Headwaters Highlights: Surveyors measure a thousand times, take
Tom Schad, a survey technician with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District, carries a GPS survey unit during a survey at the Johnstown Local Flood-Protection Project in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Feb. 21, 2024. Surveyors use advanced scanning equipment to collect thousands of measurements and datapoints to produce digital images with accuracy down to the millimeter. The SX-10 LiDAR Scanner captures images along with hundreds of thousands of survey shots and combines the points and images into a 3D "point cloud.” The Pittsburgh District uses the work provided by surveyors to inform all sorts of projects dealing with real estate, engineering design, maintenance, construction and more. The Johnstown Local Flood Protection Project consists of 8.8 miles of concrete stream channel improvements built by the Pittsburgh District along the Conemaugh, Little Conemaugh and Stonycreek rivers between 1938 and 1943. The project protects the city of Johnstown from river overflows. The Pittsburgh District will use the data collected by the surveyors to determine how much debris needs to be removed from the rivers to keep the protection project operating as designed. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District photo by Michel Sauret)