Serving Your Professional Surveying & Mapping Needs
Portsmouth Middle School
In 2010 Doucet Survey performed a complete boundary and topographic survey of the Portsmouth Middle School and adjacent Alumni Field. The objective was to provide the School Department’s Architect and Civil Engineer with a base drawing suitable for the design of a 130,000 square foot expansion to the 80 year old facility. The research proved to be challenging, and required extensive review of County and Municipal records. In order to fully understand the history of the area and the origination of the property lines, we needed to examine probate records from the late 1700’s, including a plan of the Estate of Sarah Jeffries drawn in 1795. City Clerks records were reviewed back into the 1800’s relative to roadway right-of-way locations and widths. Our field survey was tied into the NH State Plane coordinate system and included detailed data on the existing site improvements including buildings, utilities, parking areas, etc. Upon the completion of the design, Doucet Survey was retained by the General Contractor to furnish as-needed construction related surveying services. To date, we have staked out hundreds of Geopier locations, established horizontal & vertical site control, monitored settlement plates for analysis by Geotechnical Engineers, provided layout for steel crews, and staked out roadway centerlines and curb lines for adjacent roadway improvements.
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Lonza Biologics, Portsmouth, NH
Estimated $250 million construction project.
Site layout for rough excavation began in Spring of 2007. Since then we have laid out column lines for steel erection with 1/8” accuracy, provided anchor bolt As-Built Plans and provided vertical control on the multiple floors of the expansion. During the peak of construction we often had a crew on-site four days a week. On projects of this magnitude we find it imperative to use one main field crew and one project manager to simplify coordination with clients.
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Thule Air Force Base, Thule Greenland Delong Pier Restoration Project
Air Force Base, 1,000 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle on Greenland’s west coast. Detailed project preplanning was essential due to time limitations and unique adverse weather conditions. We coordinated with the Danish Space Center, the operators of the continual operating reference station (CORS) as required, as other control points offered little stability due to permafrost and glacial rebound. Onsite we provided control quickly so that Bathymetric mapping could commence. Using RTK we were able to gather topographic data and set control points for future monitoring and layout.
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Westbrook Plaza, Portland, ME - ALTA/ACSM - Land Title Survey
Our project in Portland is one of many ALTA’s that we have completed throughout New England. More than two years of effort towards the latest revision of the Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys resulted in the current 2005 standards. Included is the standard “short-form” certificate to lenders. Often as surveyors we are asked to sign certificates that contain unnecessary redundancies, express guarantees and warranties. For example “there are no encroachments across property lines”. Our obligation is to essentially identify and show potential encroachments. Whether or not something is, in fact truly an encroachment is a matter of law, not a matter of survey. Taking the time to review the short-form with the lender’s attorney we can show that either the item being requested is already covered in the standards or it cannot be honestly certified to by the surveyor. For a copy of the current standards visit the following link - http://www.acsm.net/ALTA2005.pdf
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Popov Conservation of Great Cove, Durham, NH - for The Nature Conservancy
We have completed over 75 separate surveys (more than 4,000 acres in total) of conservation land throughout New Hampshire, none more satisfying than the Popov project. For many years Mr. Popov would take the time to stop in our office to chat and offer some tidbits of wisdom. Starting with a chain of title from John Smith in 1833 we were able to fill gaps in research and physical evidence between other projects we had done in the area. Thanks to efforts of the Popov family and The Nature Conservancy (agent of Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership) 79 acres including nearly 2,000 feet of Great Bay shoreline is protected.
Popov Waterfront Easement Plan
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Little Squam Lake, Holderness, NH
Careful survey of shore front property is increasingly important with the pending revisions to the NH Comprehensive Shoreline Protection Act. effective April 1, 2006 (pending much debate at senate level). In a nutshell most all work within 250 feet from the shoreland will requires a formal permit from the NH DES Shoreland Division. Although we do these surveys in all seasons it was a treat be in this beautiful place in September. This project was for replacement and expansion of a dock. Our area of topographic survey extended from 75 feet above the reference line out to 4.5 feet water depth. For a summary of the NH CSPA visit http://www.des.state.nh.us/cspa/pdf/CSPA_StandardsSummary.pdf
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Bellamy River Dam, Madbury, NH
This project was performed in conjunction with a prior survey by Doucet Survey, Inc. as part of an upgrade to the City of Portsmouth's Water Treatment Plant located in Madbury. Detailed topographic survey was required on the 7-acre area surrounding the massive 300' long concrete dam structure. In addition to topography, right of way determination was involved to ensure any design was within the limits of the parcel. Survey-Grade GPS was used on this site for determining NH State Plane Coordinates. This method makes it possible to determine the distance from the dam to the water treatment plant within a couple feet. This information is helpful to the design engineers in terms of flowage rate.
