The Kleingers Group has long believed in the importance of building better communities.

While we hope that those values come through on every project we work on, there are some projects of which we are particularly proud.

For the last several years, The Kleingers Group has worked with Habitat for Humanity Greater Cincinnati to survey properties donated to the group.

Specifically, once an individual has donated a piece of property to Habitat, our surveyors have volunteered to complete boundary and topographic surveys of the property, ensuring property lines are correct and no conflicts exist with the property.

Habitat then uses the information to build a new home or rehabilitate an existing home.

“This is one thing we can do to help the overall community by giving back,” said Director of Surveying Dave Cox.

This past year, surveyors have spent time at homes in Lockland, but have previously surveyed throughout the Greater Cincinnati area.

In addition to the time spent surveying, our surveyors have also given to their communities in a multitude of other ways, helping others to learn about the profession.

Several of our surveyors have spent time helping Cub Scouts earn their Engineering badges by helping them learn about what engineers, architects, and surveyors do.

Recently, Matt Habedank worked with the St. Dominic cub scout pack 483, showing them how to measure property lines with the robotic total station.

Among other things, Matt said he let the kids guess how far they were away from the instrument.

Most of them have never even heard of surveying, Matt said, and learning about it can be eye-opening.

Other surveyors have volunteered their engineering knowledge throughout the world. Randy has spent time on construction projects in Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru.

Regardless of how they choose to do it, The Kleingers Group is proud of our surveyors for helping to strengthen their communities and for sharing their knowledge and talents.

This week marks National Surveyors Week! Our 25 registered surveyors and technicians are a hardy bunch and have braved conditions ranging from freezing, sweltering, wet, muddy, buggy, smelly, claustrophobic, and itchy all in the name of accurate surveys and maps. This week we salute them!

This week is also about promoting the profession and educating others. With that in mind, we asked our surveyors about some of their favorite experiences.

1. how Do You Explain to Someone (who Knows Nothing About Survey) What It Is that You Do?

“We stand behind a ‘camera’ and take pictures!! 😉 We do such a multitude of things its often hard to describe, but mostly we give engineers a basis to begin their design by locating terrain and physical features and producing a drawing or map that they use to design with. As one of my former colleagues said “if it wasn’t for all the math and walking it would be pretty good job!” – Adam C.

“If I am talking to one of my friends about my job, I tell them I draw up plans of an area we surveyed or gather information of the owners of that lands we are doing work on.” – Adam I.

2. What Is the Weirdest Thing You Have Ever Surveyed/Scanned?

“I spent a lot of time at Rumpke landfill doing a multitude of surveying activities. Many times, they had us getting the height of the trash to make sure they weren’t going over the height allowed by the county. Other times they had us surveying existing and proposed gas lines as they would sell off the gas being produced underneath the trash.” – Randy

“While working for a company as a CO-OP, we had to survey a lime bed field with a ‘sled’ that had three prisms on it, which two people pulled back and forth along the bed.” – Adam I.

“We scanned the inside of a manhole (just last week) by lowering the scanner down the hole using a winch/tripod system that was designed and made by a couple of our former employees. I also staked grave markers at a cemetery one time, which was a little weird.” – Adam C.

3. What Is the Coolest Project You Have Ever Done?

“The coolest project that I worked on would have to be working on the Rockies Express Pipeline for three months in the field and about a month in the office.” – Adam I.

“While everything we do is ‘cool’, I remember on one occasion working in the field I had to get on a boat that took me out to a barge in the middle of the Ohio River. Once on the barge, I climbed up on the top of a pylon they had attached to a crane. The crane swung me out over the water and I had to have our instrument man on the shore line me up with where the pier needed to go so they could drive it into the bottom of the Ohio. These series of piers were being set for a conveyor system to load coal from the shore directly onto the barges.” – Randy

“I’m not sure what the ‘coolest’ would be but, I enjoy working on higher profile projects that require special attention to detail or creative solutions (Fountain Square, Dunnhumby, Cincinnati Premium Outlets come to mind – I’m sure there are others)” – Adam C.

4. What Is Your Favorite Part About Your Job?

“I guess it’s working with our surveying staff. We have a great group of surveyors who are tremendously talented and experienced, and have great attitudes. They care deeply about how we do things, and about TKG, which makes my job a whole lot easier! It’s cool to be able to see projects completed and know that you played a part in the process of building the project.” – Adam C.

“My favorite part of my job would be the variety of work that I could be doing from day to day.  One day in might be doing research at the courthouse or I could be mapping up a topographic survey for a large site.” – Adam I.

“I like that every job brings different challenges to think about and find solutions too.” – Randy

5. What Have You Done to Educate Students or Others About the Profession?

“I spent four years teaching survey calculations at Cincinnati State. I also worked with a local Boy Scout troop on survey equipment and maps.” – Randy

“I’ve worked with students at Cincinnati State conducting mock interviews to help them with job and co-op searches.” – Adam C.

6. Have You Participated in Any Volunteer Work Related to Survey?

“While not 100 percent survey related, but rather more engineering, I have been involved in a several construction projects in Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru (houses, churches, and schools).” – Randy

“We have completed several Boundary/Topographic and plot plan projects for Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity over the past several years. They are fairly “standard” surveying projects that we do pro bono to help out the greater community.” – Adam C.

Everyone knows buying in bulk can save you money.

Paving city streets may not be any different. Contractors tell us that one larger contract is more attractive than several smaller ones and can save the end-user money.

Unfortunately, many smaller municipalities can never reach the level required to achieve costs savings on their own.

This year, The Kleingers Group, in coordination with the Center for Local Government, will premier one of the first multi-jurisdictional pavement improvement plans, combining paving needs from three communities into one project.

The idea is that three communities—Silverton, Amberley Village, and Golf Manor—are more likely to attract a competitive bid and get better pricing with a combined request for the proposal than individually.

“The Center for Local Government exists to help local governments work together to achieve efficiencies.  We are always looking for innovative new methods of service delivery, and we are happy to be working to make this project a reality,” said T.J. White, Executive Director for the Center for Local Government

There are numerous benefits to the three communities working together. For starters, the communities can share small costs, such as printing and advertising, almost immediately. The cost of asphalt is cheaper when purchased in large quantities. Another real cost savings comes from transporting the very large paving equipment to the site. Since Silverton, Amberley Village, and Golf Manor are all neighboring communities, the contractor selected for the project will be able to transport equipment to the area once, completing the needed repairs in all three communities without incurring the cost of transporting equipment multiple times.

The result is an RFP that is more attractive to contractors and potentially cheaper for the communities involved.

The Kleingers Group has created combined bid documents previously. Last year, Kleingers coordinated two nearby improvement projects—one in Deer Park, one in Silverton—into one set of bid documents. Although the documents were created so they could be two individual sets, they were released as one document, producing a more attractive package for contractors and creating more competition.

Following that success, The Center for Local Government approached the Kleingers Group to discuss additional ways to help create coordination between local governments and began exploring multi-jurisdictional pavement improvements.

The Kleingers Group participated in a series of meetings to examine the possibility, bringing Silverton, Amberley Village, and Golf Manor on board.

As a result of the meetings, an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) was drafted between the three communities agreeing that Silverton will hold the contract with the roadway contractor for work to be done in all three of the communities and will be reimbursed by the other two communities for the costs. While Silverton will hold the contract and administer the construction, each community will prepare its own plans, have its own inspector, and approve the work completed.

The Kleingers Group and each of the three communities ensured their paving projects were as homogenous as possible. This coordination included using standard Ohio Department of Transportation asphalt mixes, consistent special provisions, and material testing standards. The result is the contractor doesn’t have to use a different set of standards in each community, which would have increased costs.

Moving forward, The Kleingers Group hopes to not only add communities to the Silverton/Amberley Village/Golf Manor paving program but also look at working with other Southern Ohio communities to cluster their paving programs.

Silverton Mayor John A. Smith emphasized the need to share services and cooperate with neighboring jurisdictions, even as Silverton retains its own identity.

“Our residents have told us clearly:  we don’t want to merge with another community and lose Silverton’s identity and self-governance.  For Silverton, partnering with neighbors like Deer Park and Amberley Village has always been a priority.  Today, though, it is essential. We have found even more ways to pool our resources and cooperate.  Paradoxically, it is only by working together on projects like this that we can preserve our communities and determine for ourselves how to self-govern,” he said.

Construction documents for the project will be sold on March 9 and bids will be opened on March 23.