Tag: Engineering

The Crucial Role of Land Surveyors in Shaping Our World

Posted on by burianadmin

03/21/2024

This week, we celebrate National Land Surveyors Week. We want to highlight the integral role surveyors play in engineering, construction, and urban planning by showcasing the impact they have on communities.

The primary objective of a land surveyor is to gather accurate and reliable data to support land development, construction projects, and establish and maintain boundaries based upon record and practice standards. Their expertise in boundary surveys, topographic surveys, construction staking, and land development ensures accurate data and precise measurements for legal, engineering, and construction purposes.

Land surveyors undertake a multifaceted array of tasks crucial to the smooth functioning of land development and legal processes. They meticulously measure angles and distances between points, whether below, on, or above Earth’s surface, utilizing sophisticated tools and techniques to ensure accuracy.

In addition to fieldwork, they delve into the depths of survey records, land titles, and historical data, conducting thorough research to inform their assessments. Often traversing diverse terrains, they travel to different locations to identify key features that shape the landscape, all while keeping an eye out for signs of previous boundaries to ascertain their current placement.

Back in their offices, they dedicate themselves to preparing detailed maps, reports, and plots, each element carefully crafted to convey essential information to engineers, developers, and legal professionals. Their attention to detail extends to recording survey results, verifying data accuracy to uphold the integrity of their findings.

When the time comes to present their conclusions, land surveyors adeptly communicate their findings to government agencies and clients, providing clarity and insight into complex land matters. Furthermore, they play a pivotal role in officially establishing water and land boundaries for leases and deeds, lending authority to legal agreements and property rights. In essence, land surveyors are the backbones of land development and legal processes, their expertise shaping the landscapes we inhabit and the boundaries that define them.

Burian & Associates New Hire Spotlight: Stauss

Posted on by burianadmin

Burian & Associates is excited to welcome Jenny Stauss to its Grand Forks Office as a Senior Project Manager. Jenny brings unique and extensive project management experience, and passion for attention to detail, problem solving, research, and data analysis to her position at Burian & Associates.

Jenny’s background includes an undergraduate degree in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Management Information Systems. Her work experience includes being a Technical Support Engineer for Great Plains Software (now Microsoft), the Customer Service Team Lead for Amazon, and most recently working for Ideal Aerosmith in a variety of positions – Purchasing, Materials Manager, Production Planning, and Project Management.

In her 22.5 years at Ideal Aerosmith, Jenny worked with mechanical and electrical engineers and production project teams to plan projects, identify resources, and drive schedules to meet commitments to customers. Her emphasis was project management of the contract manufacturing services Ideal Aerosmith provided to the aerospace industry.

“I am excited to be joining a new and growing company that will challenge me every day,” expressed Jenny.

Sarah Sesselman, Director of Development at Burian & Associates, noted “We’re fortunate to have Jenny join our Team! We are really looking forward to the wide-ranging project management experience and fresh perspective she will be able to share with our Team and our Clients!”

Jenny has hit the ground running in Grand Forks by assisting in User Outreach on the RRVWSP. Jenny is also assisting on the ND DEQ Lead Service Line projects and is currently managing seven of the cities we have been awarded with more to come.

Jenny is a very detail-oriented person and enjoys projects that require extensive research, information management, and planning upfront. Jenny is an amazing addition to the Burian and Associates team and she will, and already has started to, make an impact on our work going forward.

100-Year Flood or Drought: Why Do We Care?

Posted on by burianadmin

9/20/23

About a month ago, Southern California was hit by Tropical Storm Hilary, the first tropical storm to land in California in 84 years. On August 20, 2023, San Diego had its wettest day on record and Palm Springs set a new record for most rain in a single day. The rain from the storm resulted in flooding, mudflows, sinkholes, and power outages across southern California.

Flooding is a natural disaster that can result in loss of life or property, damage infrastructure, facilities, and agriculture, and affect water and wastewater supply and treatment.  When California was hit back in 1939 by a tropical storm, North Dakota was still experiencing a very different type of extreme weather: drought.  All through the 1930s, North Dakota (and the rest of the Midwest) experienced drought with 1934 and 1936 both setting records for the driest year on record.

One of the ways extreme weather can be categorized is through frequency analysis. The term 100-year flood or 500-year flood might come to mind. This does not mean that an event like the one that just happened in California will only occur once every 10 or 500 years, but rather that the recurrence interval, or chance of it happening in a given year, is 1 in 100 (1%) or 1 in 500 (0.2%). This same idea can also be used to define droughts (chances of it occurring in a certain time frame); however, droughts tend to happen over longer periods when compared to floods. The amount (or lack) of water making up a 100-year flood (or drought) are what engineers use in their planning considerations and design calculations.

Engineers use these extreme weather events, such as the flood in California and the 1930’s drought in North Dakota, when they design flood mitigation or drought resiliency projects. Currently, the Burian and Associates team is part of the consulting team for the Red River Valley Water Supply Project (RRVWSP). When fully constructed, this project will deliver water from the Missouri River in the McClusky Canal via pipeline to the Sheyenne River for communities and rural water districts in central and eastern North Dakota to combat drought and support economic development. Through modeling efforts for the project, our team is using historical information across several climate indicators (including drought and flood years) to analyze water availability leading up to, during, and following drought years.

The RRVWSP is currently under construction and received generous funding support from the North Dakota Legislature in 2023. When completed, the RRVWSP will provide drought resiliency and support economic development for nearly half of the residents in North Dakota. The Burian and Associates Team is excited to be part of and lend their expertise to this very impactful project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Flood. (2023). Water.ca.gov; California Department of Water Resources. https://water.ca.gov/Water-Basics/Flood

Hilary live updates: Storm slams California with flash floods. (2023, August 21). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/hilary-live-updates-storm-california-rcna100908

Jones, D. (2023, August 18). Hilary could be the first tropical storm to hit California in more than 80 years. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194588117/hilary-could-be-the-first-tropical-storm-to-hit-california-in-more-than-80-years

Petri, A., Toohey, G., & Zahniser, D. (2023, August 21). Hilary leaves massive flooding, mudslides, upheaval across Southern California. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-21/hilary-moves-out-of-southern-california-leaving-massive-flooding

Robinson, E. (2017). Chapter 18. In History of North Dakota (pp. 396–416). Open Educational Resources.

Water Science School. (2018). The 100-Year Flood. USGS. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/100-year-flood

My Summer Experience at Burian & Associates

Posted on by burianadmin

Written By: Angelica Beto / Engineering Assistant II

This past summer, I had the opportunity to work for Burian & Associates as an Engineering Assistant II in Grand Forks, ND. It was an exciting time to join the company, as Burian & Associates was in the process of expanding their team and moving from a coworking space to a new private office space in the Gate City Bank building.

Even with the quick growth and fast-paced work environment, Burian & Associates made time to make me feel welcome and gave me opportunities to meet and work with the entire team, including those from different locations. The company also had a retreat in Minnesota lake country at the end of July which allowed all the employees to socialize and team build while focusing on company goals and future plans.

In my position, I got to explore research projects, write technical memoranda, and create professional presentations.  I had an amazing opportunity to work on a large-scale intern project where I, along with the other interns, was able to practice being a consultant. We were introduced to all parts of a project including initial client meetings, research, development of project plans and task creation, client relations, and presentation of findings.

For college students, I believe Burian & Associates offers an excellent intern experience that can link classroom studies to real world situations. I would encourage any students thinking about applying for internships to get involved because there are plenty of opportunities available that will give you a great head start into the world of civil engineering, especially at Burian & Associates.