive surveying system for department-wide use, by evaluating, developing, procuring, and installing new-technology systems.
• Empower employees with technical expertise, by conducting training classes to provide them with opportunities to enhance their level of preparedness and performance.
• Maintain 11 Survey Field Crews, equipped with geodetic GPS receivers, total stations, and data collectors.
• Maintain GPS DATA FROM Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS). The CORS/Reference Base Station is located in Providence R.I.
• Review Proposals of Surveying and Mapping Consultants.
• Responsible for disseminating Survey Information to Professional Land Surveyors, Civil Engineers, and the General Public pertaining to Highway Plats, Field Books, Legal Descriptions, and Geodetic Control Data.
• Maintain a Website to provide users a convenient source of Community Base Station GPS reference data downloads, and provide useful information for ALL users of GPS, both recreational and professional. It is intended for GPS-equipped surveyors (land, hydrographic, and engineering surveyors), and for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) developers who work with mapping.

Major Milestone-FY 2001

Procured Global Positioning System (GPS) Technology. The Procurement of GPS will set a concentrated effort to:

• Establish a continuously operating Geodetic GPS Base Station, which will be used by Engineering and Surveying Firms, to obtain geodetic data in Rhode Island. This will provide the public and Private sectors high accuracy control Survey with as few as two Receivers. The correction factor data will be available on the RIDOT Web site.
• Integrate GPS data acquisition with relational database and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology.
• Optimize the use of GPS in the Survey Section.
• Empower the Department's ability to create opportunities for greater federal agency joint development and use.
• Survey employees are without a doubt our greatest asset. The education and talents contained within our work force allows us to maintain the highest accuracy during the acquisition and administration of our surveying projects.
• Training is important to keep staff up-to-date with advances in technology and applications. This allows staff to develop technical expertise needed to maintain a highly qualified and motivated work force. During 2001, the following classes were held:

  Trimble GPS - GEO-EXPLORER III & Trimble GPS -PRO-XRS 12
  Trimble GPS - PPS- STATIC SURVEYING
  Trimble GPS - RTK-REAL TIME SURVEYING