Severn Partnership wins Great Western Structures survey

The Severn Partnership and consulting engineers Parsons Brinckerhoff were selected to undertake a detailed survey of over 280 bridge and tunnels structures on the great Western main line (October 2009 to December 2009). This included the Severn Tunnel along with Box, Sodbury, Newport and Patchway Tunnels. All surveyed as 3D point clouds combined with high accuracy track geometry using our new GRP5000 system.

The Rail Engineer, March 2010 - Article on tunnel survey and kinematic laser scanning

Railway survey in Poland - Trako conference

Managing director Mark Combes paid a flying visit to Gdansk, Poland to publicise Severn Partnership survey capabilities on large scale mapping, high accuracy Pway survey and railway surveying in general.  Linking up with UKTI midlands who promote the Midlands Rail cluster of rail specialist companies.  Mark met up with key contacts at the PKP, along with some of our key clients such as Mott MacDonald, Atkins, Halcrow, and Jacobs.

Flood avoidance - The role of Geomatics

Severn Partnership played host to two local MPs, the TSA, EA and ESI to discuss the role of Geomatics in Flooding.  From left to right: Mark Fermor (MD at ESI - Groundwater & Environmental specialists), Owen Patterson (MP, North Shropshire), Philip Dunne (MP, Ludlow), Rory Stanbridge (Secretary General of TSA), Richard Bentley (Operations team leader at the EA).  Discussions ranges from Threshold levels to GNSS RTK survey, LIDAR, Photogrammetry, Shropshire groundwater scheme, modelling for flood risk management and EA asset survey. 

Richard Otto retires from Severn Partnership

Pictured from left to right: Nick Blenkarn, Richard Otto and Mark Combes.  Handing over a picture of Marguerite Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula by Ben Osbourne to mark Richard retiring from the Partnership.  Richard will be off to Antarctica this year and after that, he will be representing University College London to promote their Railgrid (Snake Maker) geodetic software.

2009 Karting Grand Prix

Renal race Karting was the venue for our 2009 grand prix. Burning rubber, screeching tyres and white knuckles all round - and that was just the drive from Shrewsbury. Honours of the day go to:

1st place: Jamie Price
2nd place: Richard Morgan
3rd place Darren Read

Bala Weekend - 40 years of Surveying

Partnership surveyors, family and friends got together for a Summer BBQ / Mountain biking (or carrying) / Kayaking at lake Bala this year to celebrate 40 years in Surveying for Director Richard Otto. The sun came out (for once this Summer) and even allowed a spot of creative engineering design using the world recognised technique of spaghetti and Jelly babies (see above !)

Rock face laser scanning

Surveyors Rollo Rigby and Ash Johnson have just completed detailed laser scanning of a cliff face to enable Geotechnical investigations and design. The project will prevent rock fall and 3D laser scanning is the perfect technique for fast and accurate 3D mapping of irregular rock faces. Deliverables include snapshot image visualisations, 3D animated fly-throughs, standard topo contour plans, cross sections and the source point cloud data. The point cloud data can be viewed using a free viewer (pointools).


For more information, call Nick Blenkarn on 0844 880 8247 (webenquiry@severnpartnership.co.uk)

Topographical Survey - Aberystwyth University

Robotic survey techniques have been used to speed up topographical surveying at Aberystwyth University. Surveyors were working 'one man' (or woman) with Trimble S6 and S8 total stations to produce accurate Topo survey plans.

UTX Monitoring movement on railway lines

Our monitoring teams were called up to install a series of targets the monitor movement or live railway lines during the drilling of an undertrack crossing (UTX) near Kidderminster. Our cost efficient monitoring solution can be used to give real time movement reports, calculate displacement in x,y,z, rail twist, track CANT and absolute level. Survey teams will monitor movement while the drilling takes place from a place of safety and without being affected by the zone of influence.

For more information, call our Survey Manager - Bob Hutchings (0844 880 8247) or e-mail webenquiry@severnpartnership.co.uk

E-Business Conference 2009

Severn partnership Director Nick Blenkarn was invited to speak at the 2009 E-Business conference arranged by the National Business to Business Centre (nb2bc). The talk entitled managing customer relationships in the real world covered innovative use of IT systems such as collaborative documents, opensource CRM and online customer feedback. Other speakers covered the themes of online marketing, use of social media, e-mail marketing and managing your sales pipeline.

2009 Dragonboat champions - 'The Severn Deadly Sinners'

The 'Severn Deadly Sinners' team from Severn Partnership entered the 2009 Dragonboat race on the River Severn in Shrewsbury - and WON !!!.
33 teams entered, racing over three heats with the six fastest times getting through to the major final, which we won with the fastest time of the day. Dress for the day was rather informal (Punks). Thanks to all the surveyors and friends of Severn Partnership who punked up and took part - aiming to raise over £1,200 for the Severn Hospice.

To add to our sponsorship, go to www.justgiving.com/severnpartnership

E-business support network, Prague

In May, Nick Blenkarn gave a presentation to the European Union E-Business support network (ebsn) in Prague. The conference was aimed at improving adoption of innovative IT systems, cloud based collaborative software and business planning tools. The talk gave examples of how Severn Partnership have utilised these developments to improve efficiency, manage staff scheduling and remote working.