SP Consultants, LLC Organization Chart

LETTER OF INTENT

This correspondence introduces SP Consultants, LLC as a multifaceted fiber optic cable route engineering company.  Since it has existed for 25 years, SP has a great deal of experience in fiber optic route installation.  SP has been at the forefront of fiber optic ring installation for some of the largest metropolitan areas in the continental United States.  Examples include Houston, TX, San Antonio, TX, the Dallas – Fort Worth metroplex, New Orleans, LA, Kansas City, MO, Tampa Bay, FL, Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Washington, DC, etc.  In addition to fiber optic ring installations, SP has been involved with what is referred to as “long haul” installation, which is the installation of fiber optic cable long distances from city to city, for example, a 250-mile project from Springfield, MO to Fort Smith, AR.  

To help understand how a fiber optic route is installed, the steps will be discussed in the approximate order in which they are done. It is important to realize that there is a stepwise procedure to follow; however, some of these steps overlap, and sometimes, it is necessary to do things out of the order mentioned here.

Preliminary Engineering

To properly engineer a fiber optic route project, an assessment is made of the needs and goals of the fiber optic route.  A map of the area is obtained to review the possible route.  Once the possible route is selected, reconnaissance is performed to see if there are going to be some obvious problems that may make the route completion impossible.  Some areas are just too difficult to cross.  Some examples include airports, railroad crossings, and private property.  Other things to consider are how difficult it will be to install the fiber in the exact spot desired.  Often, obstacles must be engineered around.  Sometimes, the route can be built where desired but cannot be achieved without great cost.

Once a desirable route has been selected, that looks like it will be achievable; a master plan is developed to implement the activities of the route design.  All along the route, research is done to determine the status of the right-of-way (ROW).  Surveying records are researched.  Utilities such as gas, electric, water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer usually have drawings showing their locations and depths.  Once everything that can impact the location and depth of the fiber optic route is obtained, surveying can commence.  Based on what is found according to these records, a surveying plan is established.

Surveying

Professional Licensed Registered Engineer and Surveyor best carry out surveying of fiber optic routes.  Before beginning a survey, the nearest monuments and recorded benchmarks to the route are located.  Starting with a monument that is convenient to where the survey is to begin, the survey team makes their way to the route beginning.  Often, there will be recorded benchmarks along the way.  If there are no recorded benchmarks, they will need to be created and recorded.  The benchmarks are recorded in a logbook as well as the onboard data collector of the surveying instrument.  Sketches are also made in the logbooks.

All along the route, the ROWs and all of the utilities mentioned above are located as well as any previous fiber optic carriers.  The topography of the area including curb lines, buildings, fire hydrants, storm grates, medians, and any other pertinent objects are collected by the survey.  The survey instruments are the Nikon Total Station DTM-500 series and GPS. They have onboard data collectors that are uploaded each night, backed up, and e-mailed to the central office.  

The data is collected in such a way that when the data is introduced into the electronic format, much of the drawing is drawn already.  This is accomplished through painstaking preparation and training on the part of the instrument man in the field.  We have found that this is the best way to get the field information into electronic format quickly, correctly, and efficiently.  The electronic format is the basis by which a complete accurate set of drawings is produced.

Drafting

As was mentioned in the previous section, if the field data has been collected properly, many of the features are already drawn when the data is introduced into the CAD software.  This saves an immense amount of time.  If done correctly, the curb lines, medians, manholes, valve boxes, storm grates, right-of-way lines, fiber lines, and the survey control line are already connected.  Driveways are already in place.  Intersections are already formed.  Even the coordinates are correct if the drawing is done properly.  This is extremely beneficial during the permitting stage.  If careful notes are taken in the field books, things such as business names, addresses, etc., can be inserted into the drawing for clarity.

Once the whole route has been surveyed and inserted into an AutoCAD drawing, a survey control sheet and route map are made.  These two drawings are very important to permitting agencies.  Without them, many permitting agencies won’t permit the construction.  After the survey control sheet and the route map are satisfactorily completed, the construction drawings can be made.  The construction drawings are made by cross-referencing the route map into them.  This is where the field notes such as addresses and business names are inserted.  This way, if there is a sweeping change that is to be done that will affect the whole route, it can be done on the route map and all of the construction drawings will change with it.  A re-plot is all that is necessary to have updated drawings.

Permitting

SP personnel are used to interacting with the most critical of permitting agencies.  It can be amazing how many permits are necessary to implement construction.  Examples include the County, State, Railways, Department of Transportation, Corps of Engineers, and private entities for easement acquisition.  Often, the different permitting agencies desire the drawings to be in different scales, have different line types, and point out different things.  Commonly, the same set of drawings cannot be used for all the permitting agencies.  Some agencies require more detail.  Some agencies only desire the route map.  Some agencies look over every construction print in the set and have standards that they are to follow.  Some cities make the permit drawings a permanent record of the utilities for the city.  In addition, SP performs abstracting, private right-of-way easement acquisition, construction damage settlement, computerized records, and a property owner line list.

Project Management

Project management begins at the preliminary engineering step.  At the beginning stages, it is very difficult to control the timeline of the project.  It is fairly simple to acquire records at courthouses and city municipalities.  When it comes to pleasing all of the permitting agencies, it can become immensely more difficult.  Once the permitting step has been completed, the project management becomes more predictable.  A timeline is created with software that has milestones to go by to make sure that the project is being completed promptly.  If a milestone is missed, the cause can be addressed so that the entire project timeline can be salvaged.  The timeline is an extremely important tool for the project manager.

During the project construction, inspectors are dispatched to make sure that the milestones are going to be met.  If a milestone looks like it will be missed, the inspector can give advance notice so that the problem can be corrected without setting back the whole project.  As the project progresses, the construction drawings are “red-lined” so that deviations from the actual construction drawings are noted for the as-built drawings.

As-Built Drawings

During the as-built drawing stage, the red-lined drawings are worked on by the drafters to begin making changes to the construction drawings.  This step should not be overlooked because later when problems with the functionality of the fiber arise or new fibers are to be added, the buried cable can be located.  The actual depths and offsets of the fiber line need to be known so that the cable can be located with minimal effort in the future.  

Having these records also protects the fiber from damage during future construction of other buildings or utilities later on.  Having third-party inspectors send their redlines to yet another firm to correct the drawings can be disastrous.  Keeping with one firm to design, inspect, redline, and correct the as-built drawings eliminates confusion and mistakes.

Conclusion

SP Consultants, LLC is a company fully capable of providing turnkey engineering and construction of fiber optic routes.  Our staff has over 35 years of combined experience in providing these services in all areas of fiber optics.  The company has the equipment, personnel, software, and know-how to solve virtually every problem that can arise.

Our qualifications and experience offer the most current technology.  This includes route study, route automated field survey, environmental and regulatory permitting, title research, easement acquisition, aerial photography, scanning, computer digitizing with conversion of raster to vector files, project management, damage settlement, right-of-way record management, and final as-built design drawings.  We look forward to an opportunity to answer any request you may have and hopefully be of service to your company.