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Category Archives: Surveying

The Role of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers in Rebuilding and Recovery After a Natural Disaster

The Thrasher Group North Carolina is proud of how our team came together to support communities impacted by the devastation caused by the natural disaster Hurricane Helene in the Fall of 2024.

While employees volunteering and collecting essential supplies helped to meet immediate needs, we know our largest contribution will happen over time – as we serve in our roles as land surveyors, engineers, and construction managers.

Western NC faces a long road ahead. Full recovery, including restoring and rebuilding critical infrastructure like utilities and roads will likely take years. Below are some ways that land surveyors and engineers play an essential role in long-term recovery after a natural disaster.

Funding and Compliance for Natural Disaster Recovery

Securing funding (a natural disaster means unexpected and unbudgeted costs) and ensuring compliance with local, state and federal regulations adds another level of complexity to rebuilding efforts.

FEMA’s public assistance program, for example, requires communities to meet specific criteria such as being located in a declared disaster area and proving that they’ve incurred eligible costs. Qualifying for this program requires detailed documentation with which seasoned surveying and engineering teams can support.

Additionally, plans for rebuilding structures must meet detailed requirements, for example, specific elevations (to reduce future flood damage risk) or floodproofing measures like flood vents or watertight doors. Local building codes and zoning ordinances also require permits and inspections to ensure compliance with safety standards. Even new infrastructure and utilities systems must adhere to design standards, quality control and safety regulations

Experienced surveyors and engineers should be well-equipped to assess damages and plan compliant reconstruction efforts, while also helping communities navigate FEMA and state funding processes.

Land Surveying for Infrastructure and Environmental Recovery

Land surveyors play a critical role in the aftermath of hurricanes and other natural disasters. Surveyors help to assess the extent of damage to land and property and identify changes in land elevation and topography. They are also key in re-establishing property lines and boundaries, especially when natural disasters move or obscure original boundary markers. Land surveyors also conduct infrastructure surveys, which map and measure roads, bridges, pipelines, and power lines. Surveys also provide the foundational data needed to make informed decisions about environmental recovery, protecting water resources and stabilizing the soil.

By providing critical baseline data on infrastructure and land conditions after a natural event, surveyors empower communities to rebuild stronger. This is especially important after devastating events like Hurricane Helene, when the ground itself may have been compromised from flooding and a large number of structures impacted. Timely and accurate surveying work is key to help prioritize and guide rebuilding efforts in a way that will prevent future risk from natural disasters.

Structural Engineering for Rebuilding and Long-Term Safety

While land surveyors help to ensure rebuilding occurs on stable ground and within the correct boundaries, structural engineers ensure that the design of new or rebuilt structures and buildings are safe, stable and durable.

In the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, structural engineers are on the front lines assessing the structural integrity of impacted structures and documenting damaged and collapsed buildings. These assessments tell authorities whether structures are safe to inhabit as is or need reinforcement before its occupants or residents can return. In extreme cases, structures may be condemned and slated for demolition.

From this documentation, engineers can also begin to develop structure repair plans and strengthening measures, designing new structures to withstand future disasters. For example, engineers may suggest incorporating features like retaining walls, drainage systems and flood barriers to mitigate future risks like landslides and flooding.

Transportation and Water Engineering in the Aftermath of a Disaster

Civil engineers specializing in transportation and water engineering have a special role to play in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. They are key in providing clear and timely information to local authorities about water quality and transportation safety.

Transportation engineers work to assess damage to highways, roads, bridges, parking decks and sidewalks. Authorities use this information to communicate which are or are not passable and safe. Water engineers perform water quality testing, which local authorities use to decide whether they should issue public health notices for contaminated drinking water. If a notice is issued, citizens will need immediate access to clean water, linking back to the need for passable roads to deliver supplies. (Even in the event of a boil water advisory, bottled water is ideal as boiling water only kills pathogens, but can’t remove many other contaminants.)

Restoring access to roads and bridges (so that citizens can get to safety and supplies can flow freely) and critical resources like water will always be most pressing immediately following a catastrophic natural event. Information provided by engineers informs prioritization of areas that require immediate attention based on access to emergency services, critical infrastructure and population density.

Once water and transportation engineers play their more immediate roles, they can then get to work on long-term infrastructure and utilities improvement. These civil engineers create the plans for rebuilding transportation and utilities infrastructure, all while taking into account factors like climate change, future land use and patterns.

They work to design rebuilt infrastructure for increased resilience to future natural disasters, for example, elevated roads or water treatment facilities, flood-resistant  bridge designs and early warning systems. Many civil engineering firms can also provide construction management services and oversight, to ensure that the new infrastructure built adheres to the original plans provided.

Does your community need support?
Whether it’s restoring critical infrastructure like roads and bridges or rebuilding essential utilities, Thrasher NC is committed to tailoring solutions to each community’s unique needs. Contact us today and we’d be happy to help learn your community’s story and assist with current surveying, engineering and construction management needs.


Meeting Complex Land Survey Needs for Proposed Lithium Mine Re-Opening

Project Location: Kings Mountain, NC

Site of Albemarle Corporation’s former lithium mine in Kings Mountain

Background:

Kings Mountain, North Carolina, is home to a former lithium mine that has sat dormant for nearly four decades. The site sits atop a deposit that could help meet the growing demand for the lithium needed to support the electric vehicle supply chain and clean energy production in the United States.

Demand for lithium is not driven by the EV market alone. The lithium concentrate that can be derived from the proposed mine is needed to power everything from consumer electronics to life-saving medical devices. There are also national security interests that factor into this potential domestic source of lithium, for example, lithium-ion batteries are used by the U.S. Department of Defense for satellites.   

Overview:

When Albemarle Corporation, a global leader in the specialty chemicals industry, began to explore resuming mining at the Kings Mountain site, it contacted The Thrasher Group North Carolina to help with surveying the original site footprint. The company was pleasantly surprised to find an experienced local contractor with a working knowledge of the community to meet all of its site surveying needs for pre-feasibility studies.

Today, the Albemarle continues to use Thrasher NC’s land surveying services as it prepares for advancing to the permitting process and other necessary pre-construction steps.

Project Goals:

  • Original survey of the 500+ acre legacy parcel and additional surveying services as Albemarle expands the footprint via 100+ parcel acquisitions for buffers zones
  • Identify and highlight improvements, easements, rights-of-way and other important survey information that could impact the feasibility of mining operations
  • Survey the surrounding buffer parcels that Albemarle would need to acquire in order to meet buffer area requirements

Land Surveying Services Provided: 

  • Photogrammetry surveying services
  • Geo-spatial surveying services
  • GNSS/GPS surveying services
  • Conventional surveying services

Training Processes Completed:

  • Completed extensive Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) Training
  • Completed site-specific Albemarle-required training and certification
  • Vetted via 3-month ISNetworld supplier certification process 

Project Approach:

The original land survey of the original footprint was started in 2018. Today, Thrasher NC is in the process of a phased approach with surveying services for additional properties surrounding the original site, anticipating completion of the overall surveying project in 2025.

Project Challenges:

  • Project Size: The entire Kings Mountain site, which also includes a Lithium Conversion Facility and the companies Global Technology Center offices, encompasses >1500 acres. Finding a partner that could keep pace with Albemarle’s need for the original parcel and buffer area acquisition surveying processes was key.
  • Legal & Environmental Communication:  Thrasher NC’s surveying professionals sit in on weekly coordination meetings with attorneys, land agents, and other key project stakeholders to ensure the team is in the loop and available if additional site questions arise.

Project Outcomes:

The Thrasher Group North Carolina has provided Albemarle with all the necessary site surveying services it has needed for the Kings Mountain Lithium Mine in a timely manner.

Since site surveying was a prerequisite for Albemarle to move the project forward through complex pre-feasibility studies, permitting and pre-construction planning, the Thrasher NC team’s timely delivery also allowed Albemarle to stay on track with its own timelines.

There is a water treatment plant on the current parcel, and if needs arise in the future, The Thrasher Group North Carolina can also provide water resources engineering due to its multidisciplinary offerings.