TxDOT Committee Report
Texas Society of Professional Surveyors
COMMITTEE ACTIVITY REPORT
TSPS Strategic Planning Goals from August 12 & 13, 2004
1. Get a requirement for all technicians on TxDOT projects to be certified.
2. Get a RPLS on staff in each TxDOT District.
3. Get a requirement for TSPS standards on all work order.
The Texas Department of Transportation’s Standing Committee On Surveying (SCOS) met on Thursday, November 5, 2004. The following are some highlights of that Meeting.
The rules for pre-certification of RPLS’s to do TxDOT work are being reviewed with possible changes in the near future. Another problem area is the tracking of firms to assure that pre-certified RPLS is on staff or to know when there is no longer an RPLS on staff. Pre-certification for LSLS’s was also cover in a discussion. The revised chapters of the TxDOT Survey Guide are in PDF format on TxDOT’s intranet for review and commit. CSJ numbers for function 130 and 150 are different. Matt Bryant the ISD GPS guru gave a brief discussion on the efforts to get a Virtual Reference Station in operation in all twenty-five districts. 9 VRS were under construction. Houston is going to have 7 VRS’s. The VRS’s in the Austin District are under going testing by McGray & McGray and SAM, Inc. Dean Wilkerson discussed surveying equipment list for purchasing new instruments. Some discussion was held on the replacement of SCOS member Mark Caldwell, who term expires in March 2005. The TSPS/TBPLS legislative process received some discussion. Changes to the SCOS charter were discussed. TxDOT Information Systems Division hosted the recent SDMS conference in Austin with about 40 representatives from state DOT’s around the country. The PS&E manual on microstation library for lines and cells is being reviewed. San Antonio district will present a Work Order Management System program at the next SCOS meeting. Program for the March TxDOT surveyor’s conference was discussed. It will be finalized in January, 2005.
The Texas Department of Transportation’s Standing Committee On Surveying (SCOS) met on Thursday, January 13, 2005. The program for the TxDOT Annual Surveyor’s Conference was finalized for Tuesday and Wednesday, March 29th & 30th at Omni Hotel in Austin. A new member of SCOS was selected (awaiting the District Engineer’s approval) to replace Mark Caldwell of the Atlanta District who’s term will expire in March. I presented the TSPS Strategic Planning Goals for TxDOT too strive for. They were as follows:
1. Get a requirement for all technicians on TxDOT projects to be certified.
2. Get a surveyor on staff in each district.
3. Get a requirement for TSPS standards on all work orders.
Number 2 has been discussed at various times over the years within SCOS. The kicker to this situation is that when new full time equitant(FTE) are allocated to each district and it is the District Engineer(DE) privilege to decide how the FTE are used. Most DE’s will take care of engineering needs first, the maintenance needs next.
Number 3 basically happens within the existing TxDOT Survey Guide.
The proposed bill by TSPS moving the TBPLS to the GLO was mentioned. I had been asked by a couple of TSPS members who are retired TxDOT district surveyor to ask if they could be invited to the March conference. The initial reaction was very negative, because most of the retired surveyors are working for TxDOT consulates. The issue was tabled until the next meeting in February.