another Texas PE license added for AES

We've added another Texas Professional Engineering License to our staff. DJ Zehnacker has obtained his PE license in Texas via reciprocity from Colorado. Both AES Principals now carry Texas PE licenses. We have worked on a number of Texas projects in the past couple of years and because of that we felt having both firm Principals carrying Texas PE licenses was important (to us and our clients). Our firm also holds a Texas Professional Engineering Firm Registration to offer professional engineer services.

NCEES Record PE License

We have added another NCEES Record License to our growing list of professional licenses. DJ Zehnacker (Principal) has obtained his NCEES Professional Engineer (PE) Record License. An NCEES Record License is a huge benefit when it comes time to obtaining professional licenses in other states. In most cases, having our NCEES Record License allows us to secure licenses in new states within 30 days +/- and has no impact on potential new projects whatsoever.

Altitude is currently licensed as Professional Engineers in Colorado, Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas and licensed as Professional Land Surveyors in Colorado. We hold two NCEES Record PE Licenses and one NCEES Record PLS License.

Surface Drainage adjacent to houses

One thing we hear a bunch from people when buying a new home or when looking for a new home is the concern about proper surface drainage within the first 5-10 feet from a home (backfill zone). This concern is often expressed on both new construction and older homes. The new urban trend of putting homes on smaller lots with more density, yet still having generous home footprints has created some engineering challenges when trying to maintain positive drainage away from a home. As a rule of thumb, about 99% of geotechnical reports and home building guides recommend the following for finished grades outside of a home: 6" down from top of foundation (TOF) and a minimum of 1' vertical drop in the first 10' horizontal (10% slope) (where possible). The key words being "where possible". As most landscapers, engineers, architects, etc. know it is not always possible to achieve those recommendations given existing constraints. What we try to do as civil engineers when presented with an existing home that has insufficient surface drainage around the building is to look at the entire picture and come up with a long term, low maintenance solution, that is cost effective for the home owner. For example, we first gather accurate survey spot elevations around the entire home and at areas that we anticipate being flow lines for surface drainage away from the house. Our next step is to typically analyze our survey spot elevations and see if we can simply recommend some re-grading adjacent to the home that will help move the surface drainage away from the foundation and into a swale located away from the backfill zone. In many cases, surface drainage adjacent to a home can be drastically improved with some simple (and inexpensive) re-grading adjacent to the home as recommended by a civil engineer. On more complex situations, we look at adding concrete pans and even some basic storm sewer drainage infrastructure such as NDS Drainage Products. Let us know if you are concerned with the drainage adjacent to your home and we'd be happy to schedule a site visit to discuss.

AES welcomes NEW intern!

Altitude is pleased to welcome a new intern to our team! Steve Wheeler is a senior at Colorado School of Mines and is currently in his last semester of school. Colorado School of Mines is one of the most reputable engineering schools in the country and we are fortunate to have Steve helping us out. Steve has already been assisting on a variety of projects and tasks including both land surveying and civil engineering. Welcome aboard Steve!!

staying busy

Well....we are certainly staying very busy at Altitude. We've been to Texas, Vail, Crested Butte, Pueblo, and other places in the last 30 days for a variety of projects. We also have a handful of local projects that are either under construction or about to begin construction. Now we just need to find some time to update our blog more frequently!

Altitude in Vail for CODLA conference!

Altitude Engineering & Surveying, Inc. is on-site in Vail, Colorado....

We are pleased to be a sponsor of the 2010 Colorado Defense Lawyers Association Conference being held at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort and Spa (715 W. Lionshead Circle, Vail, CO 81657).

We will have a table set up in the Grand Ballroom of the hotel. Please stop by and introduce yourself. We have a bunch of informative company information, cards.... and of course... unparalleled pre-season Bronco's football discussion!

We've had the pleasure of working with a number of attorneys attending this year's conference are very much looking forward to introducing Altitude Engineering & Surveying, Inc. to some new faces. We will also be attending the conference reception tonight from 6pm-8:30pm.

Our close friends/colleagues/associates from EVstudio also have provided information which will be also be available at our table. EVstudio offers full service engineering, architecture, lighting design, landscape design, and forensic services. Check out EVstudio's daily blog here

Fire Protection Pond in Jefferson County

Another one of our Jefferson County Grading Permit projects is almost finished with construction. This particular client came to us last year and wanted us to design a fire protection pond that would ultimately provide the required water storage volume to provide fire protection to future residential lots that they plan to develop. The goal was to construct a fire protection pond now that would add some immediate visual enhancement to the entry of the project and would also act as a water storage structure in lieu of building underground water cisterns in the future... which can be costly.
We had a great experience working with the Jefferson County Development Review staff and obtaining approval of the construction drawings in a timely and cost effective manner. The approved plans ended up looking very similar to the rough sketch that our client initially presented to us last year. This particular client was knowledgeable and interested in being very involved in the entire design process, which in the end, made for a satisfy project for both the client and Altitude Engineering & Surveying, Inc.

Fire protection ponds in rural settings (such as Jefferson County, Colorado) are a great way to provide fire protection water storage, while at the same time, saving money and adding some positive visual enhancement to your project. Many rural projects do not have the luxury of water systems and fire hydrants so local fire districts (who are typically staffed on a volunteer basis) rely on either underground cisterns or above ground ponds to fill their trucks prior to entering the site during an emergency situation. With fire protection ponds, a pull-out is typically installed adjacent to the pond and a stand-pipe is located in the pull-out area for the trucks to utilize to withdraw water from the pond. Other considerations when design a fire protection pond include: freeze depths during winter months, sediment level, emergency overflows, dam heights, etc.

Altitude Engineering to Sponsor Colorado Defense Lawyers Conference

Altitude Engineering and Surveying (AES) is pleased to announce that we will be one of the sponsors of the Colorado Defense Lawyers Conference which is being held in Vail, Colorado August 12-14, 2010.

Please stop by and introduce yourself if you are attending. AES will have a table set-up and would welcome the opportunity to tell you more about our company and our Expert Witness Services that we offer. AES is one of the few firms in the Country to hold the Engineering Expert Witness (EXW) designation.

We are looking forward to a great time at the event... and... of course... some great mountain biking as well!

2010 Annual Convention

The 2010 CDLA Annual Convention will be August 12 - 14 at the Vail Marriott Mountain Luxury Resort & Spa, Vail, Colorado.

for more information, please visit: http://www.codla.org/

Jefferson County Projects

We've continued to be very active in Jefferson County this spring. We currently have two active Grading Permit projects under construction (one fire pond, and one long driveway design) as well as a Notice of Intent (NOI) project (driveway and new home) which is just about wrapped up with construction as well. Within the next couple of weeks we will be submitting a new Grading Permit and two more NOI's. What does this all mean? Well... a few things... we have an excellent working relationship with the Engineering Development Review committee at Jefferson County and feel like we have a great understanding of what they are looking for on submittals. This alone saves time and money and makes the entire project flow smoothly. Further, because of our experience in Jefferson County, our pricing and timelines for projects approvals is hard to beat. Let us know if we can provide a competitive proposals on any upcoming projects or if you would like to ask any questions or meet to talk about potential upcoming projects... we'd be happy to help!

Altitude working on Government Projects

Altitude is very excited to announce that we've been selected to work with an excellent design/build team on two upcoming federal government projects. One project is located in Texas and one in Colorado. Both projects required very detailed (and lengthy) proposals which were submitted months ago along with proposals from other qualified consultant/contractor teams from throughout the country. The architect and contractor on our team will be handling the lead roles on both projects, and we will be acting in a supportive role and providing schematic design, design development, and civil construction documents for each project. More to come as these two projects move forward!



Also, in other news... We are moving forward with obtaining our Professional Engineering License in Hawaii. We have some great contacts out there and are looking forward to teaming up on some new south pacific projects in the near future!



Altitude Engineering & Surveying already holds PE licenses in Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas.

More FEMA LOMA's Approved

Just last week, we received approval on two more FEMA LOMA (Letter of Map Amendment) applications. It took about 1 week for us to complete the field work and paper work and about 4-5 weeks from the submittal date to FEMA to obtain their approval. Both homes were "inadvertently" (as FEMA calls it) included in the 100-yr flood plain and in both cases home owners received a letter stating that they now needed flood insurance (costing an additional $1300 per year on top of the standard home owner's policy premium). In order to show that the structures were not actually within the limits of the 100yr flood plain, we processed a FEMA LOMA application and verified the elevation of the lowest level of each home was above the 100yr flood plain elevation. We were happy to assist and were pleasantly surprised with the reasonably quick turn around on FEMA's end of things.

If you have received a similar letter, please let us know and we'd be happy to process a FEMA LOMA on your behalf. info@altitudeeng.com or 720.413.9691

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011

Altitude Engineering & Surveying, Inc. is now using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 software. Hard to believe that our software is a 2011 version and we are not even halfway through 2010! Anyway, the newest AutoCAD Civil 3D software has very in depth modeling and drafting tools which will ultimately save our clients time and money and help produce exhibits and drawings that make is easy for people who are not in the industry to understand our designs. We will be doing a series of on-line classes and web-conferences throughout 2010 to continue to gain more experience with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011.

EXW - National Expert Witness Designation!!

Congratulations to Karl Franklin, PE-PLS, Principal, with our office for earning the ACEC NATIONAL Engineering Expert Witness designation (EXW)!!

Karl has been an active member of the ACEC (American Council of Engineering Companies) Expert Witness program for a number of years and has recently obtained ACEC's highest Expert Witness designation (EXW). Karl also serves on the ACEC Colorado Chapter Expert Witness committee. They are in charge of interviewing new candidates, managing the expert witness certification process, and discussing updates/changes to the expert witness program(s). The ACEC Expert Witness program was designed to help uphold a higher level of ethical standards amongst Expert Witnesses.

If you need an expert for upcoming case, have questions regarding the certified Expert Witness program, or would like to get more information about obtaining the EXW designation, please contact us at info@altitudeeng.com or 720-413-9691

Greenwood Village Fire Hydrant Design

A lot of larger, new construction houses in areas such as Cherry Hills and Greenwood Village are facing more stringent regulations when it comes to fire protection requirements. We recently worked with a client who was required to add a fire hydrant in order to meet South Metro Fire Rescue fire flow and hydrant spacing requirements. They were unable to obtain their Certificate of Occupancy until the hydrant was added. Sounds simple, but Denver Water does indeed require a set of Fire Hydrant Construction Drawings (signed/sealed by a Colorado Licensed Professional Engineer) and signed by South Metro Fire. The plans outline every last detail of how/where the hydrant will be installed. Meeting fire flow demands for these larger homes can be difficult as in many cases the original subdivision was constructed with only 6" water mains (as compared to 8" which most subdivisions these days have) and since a lot of the homes are now pushing 10,000-12,0000 square feet they are being forced to install sprinklers to meet IFC requirements.

Water and Santiary Sewer Tap Fees

Two major expenses on projects are the water and sewer tap fees. Depending on the type and size of the project these fees can range from expensive.... to VERY expensive. Typically, most single family residential homes require a 3/4" water service. Commercial projects typically require at least a 1" water service and, depending on the type of commercial use, the water service can be much larger in many cases. It is important to have an engineer assist in determining the required size of the water service. On one hand you want to make sure that your new project/home/building has adequate water pressure and flow, yet, you also do not want pay thousands of extra dollars for a larger water service then necessary.

To determine water service sizes we first look at what the existing pressures (static and residual) are in the area where the tap will be made. This data is typically obtained from the local water jurisdiction and is measured from the nearest fire hydrant. Next, a peak demand flow is determined based on number of fixtures or based on square footage of the building/home (refer to local water jurisdiction regulations as a starting point). Pressure loss in the water service line is calculated based on the size of the line, pipe material, and length of line. This information is utilized to determine what size water service is necessary for the project. Sewer tap fees are usually based on the size of the water tap and are typically less expensive.

Below are the current City of Golden Tap Fees to give you an idea of costs:

Erosion Control

Erosion Control measures have come a long way... especially in Colorado. In fact, most all jurisdictions have devoted entire sections of their land development code to address erosion and sedimentation control. Erosion control can vary from simple measures such as silt fencing (used as a temporary barrier to control erosion and sediment on down hill or perimeter side of construction activities) and vehicle tracking control (essentially road base placed at the entrance to a job site to help remove and limit material that would otherwise be tracked off-site by equipment and vehicles) to more extensive (and expensive) measures. Through experience we've learned what BMP's (Best Management Practices) particular jurisdictions like to see at a minimum and through our construction period inspections we've learned what BMP's seem to stand the test of time during construction.

It is our job as professional engineers to understand how different BMP's work and what BMP's function best in different site conditions (ie.. mountain projects vs. city projects). We also always try to keep our client's bottom line in mind when designing erosion control plans. With all of the new BMP's out there today it is easy to spend thousands of extra dollars on erosion control measures without understanding the cost/benefit of each. In other words, sometimes the proper implementation and upkeep of a few critical BMP's can be much more valuable then specifying 15 different BMP's that are installed and applied incorrectly.

The Urban Drainage and Flood Control District (UDFCD) has an excellent section on erosion control here under "Construction BMP's":

UDFCD Volume III - Construction BMP's


Contact us at info@altitudeeng.com to help answer any questions regarding erosion control BMP's

Expert Witness Services !!!

Did you know that Altitude Engineering & Surveying, Inc. offers Expert Witness Services?

Unfortunately, some construction projects end up in what is known as Construction Defect Litigation. In any construction defect litigation case where a Design Professional is involved, an Expert Witness in that same design field is needed by attorneys and the courts to assess the performance of the design professional involved.

The key to a successful Expert Witness is the ability of the expert to communicate what can be, at times, difficult technical content in a lay-person's terms that can be easily understood by attorneys, courts, and juries.

If you are an attorney, insurer, or design professional dealing with a construction defect litigation situation, please contact us at Altitude Engineering & Surveying for more information regarding our Expert Witness services. We have Expert Witness Certification through the American Council of Engineering Companies of Colorado (ACEC).

Land Surveying with GPS

Although surveying with GPS can sometimes be frustrating with the lack of signal coverage, it is hands down the quickest and most efficient way to survey when it is working. When we use GPS, we tie into an established (and growing) cell network that has almost full GPS coverage on the eastern slope of Colorado. This means that we literally show up with a Leica GPS rover unit, start it up, and we are off and running (more or less). With the way we utilize the GPS rover we can easily shoot various off-site benchmarks and confirm vertical elevations in a matter of minutes. We can also obtain topography and boundary information on large sites in a short time frame.

Last week, we utilized GPS to do boundary and topography mapping in Evergreen, a Land Survey Plat in central Denver, and topography mapping in south Denver all within about a 24 hour period. We also shot various off-site benchmarks, section corners, etc in addition to the on-site surveying. With a total station survey system there is simply no way we would've been able to complete that amount of work and still feel comfortable with the accuracy of the data we obtained.

This efficiency allows us to pass the savings onto our clients without compromising the quality of our work.

FEMA, Floodplains, & Flood Insurance

We've spoken to some clients recently that have had the unfortunate surprise of being notified that their property is now within a floodplain and that they must obtain flood insurance. Also, let us be clear that these are property owners that are knowledgeable and bought a property that was in Denver next to many other homes, yet, they are still getting tagged for now being within a floodplain.

How does this happen??

What happened is FEMA studied the drainage way adjacent to their property and came up with map revision to the existing FIRM Panel (Flood Insurance Rate Map). This is quite common as FEMA is constantly updating FIRM Panels.

That is where we come in--- We are in the process of preparing an elevation certificate which will located the true elevation of the home on the property. This elevation will be tied to the same vertical benchmark that FEMA used when they studied the adjacent drainage way. We will then complete a LOMA (Letter of Map Amendment) and submit to FEMA in order to prove that the house is above the flood plain. The LOMA process can take 8-12 weeks to complete, but is well worth it in the end. This will eliminate the need to carry flood insurance (which typically runs $1000-$2000 per year).

If this situation happens to you or if you have questions-- please contact us. Our fees are typically in the $1500 range to complete something like this (which you will make back within the first year of NOT having to pay flood insurance.

info@altitudeeng.com or 720.413.9691

NOI vs. Grading Permit (Jefferson County, Colorado)

We've been fortunate to work on a handful of Notice of Intent (NOI) and Grading Permit (GP) applications in Jefferson County recently. These are two of the most common applications for residential projects.

Generally, an NOI includes a set of plans for a single family home showing the driveway design (including plan/profile, cross sections), site grading (for the driveway and home), erosion control, and some drainage information.

A GP (for a single family home) is a more detailed version of an NOI. Typically, all of the same plans that would be included within the NOI are included in the GP Plan Set, PLUS, more detailed drainage analysis, the access drive/driveway is typically much long and more difficult to design, large amounts of earth moving/grading are required, etc.

Send us an email with any questions. We'd be happy to meet on-site (for free), give you a proposal, or even help you decide which process will be required for your project.

Surveys...

Happy New Year to all of our friends, colleagues, and clients! Thanks for making 2009 a great year as we look ahead to a very exciting year in 2010!!!

We've recently been quite busy on a variety of different surveys. The term "survey" is a broad and general term that gets thrown around and has a variety of meanings. Below is a brief (yet useful) description of the most common surveys that are requested:

IMPROVEMENT LOCATION CERTIFICATE (ILC) – Range between $150 and $300 depending on size of lot, size of structure(s), existing property corner evidence. Turn around in 48 hours – most completed within 24 hours.

LAND SURVEY PLAT (LSP) – Also known as a boundary survey. Utilized to determine boundary lines and corners, determine encroachments, and/or construct new improvements on your property, etc.

IMPROVEMENT SURVEY PLAT (ISP) – Basically an LSP with some additional information regarding existing observable improvements such as streets, curb & gutter, sidewalks, dry utilities, wet utilities, etc. Can also include easements of record and topography if the client so desires. Utilized for more extensive proposed improvements and as a base for design services.

ALTA / ACSM SURVEY – Pretty much a cafeteria style survey where the client can pick items from an Optional Table A and create his own survey for specific purposes. The base required portion of any ALTA definitely meets the requirements of an LSP and includes some of the elements of an ISP and includes record Title research of easements and encumbrances to the property. Table A consists of 16 additional options that can be shown depending the goals of the project, requirements of the lender, etc.