New Technology Revives Stapleton Relic
(03/01/2006)
By Diana Murphy

M.A. Mortenson surveyors working on utility and infrastructure projects at Stapleton are riding high, thanks to an innovative approach that marries new technology with an old airport structure.

Though airplanes haven't landed on its runways in more than a decade, the air traffic control tower at Denver's former Stapleton International Airport is still seeing plenty of action.

Ever since crews from M.A. Mortenson outfitted the structure with a global positioning system, the tower has played a starring role in streamlining the significant amount of surveying that's taking place at the Stapleton redevelopment, the largest urban infill project in the nation.

Denver's M.A. Mortenson was selected to oversee infrastructure work at Stapleton in August 2000, with preconstruction beginning in April 2001.

"We're doing lots of utilities and bridges out there, and we built the interchange there at I-270 and Quebec and a very large tunnel under 270," said Mortenson Construction Executive Kerry O'Connell. "At Stapleton, we're into a lot of things we hadn't done too much of before."

The need for precise measurements in surveying is, of course, crucial. GPS, which Mortenson has been using for about five years, helps tremendously.

"The GPS we use bounces off Russian and American satellites and gives us measurements within plus or minus a quarter of an inch," O'Connell said. "The kind hikers use measures within about 120 ft."

Even so, given the size of the area under development at Stapleton - 4,700 acres, or about 7.5 sq miles - the work could be tedious and time consuming.

"When we first came out, we were setting up a base system on the ground every day and taking it down every night," O'Connell said. "The guys are sometimes covering two miles a day, using GPS six to seven days a week. We actually wore one out in a year and a half."

A new unit arrived, quickly followed by a classic "D'oh!" moment.

"One of the guys said, 'Why don't we put it at the top of the tower? We'd get better range and the tower's secure, so we could just leave it up there and not have to set it up and take it down every day?'" O'Connell recalled.

The idea made sense.

"When they closed the airport, they'd taken out all the utilities, so there was nothing up there except pigeons, so we ran some electricity and gave it a try," O'Connell said.

O'Connell's crews expected an increase in the GPS' range, but they were surprised by just how well it worked.

"We thought it would give us two or three miles range, but we've tested it all the way out to Golden with 85 percent accuracy," he said. "We could cover most of the metro area with it with a high degree of accuracy."

Armed with laptops equipped with GPS receivers and loaded with all the necessary drawings, "our surveyors can click on all these electronic lines on the screen, coordinate and go right to the point - a foot to the left or a foot to the right," O'Connell said. "We can take it all from the engineer's computer to the stake in the ground without ever touching a piece of paper."

Efficiency has also improved.

"One guy can set all the stakes for a massive earthwork site, over 200 acres, and it used to take two to three surveying guys," O'Connell said.

The GPS set-up also keeps others working at the various Stapleton sites on target.

"When any surveyor comes out here, we give them the frequency," he said. "Now we don't have to worry about subs going off different control points. They're all using the same control points."

So reliable is the tower's coverage that Mortenson is now using its GPS to shoot other sites throughout the metro Denver area, including the Colorado Rapids stadium under construction in Commerce City and the 800-acre, master-planned Meridian Village community south of Denver.

"They're expensive systems - they cost around $80,000 - but you get it back in six months or so," O'Connell said.

In fact, he noted, such set-ups are becoming downright trendy.

"A lot of municipalities are getting the idea to put these systems in high-rise buildings or mount them up on cell towers, and then license them to surveyors. It becomes a revenue source for the city."

Kerry O'Connell
Construction Executive
M.A. Mortenson
Education
B.S., construction management, Colorado State University, 1979

Project experience

• Stapleton Redevelopment, Denver, $150 million (CM only)
• Pepsi Center, Denver, $114 million
• Coors Field, Denver, $174 million
• Writer's Square, Denver, $20 million
• Denver International Airport - tenant finishes Concourse B, Denver, $90 million
• Eagle County Maintenance Facility, Eagle, $20 million
• The Westin Hotel, Vail, $11.8 million
• University of Denver Student Center, Denver, $7 million
• Dixon Paper Co., Denver, $9 million
  

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