Quality is measurable

The surveying office Dipl.-Ing. Rudolf Schöffmann from Leonding in Upper Austria solves demanding surveying challenges.

"Quality must take precedence over quick profit" is a basic principle of Rudolf Schöffmann from Leonding, who has been running his surveying office since 1998. His high quality standards are also reflected in his choice of software: he has relied on rmDATA solutions for calculations and plan creation since the office was founded. Originally started as a two-man office, Rudolf Schöffmann and his team cover the entire spectrum of surveying, with technical surveying being a particular specialty. The Austrian Federal Railways are his biggest customer, but ASFINAG, the province of Upper Austria, Linz AG and numerous local authorities are also among the larger clients.

The quality of the software counts

The surveying office relies on rmDATA's product range for its orders: from rmDATA GeoDiscoverer for researching and obtaining geodata to calculation in rmGEO and plan creation in GeoMapper with the specialized shells for ÖBB, subdivision plan, the province of Upper Austria and for terrain modelling. "The changeover from the predecessor product rmMAP to GeoMapper took place in two steps. After cadastral surveying in 2019, we also switched to GeoMapper for technical surveying last winter. It's an ingenious product and I'm delighted with how it fits into the data flow. Rudolf Schöffmann is convinced that this integration is essential for our workflow in the office. For the office's special clients, we created the standards ourselves and configured the code lists individually - this is where GeoMapper really came into its own thanks to its high degree of configurability.

Suspension bridge with metrological challenges

One of Schöffmann's most recent flagship projects is certainly the new suspension bridge over the Danube in the west of the city of Linz. As part of the construction activities for the A26, the office took on the surveying-related activities for the client Asfinag. Its responsibilities included the entire construction site network and regular control surveys. "A technically complex and very interesting project," says the office manager. The longest earth-anchored suspension bridge in the world with a total of 24 steel cables, each with a diameter of 15 cm, which carry the 13,000-ton bridge over the Danube. The absence of pillars gives it an elegant lightness.

The survey across the river, with a distance of 300 meters above water and a total distance of 500 meters between the anchor points, was complicated by a specific microclimate. The different temperatures of water and air led to a double refraction, which could not be managed with the highest accuracy using conventional generalized meteorological models. The achievable accuracies were simulated using a priori adjustment in rmNETZ and a construction site network was evaluated. The wind, which causes the steel cables to sway in the Danube valley, also made the measurements more difficult: "With a sail area of 75m² per cable, these move by up to half a meter, so we often had to start the measurement setup at night with little wind and start measuring at the first ray of sunshine," explains Schöffmann.

The surveying project was awarded the Chamber's "INGGenial" prize for exceptional engineering performance - the first surveying project ever to receive this award.

Good people for good projects

Rudolf Schöffmann is proud of his team, most of whom are long-standing employees - an important factor in the success of technically demanding projects. "We have no separation between field and office staff. We have only ever trained all-rounders so that our employees can manage projects from preparation to delivery." As a training company for apprentices, Schöffmann can now hope for a successor with a clear conscience: A former taster student began an apprenticeship with him with a school-leaving certificate, eventually decided to study geodesy with a subsequent civil engineering examination and is now being discussed as a potential office successor.

Interested?

Do you also have technically demanding surveying projects? Take advantage of the many years of expertise in rmDATA GeoMapper for both cadastral surveying and engineering surveying. Please contact us.