Category Archives: Uncategorized

Degrove Awarded Contract with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Degrove has been awarded a fourth consecutive Indefinite Delivery Contract for Topographic and Hydrographic Surveying and Mapping Services to support the Jacksonville District and the USACE.

Degrove Ranked Top Survey Firm and Awarded Contract with City of Gainesville

Degrove Surveyors, Inc. was recently awarded its first continuing services contract with the City of Gainesville, Florida.  The City desired to secure a firm to provide surveying services for ongoing capital improvement projects with an emphasis on engineering design, topographic and right-of-way surveys, and land descriptions for conveyance.  After submitting our Statement of Qualifications and giving an oral presentation in response to the City’s RFQ, Degrove received the top-ranking score and was awarded the contract, which will have Degrove serving the City over the next five years. 

In addition, the City was also seeking to secure firms to provide engineering services.  Degrove is the surveying firm on the team of the top-ranked Water Resources engineering firm.

Degrove expanded from our Jacksonville headquarters in 2002, opening a second office in Gainesville.  After nearly a decade of serving north-central Florida through this office, we look forward to the opportunity to further develop a positive professional relationship with the City of Gainesville.

Duval County Beach Post Huricaine Matthew

While in the early stages of the Duval County Beach Nourishment Project being undertaken by the Corps and local governments, hurricane Matthew struck the coast. Before continuing the project, Degrove was tasked with providing a survey to assess the loss of beach sand. This survey was accomplished within two days. Based on the survey data the beach template was redesigned and construction has continued. 

Summer Haven River – Marineland

Degrove was retained by Turnbull Environmental, Inc. to support the reconstruction of the Summer Haven River and adjacent beach and dune system in southeastern St. Johns County, Florida between Marineland on the south and the Matanzas River on the north. Barrier island overwash has historically been a problem in Summer Haven, in 2008 Tropical Storm Fay produced an overwash and a breach at Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Range Monument 200 (R-200). The breach allowed sediment to eventually fill the river with beach sand in the vicinity of Summer Haven. From 2009 to 2010 a dry beach developed within the Summer Haven River, inhibiting the flow of the river from just east of the A1A Bridge to approximately monument R-203. As a result approximately 300,000 cy of sand that has been deposited in the river will be excavated and placed within the beach and dune fill template between monuments R-200 and R-208. An additional element to the project has been added as a result of the impact of Hurricane Matthew that occurred in October of 2016. Multiple breaches of the beach occurred, the largest of which is approximately 150-feet wide and 10-feet in depth. We have completed a survey of the breach to assist in plugging it. Hurricane Matthew has either cut off access to or destroyed many structures in Summer Haven.  We will be performing construction staking and surveys for measurement and payment, as well as topographic and hydrographic surveys for further design.

Degrove Awarded Continuing Services Contract with Gainesville Regional Utilities

Degrove Surveyors was recently awarded an annual-type, continuing services contract with Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) in Alachua County, Florida.  The contract will last for three years, with a possible renewal of a second three-year period, for a potential total of six years of service.  Degrove will be providing GRU with professional surveying and mapping services, as well as subsurface utility location, on an as-needed basis to support GRU projects.

Degrove is proud of our longstanding presence in Gainesville and Alachua County.  We look forward to continuing to develop a positive, professional relationship with Gainesville Regional Utilities.

Congratulations to Degrove Employee Neil Soule, S.I.T.

Degrove wishes recognize and congratulate employee Neil Soule for passing the Fundamentals of Surveying exam.  With this achievement, Mr. Soule becomes a Surveyor in Training (S.I.T.), and advances on his path to licensure as a Professional Surveyor and Mapper.  Mr. Soule is now working towards gaining his four years of survey experience, which by Florida law will allow him to apply to take the Principles of Surveying exam – the last hurdle to attaining a professional surveying license. 

Mr. Soule graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in geomatics in 2013.  Working for Degrove’s Gainesville office, he has already gained valuable experience in a variety of boundary and topographic projects for clients such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, and City of Gainesville.  Mr. Soule possesses a wide variety of skills and has proved himself a valuable asset to the Degrove team. 

Degrove Continues Survey Support for USACE/JAXPORT Efforts on Bartram Island – Duval County, FL

Bartram Island is a unique disposal area located in the St. Johns River, directly adjacent to the navigation channel and under the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge (commonly referred to as “Dames Point Bridge”) in Jacksonville.  The 760-acre island has been used for over 100 years as a disposal area for ongoing dredging projects at the port and within the navigation channel of the river.  While Bartram Island is owned by Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport), construction on the island has historically been managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Jacksonville District.

Since 2005, Degrove Surveyors has been providing ongoing, as-needed survey support in the five existing and active cells A, B, C, F, and G, which total over 550 acres.  The majority of the services provided have been Quantity Surveys to support progress payments to the contractor during construction.  To achieve these Quantity Surveys, Degrove has had to complete control, topographic, and hydrographic survey tasks.  The data from these tasks is used to create a digital terrain model (DTM).  The quantity of material excavated or placed is computed through volume calculations based on pre-excavation and post-excavation surveys.  These volumes are then provided to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Currently, Degrove is tasked with providing survey support to the Army Corps of Engineers in its 2.5 year project to the raise the dike elevation of Cell A from 34 feet to 55 feet.  This will substantially increase the capacity of Cell A, allowing Jaxport to dredge the St. Johns River to a depth that will allow the new and larger Panamax cargo ships access to the port facilities. 

In addition to Quantity Surveys, other survey services provided on Bartram Island have been As-built, Wetland Mitigation, and Construction Layout Surveys.

Pictured above: Degrove Project Manager Randy Tompkins meeting onsite with a member of the ACOE project management team.

Degrove field crew chief surveying on the south side of Bartram Island.  Dames Point Bridge and St. Johns River in background.

Degrove’s RTK base station on Bartram Island.  Dames Point Bridge in background.

Aerial imagery of Bartram Island with Cells labeled.

C. W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir Multibeam and Side Scan Survey

Degrove was tasked with completing multibeam and side scan surveys of the C. W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir. Coverage included the complete reservoir to 4 feet below the sonar head. The survey was completed utilizing a Reson 8125 high resolution multibeam sonar for swath bathymetry, an EdgeTech 4125 side scan sonar and a POS MV Surfmaster Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for motion correction and positioning. The RTK/GPS corrections were supplied by a Dual Frequency GPS receiver set on a nearby control point transmitting GPS corrections to the POS MV via cellular modem from the monument established by the control survey.
A patch test was performed prior to commencement of the survey to calibrate the system. Sound Velocity readings were taken periodically during the survey with an Odom Digibar to correct for speed of sound during processing. The horizontal and vertical system offsets were verified by checking in over a known control point while the boat was still on the trailer.
The survey requirements included the necessity for 25% overlap of swath data and 100% overlap for the side scan data. 
The hydrographic data was collected and processed with Hypack and Hysweep hydrographic software.

Amazon Distribution Center

The distribution center is anticipated to bring Jacksonville 1,500 jobs, the single largest jobs announcement in Jacksonville history and $200 million in capital investment. The $200 million facility will be located on a plot of land at the corner of Interstate 295 and Duval Road, according to project documents. The bulk of the site — 148 acres known as Broward Signature had been owned by Signature Land, while another 22 acres belonged to CRM Florida Properties LLC of Atlanta. Degrove has been involved in all phases of this project, including an ALTA/NSPS boundary survey, topographic, tree and construction layout surveys.
To make the site work, a 2,000-foot-long section of Pecan Park Road would need to be realigned, during which it would be turned into a four-lane road, according to details on the project included with the legislation.

Degrove Awarded Contract with the USACE

Degrove has been awarded a third consecutive Indefinite Delivery Contract for Topographic and Hydrographic Surveying and Mapping Services to support the Jacksonville District and the South Atlantic Division.