Flatirons, Inc.

ROCKY FLATS ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY SITE CLOSURE PROJECT

Jefferson County, Colorado

Flatirons, Inc. was contracted to be the site surveyor for the Rocky Flats Closure project located in Jefferson County, Colorado.   The project consisted of drainage channel construction, utility systems disposition, building demolition, and environmental remediation for a former U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons production facility.  The project site consisted of an industrial area approximately 1.5 square miles surround by a buffer zone of approximately 4.5 square miles. The scope of the project was quite large and included creating a site wide control network, corridor surveys of and construction of functional drainage channels, sample locating, site grading, utility line locating, capping a landfill, constructing a dam, topographic surveying, preparing parcel and legal descriptions, drafting, and creating and updating a site geographic information system (GIS) of survey data. 

Flatirons, Inc. prepared a full topographic survey utilizing both GPS and robotic total stations of five corridors for purposes of designing functional drainage channels.  The channels were designed by site engineers and then laid out for construction by Flatirons, Inc., in addition to final as-built surveys and drafted deliverables. The scope of the topographic survey was primarily a 400-foot corridor with cross sections done at a minimum of 25’ intervals for approximately 8 miles.  

 Flatirons, Inc was responsible for building digital terrain models used for the purposes of site grading for final land configuration as well as the disposition of utility lines for 36 systems. As these lines were tracked in the field survey calculations were made using real time kinematic (RTK) GPS systems to determine the necessity of disposition. The information was entered daily into a site wide GIS for Project Managers to review using ArcIMS. The ability to review data real time was essential for tracking project progress and maintaining constrained project schedules. 

As well, Flatirons, Inc. was responsible for preparing legal descriptions, topographic exhibits, and parcel maps of site landfills. This large project involved daily fieldwork by 6 field crews, a draftsman, a project manager, and survey manager. The complexity of tasks required daily meeting with project management, weekend work, long hours, and cohesive teamwork with multiple companies and federal regulatory agencies.