What is Municipal Engineering?

If you’ve ever wondered who oversees all types of project sites in your community, the answer is municipal engineers. When you pass by bridges, airports, public parks, streets and sidewalks, or any general road in your community, municipal engineers are typically the ones behind the work. The most common services municipal engineers provide are structural, water and wastewater, and traffic and transportation engineering, but their work doesn’t just end there. Aside from designing, constructing, and maintaining these communities, municipal engineers do a lot of administrative work and give support to communities.

The administrative work and support municipal engineers provide is for the improvement of their communities. The main goal of municipal engineers’ administrative work is to make sure each project brings a positive outcome to the community, which is why municipal engineers ensure each project is compliant with each project-specific plans, codes, and specifications. Municipal engineers additionally give support to their communities by ensuring that the voices of their communities are heard. They create in-depth approaches to get involved with their communities and gather all necessary opinions to create an action plan that works for all. For example, before a project starts, municipal engineers may speak to all the parties involved such as residents, agencies, and the communities’ officials.

At KC Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C. (KC), maintaining and improving our communities remains an important priority. KC’s municipal engineering group is an integral part of our contribution to the safety of our communities.


What is Topographic Survey?

Land surveyors’ workload consists of a wide range of tasks, but the main concept of their overall work is to prepare sites for construction. Topographic survey is one of the main types of services performed by land surveyors. According to civilengineeringbible.com, topographic survey is defined as a “method of determining the positions, on the surface of the earth, of human made and natural features. It also is used to determine the configuration of the terrain.” So, in other words, surveyors perform topographic survey to find coordinates and height data needed for construction sites.

The methods used for performing topographic survey include:

  • Aerial Survey: Aerial survey is also known as photogrammetry. This method allows surveyors to easily survey the ground by collecting high-altitude photos using a plane or drone.
  • Global Positioning System (GPS): This method is used in smaller areas where aerial approach is not necessary.
  • Total Station: This method is known to be the most effect method since it is performed directly by the field crew resulting in more detailed information being collected.

KC’s land surveying group consists of dedicated professional land surveyors, party chiefs, instrument persons, geographic information system (GIS) technicians, draftsmen, engineering technicians, and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) operators with experience researching and recording all types of survey data and providing field services in varying terrains and weather. To learn more about KC’s services, please visit our Services tab.