The Survey Instrument

What type of survey instrument is the best?

In one of the project in Penang, I was informed by the Procurement Officer that the Senior Project Manager objected the purchase of a Auto plummet. When I asked her why he rejected the purchase, she told me that the instrument that I requested was not good and unsuitable for our job. Well, I got a shock and decided to question the purchasing officer on how tall a building has the Senior constructed,. A few day later she called me over the phone and mentioned the figure, 20 storey building.
Well, I told her that I have constructed the highest so far was a 33 storey. Not to be rude, I told her to check with the General Manager who at that time has built the highest in Penang, the 65 storey Komtar. and to request him to get the boss approval on the purchase of that instrument.

The following day she called and said that the boss has approved the purchase of that instrument. In our construction life, sometime we were lucky to have the opportunity to use good and sophisticated survey instrument and normally this will be subjected to the type of project we will be involved.

Type of instruments

Normal survey instrument : Auto level from brand like Wild, Topcon, Nikon and etc
Auto plummet : brand like Wild. so far the best for it has the Leica lens.
Total station : brand like Nikon, Wild, Topcon.
and recently ,most of the instrument are of Laser type now.

Are you a Surveyor?
Well, I am not but so happen I loved this subject, survey. When I was taking my external exam, I was offered to choose one paper out of six subjects and I sat for this 4 hours paper in MU ( University Malaya). But then this does not mean that I am good in survey . All of us in the construction sector will understand that having paper qualification does not help at all. As my present boss has mentioned to me in the car in Medan, all the new staff must be trained in the survey work. this is very truth.

Practical training.

I was very lucky for during my college training with Mitsui Jurutama JV project , I was involved with a flyover project and everyday I would be a chain man for my surveyor. Setting out all the field points so that we could determine the alignment of the flyover and also to lead the construction team in the daily works. Eventually, I managed to gain the confidence of my surveyor and he decided to teach me the instrumental work. The more you practice the better you are and eventually I managed to gain alot of confidence in my surveyor work.

On one fine day, I was approached by the consultant surveyor and he asked me to attend a Astronomy field survey. I attended the lesson but could not understand the theory side. He even copied a book on this topic for me which I kept it in my house till today. During this road works I managed to understand the important of Survey alignment and leveling.

How it help in all my future works.

With that basic knowledge , I started to set out for my first project in Iran, the 400kVa Substation.. but with the help of another Civil Engineer from MU. He is very hot temper but some how we just click and by the time he left for Singapore , I was already carrying out my field work for this whole project and not to forget under a very good Project Manager who guided me in work, study and even encouraging all the foreign skilled workers to teach me Mandarin.
After returning back to Penang, I set out the whole Equatorial hotel in my first job . That is my best achievement. Not to forget all the Building work together and also the Boss of EQ who taught me the application of survey in relation to Hotel construction.

Sometime when we thought that we were good in the survey work, we will be surprised that even a carpenter could be good in it too. "Do not judge a layman by it cover"



to be continue ..............tomorrow with some photo .