Geotechnical News • March 2016
27
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
sample at least four times the highest
frequency that is expected. This will
help reduce any errors due to the sam-
pling rate. The higher the sample rate
the better the resolution in the data and
the greater the accuracy in recording
the vibration.
Public relations and reporting
The stakeholders are an important part
of any monitoring program. Making
sure they are kept informed will help
the project progress as smooth as
possible. Knowing who your stake-
holders are will also help you produce
reports that they can easily understand.
Reports that are too technical or do
not provide clear results will slow
the project down as you may spend a
lot of time answering questions. The
vibration time history will be useful
to a consultant but may raise a lot of
questions for stakeholders. However,
displaying the data relative to your
project limits can help stakehold-
ers understand the vibration they
experienced. It will also help if the
stakeholders have an understanding
of how the project will progress. As
an example, if the project included
blasting then make sure the stakehold-
ers know when you are planning to
blast and where they might be able
to watch. This will help reduce the
“startle” effect of blasting. In general,
people are a lot less likely to complain
if they are kept informed.
Collection and distribution of event
reports
The collection and distribution of
event reports were once very labor
intensive. People would have to go to
the project site, set up the equipment,
wait for the event to happen, collect
the data, and then take it back to the
office for analysis. The reports would
then have to be generated and sent
to the stakeholders. This could have
taken days or weeks for the reports to
get to the stakeholders. Now projects
can be monitored 24/7 with the project
data being collected automatically. As
soon as the event happens, the data
can be sent to the stakeholders imme-
diately after it has been recorded. The
data can also be posted on the Internet
and even sent to the stakeholders’ cell
phones.
Closing comment
As vibration monitoring projects
become more and more demanding,
the need to understand the basics will
still remain. Spending the time to
make sure you select the proper equip-
ment, that it is installed correctly, and
that the reports are clearly understood
by all of the stakeholders will help you
achieve vibration monitoring results
that are satisfactory to all.
Bob Turnbull
Instantel
309 Legget Drive,
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K2K 3A3
Tel. (613) 592-4642
Email:
Discussions of
“
Qualifications of the robotic total station
construction monitoring professional
”
Douglas Roy and Jonathan Stuhl
Geotechnical News, Vol. 33 No. 4, December 2015, pp 30-33
Martin Beth
Thank you to the authors for pointing
out some important elements in speci-
fications for robotic total stations, in
particular regarding the profile of the
engineers and technicians involved in
the installation and maintenance.
I would like to propose some elements
of further reflection. These can be split
into four parts, first addressing the
RTS (AMTS) specialist, then the “by
whom” question”, then thinking about
specifications key points, and finish-
ing with some comments on figures 3
and 4.
The RTS (AMTS) specialist
The conclusion to the article proposes
a typical text for the RTS specialist
specification which clearly describes
and restricts its role to designing,
testing and operating the monitoring
system, ensuring that the data is of
high quality and provides real infor-
mation to the Engineers. I agree 100%
with this statement.
I therefore wonder why the last bullet
point requests the RTS specialist to be
a PE or a PLS?
In my opinion:
• A structural or geotechnical engi-
neer should be in charge of defin-
ing what information should the
measurement system provide, what
are the alert criteria, what course
of action to give when considering
the monitoring results.
• The RTS specialist and/or the
monitoring & instrumentation spe-
cialist should ensure that a system
is put in place that provides results
than can be efficiently used by the
structural or geotechnical engineer.
