More than anyone, surveyors understand the importance of location. We master many types of tools to generate the specific data required for boundary lines, construction grids, laying out developments, creating 3D models of buildings and topography and more.

If you enter any building, by the time you hop on the elevator, you’ve probably seen multiple logos and ads in the building and on the clothing of the people you see. When you select your floor, you’ll see the logo of the elevator’s manufacturer on the panel.

But what about the company that actually constructed the building you’re in? After construction’s done, and the occupant moves in, the name of the builder is gone and probably forgotten.

That doesn’t have to happen.

Lack of buried asset information is estimated to cost the U.S. about $50 billion annually.

Construction intended to improve public infrastructure is the most costly and involved public works undertakings by government and contracting firms.

It’s surprising that many of the costs associated with large-scale construction projects stem from:

• relocating underground utilities

• designing around them so they don’t need to be moved.

Over the next 20 years, upgrades to the nation’s water system alone are expected to cost three to five trillion dollars. Yet appropriations to replace critical infrastructure continually fall short. Municipalities and utility companies are under enormous pressure to make existing assets more efficient.

In his poem, Mending Wall, Robert Frost captured the adage of a New Hampshire neighbor who observed “Good fences make good neighbors.”

While this may be true in cases where boundary lines are valid and undisputed, fences can make decidedly worse neighbors when the fence lines are in question. The sovereign boundaries and borders of nations, in particular, make for hotly contested claims if the official lines are vague or questioned.

On Sept. 14, 2018, Hurricane Florence slammed into the Carolinas, bringing with her powerful winds, torrential rains and the potential to wreak catastrophic destruction. Though Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 storm as it moved over land, its high winds and rain toppled trees, triggered massive flooding and caused power transformers to explode like fireworks, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. More than 40 people have died as a result of the storm and flooding. ­­