City of Brockville – Culvert Drainage Design Survey

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Industry

Pre-Engineering

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Type

Engineering Surveys

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The Challenge

Winter conditions and challenging access complicated multi-site topographic surveys needed for hydraulic modeling at three municipal culvert crossings.

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The Solution

IBW captured detailed creek geometry, culvert data, and elevations at each site, referenced to UTM coordinates for provincial dataset compatibility.

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The Result

Comprehensive CAD-based topographic plans delivered accurate data for hydraulic modeling, drainage design, and municipal infrastructure planning.

Project Summary

Multi-Site Culvert Survey for Municipal Drainage Infrastructure Planning

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Brockville, ON

IBW Surveyors completed a detailed topographic survey program for three key culvert crossings within the City of Brockville. Culverts C06, C01, and C03 to support hydraulic modeling and drainage infrastructure analysis. This municipal engineering project required accurate survey data across multiple sites within a tight timeline, with winter conditions and challenging site access adding significant complexity to fieldwork planning and execution. Beyond the physical site challenges, the project required careful coordination to ensure survey data aligned with provincial geospatial datasets, allowing the City’s hydraulic modeling and drainage analysis to integrate seamlessly with broader regional infrastructure information. IBW’s approach focused on capturing comprehensive topographic and drainage-related information surrounding each structure and its adjacent watercourse, providing the consulting engineering team with the reliable foundation needed for hydraulic assessments, drainage design, and long-term infrastructure planning decisions.

City of Brockville Culvert Drainage Design Survey

Technical Details

Creek Geometry and Culvert Feature Capture Across Extended Study Corridors

The technical execution of this project required a consistent, repeatable survey methodology applied across three distinct culvert locations throughout Brockville. Survey crews captured creek centreline information, edge-of-water locations, and bank features at each site, along with detailed culvert inlet and outlet geometry essential for accurate hydraulic modeling. Elevation data collection extended approximately 50 metres both upstream and downstream of each structure, ensuring engineers would have sufficient watercourse context to properly model flow behavior and drainage capacity beyond the immediate culvert footprint. Additional spot elevations were gathered throughout the surrounding study areas to support comprehensive hydraulic analysis. All survey information was carefully referenced to a UTM coordinate system and geodetic datum before compilation into CAD-based topographic base plans, ensuring the deliverables were immediately compatible with the engineering team’s hydraulic modeling software and existing provincial LiDAR-derived terrain datasets.

Equipment & Technology

GNSS and Robotic Total Station Integration for UTM-Referenced Deliverables

IBW deployed a combination of advanced GNSS survey equipment and robotic total station technology to efficiently capture accurate field data across all three culvert study sites despite challenging winter conditions. The field program utilized Trimble Robotic Total Stations paired with Trimble SX10 and SX12 scanning total stations, enabling crews to collect both precise discrete measurements and detailed feature data at each crossing location. Digital data collection systems streamlined field-to-office workflows, supporting efficient processing of creek geometry, culvert features, and elevation data. Survey deliverables were prepared using rigorous geodetic control and UTM coordinate integration to ensure full compatibility with hydraulic modeling datasets and LiDAR-derived terrain information used by the engineering team. All collected data was processed through Microsurvey CAD to produce the final CAD-based topographic base plans, delivering engineers a reliable, standardized dataset across all three culvert locations suitable for hydraulic assessment, drainage design, and future municipal infrastructure planning initiatives.