Colliers Engineering & Design was selected to perform comprehensive Subsurface Utility Engineering Investigation, Surveying, and Mapping at each of Dallas County Community College District’s (DCCCD) six campuses for proposed fiber optic communication system upgrades. The project presented unique challenges, including coordinating with open campuses with an enrollment of over 86,000 and more than 6,300 faculty; complex campus layouts with architectural elements within the proposed fiber pathways; and tall buildings and tree canopy, as well as obscured in-building connection points that required special investigation and survey considerations.

Colliers Engineering & Design performed topographic survey of inter-building connection points and proposed fiber routing through previously undocumented water, sewer, electric and gas utility connections and existing copper and fiber communications connections throughout each campus. Requirements included QL-D Records Research at each campus engineering office, QL-C identification and survey of visible utility features, QL-B utility designating of any and all existing utilities within proposed installation corridors from external campus feed points to interbuilding and in-building terminals, and QL-A Test Holes to verify utilities at identified and potential conflict locations. Our survey efforts varied from GPS/GNSS to conventional inter-building efforts and performing an average of 20 vacuum excavation test holes at each campus to verify utilities with zero interference and disruptions. Project deliverables included CAD files of identified existing utilities and appurtenances, topographic survey data and shape files for potential future GIS applications, test hole utility verification reports, and overall utility location and potential conflict tabulations in spreadsheet format. The project timeline was compressed to take advantage of contractor availability windows and achieve final fiber placement in time for forced retirement of previous system.