WHAT FACTORS, EVENTS, TECHNOLOGY, ETC., HAVE SHAPED THE GROWTH AND PROGRESSION OF H.A. KUEHLEM?
The H. A. Kuehlem Survey Company, now H. A. Kuehlem, a Baseline Company, has evolved over 39 years by incorporating modern survey technology combined with a solid client base. We have embraced a variety of survey challenges, including farm and ranch boundary, construction, residential and commercial property development, and topographic design surveys to support engineering services, both public and private.
WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE PROJECTS TO HAVE BEEN A PART OF?
Our project experience covers a vast range, including construction staking for the Rattler Roller Coaster at Fiesta Texas-San Antonio. At one time, this was the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster. This project included staking the coaster alignment through a tunnel along the perimeter of an abandoned rock quarry.
One of our largest TxDOT projects was SH 123. This project included 32 miles of design survey, aerial mapping, and right-of-way retracement in two counties southeast of San Antonio.
YOU ARE AN ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT TAMUCC TEACHING STUDENTS HOW TO PREPARE A BOUNDARY SURVEY. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOUR STUDENTS HAVE TAUGHT YOU OVER THE LAST 19 YEARS?
My involvement with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the Blucher Institute since 2003 has created numerous opportunities to educate and mentor many practicing professional surveyors in Texas. Over the years, these students have impressed upon me their ability to adapt, embrace and absorb the growth in technology our profession has experienced with time. Perhaps the most impressive ability these students possess is the confidence to pick up a modern survey system like our GPS rovers, and with minimal instruction, they begin to collect survey data. They can understand and utilize special features of the system software and have the desire to learn all the system’s capabilities.
YOU FIND A GENIE IN A LAMP AND HAVE BEEN GRANTED ONE WISH. WHAT WOULD YOUR WISH BE?
One of my long-term visions has been to attract an endless source of young people to become involved in the profession of land surveying. As professional surveyors, we always say that a surveyor is the first person to be involved in a project of any type—with the need to mark the boundaries of the land being used and the last person involved to complete a final survey after construction or development is finished. That statement still applies today, perhaps not to the extent that an original locating surveyor marking a historical land grant from the Republic of Texas did for a person settling the land from far away, however. Today, we are still the first professionals involved as populations grow, cities expand, transportation and other infrastructures are improved, and new roads and highways are created. This growth requires a continued increase and replenishment of the professionals with young people to educate and mentor.
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