A River over a River in Germany

ImageHave you ever seen a Water Bridge over a river?
Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long....This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

Question:

Did the bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of a ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?

Answer:
It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water! A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

Precipitation Analysis from NOAA

ImageThe National Weather Service offers precipitation analysis on a daily basis for the United States. Although, not entirely accurate (the numbers undergo further quality control) it does give a good picture of the precipitation in a given area. The image map can zoom into Indiana, and the Noble County outline (an optional layer) can be turned on and off as needed.

URL: http://water.weather.gov/

In the download section ( http://water.weather.gov/download.php ) provides downloadable data for GIS systems.

Surveying Books Restored

ImageWe have taken delivery of our restored books and they look great! Boyce systems restored four books total including two illustrated historical atlases and some technical documents (field books from the late 1800's). They have been chemically treated to restore and preserve the pages, placed in UV protective mylar sheets, and rebound in a sturdy hard cover.

These restored books are available to the public during regular business hours (8am-4pm Monday - Friday). Feel free to stop by to inspect each book as you please. We highly recommend local historians, students, and surveyors get to know these valuable historical documents.

It’s All in the Meridian - an Overview of Meridian Lines

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By Gaby M. Neunzert, PLS
ImageOne of the more noticeable visual effects of a United States and Canada political map are some of the “straight line” boundaries of the western states or provinces. Usually boundaries follow natural features such as rivers, shore lines or watersheds, but, for example, Colorado and Wyoming are bound by east-west and north-south lines artificially drawn on a white paper and physically anchored in a featureless landscape. Both states would show up as rectangles on a Mercator map, even though on the ground the north-south boundaries as meridians converge on the North Pole and the east-west lines are parallel, small circle routes. Most of these states or provinces were created on paper during the 1840-1870 time period, with their boundaries physically surveyed on the ground some time later. Drawing these boundaries on a map, especially on a Mercator projection, is very easy, i.e., draw a rectangle; surveying the same boundaries on the ground before GPS and portable time, was considerably more difficult. With a transit and without calculations, establishing true north for the meridian involved mechanically splitting sightings of Polaris or a circumpolar star at eastern and western elongation. But since flashlights had not been invented, a lantern with a candle had to be used to illuminate the cross hairs and make field notes. At lower latitudes sighting Polaris was easy since the star was only 35º to 40º above the horizon and prolonging a straight line towards it produced good results; weather and a remote location aside, running the border between Alaska and Canada could not have been easy with the pole star further and further overhead.

What is a Gabion?

Gabion Mattress on 350S.A Gabion is defined as a corrosion resistant wire container filled with stone used for structural purposes. They are fastened together and used for retaining walls, revetments, slope protection, channel linings and other structures.

Gabion baskets have some advantages over loose riprap because of their modularity and ability to be stacked in various shapes. They also have advantages over more rigid structures because they can conform to ground movement, dissipate energy from flowing water and drain freely. Their strength and effectiveness may increase with time in some cases, as silt and vegetation fill the interstitial voids and reinforce the structure.

The Noble County Surveyor's Office uses Gabions (also called Gabion Mattresses) to shore up eroding banks, and to protect areas that could begin to erode. We have also use Gabions to create modular dams in various parts of the county.

All About the Surveyors Office

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Welcome to the Noble County Surveyor's Office online.

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