Office of Design & Construction

Global Positioning System (GPS) utilizes satellites to locate positions on the earth's surface. GPS comes in various levels of accuracy, from sub-meter, to sub-centimeter. Design and Construction teamed up with the City of Bowling Green to set up a survey grade (sub-cm) GPS system. A GPS base station and radio antenna was installed on top of Offenhauer Tower West. The height of the mounting point was required to improve performance and range of the GPS radio antenna which provides a signal with real time corrections for the surveying units. Both the City and Design and Construction have mobile GPS surveying units. This surveying system requires considerably less set-up time than conventional surveying techniques. The surveying unit is being utilized to locate new underground utilities when they are installed during construction projects on campus, and to locate existing utilities when they are exposed. It will also be utilized to improve the quality of the campus map and locate new features added to the campus.

GPS links:

• Base Station Information - cors.bgohio.org
• GPS Tutorial - www.trimble.com

GPS base unit and radio antenna mounted on Offenhauer Tower West.

GPS surveying unit.