Projects
Below are a few of our noteworthy projects from recent years.
West Fraser Aquatic Centre
Exton and Dodge provided a variety of services throughout the construction of the West Fraser Aquatic Centre upgrade. Surveying an extensive addition to fit an existing building presented many challenges. Pre-construction we re-established property lines, prepared topographic plans from which engineers could design from, and created control networks. While patrons were doing their morning laps, we were adjacent to the pool taking measurements to existing building foundation and support beams required by structural engineers and architects. When construction began, we provided the layout for the new building addition, parking lot and underground civil infrastructure. With the pool and building complete, our final task was to measure the length of each lane in the lap pool, thus certifying it for competition.
Highway 97 Four-Laning Project
Before any construction could begin, Exton and Dodge was contracted by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to establish new boundaries that would accommodate the highway widening. The proposed widening would span over six kilometers, affecting many private residential lots as well as the Williams Lake Indian Reserve. A BC Land Surveyor prepared several plans showing the portions of each residential lot that would be expropriated for road purposes. A Canada Land Surveyor was required to prepare a plan for the portions of the Williams Lake Indian Reserve that would become highway as well as areas of the existing highway that were closed and returned to the Reserve. With the boundaries approved by local First Nation Government, as well as the Provincial and Federal Government, the boundaries lines were staked and construction could begin.
Williams Lake Indian Band Treaty Settlement Survey
In 2017, Exton and Dodge was awarded the contract to survey a large 1193 hectare parcel. The survey required that over 16 kilometers of boundary be surveyed and cut-and-blazed by fallers. However, before the survey could begin, a devastating wildfire scorched over 80 percent of the proposed parcel. A danger tree assessment crew was then required to work ahead of the survey crew, falling any potential threats while the surveyors carefully assessed the remains of historic survey monuments dating back to the 1880s.
Lytton First Nation Land Code Surveys
Exton and Dodge won several contracts for surveys on 19 Lytton First Nation Reserves in 2018 and 2019. The purpose of the surveys was to support a legal description of lands being transferred to the Lytton First Nation’s administration and control pursuant to the First Nations Land Management Act. The surveys involved the re-establishment of historical Reserve boundaries as well as creating parcels in each reserve to contain historical public roads through the Reserves. First Nation members were part of our field survey crew.
Innergex
Innergex and the Kanaka Bar First Nation formed a partnership to build a power generating station on Reserve land where the Kwoiek Creek flows into the Fraser River south of Lytton, BC. Our work included a topographic survey of the power station area for design purposes. Subsequent to construction we did right-of-way surveys through several Reserves, a right-of-way survey over Crown land for 50 km of transmission line from Kanaka Bar to the BC Hydro substation south of Logan Lake, and a right-of-way survey over Crown land for 7 km of penstock adjacent to Kwoiek Creek. We have also done similar R/W surveys on other Innergex power projects including Tretheway Creek (west side of Harrison Lake), Big Silver Creek (east side of Harrison Lake) and Boulder Creek (northwest of Pemberton along the Upper Lillooet River).
Mount Currie IR 8 and Nesuch IR 3
We were retained by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to re-establish the boundary limits of a road that was surveyed in 1948 with no monuments set in the ground. This road is now part of Highway 99 which has been upgraded and moved in several places. Complicating matters was a non-legal, unregistered survey plan purporting to show the location of the original survey. This plan was in error but was used in a Supreme Court case to remove a blockade of the Highway and resume certain parcels by Order in Council. 180 lots were surveyed to describe areas to be returned and new areas to be acquired for the corridor to contain the existing Highway 99. Photogrammetric methods using 1949 air photos were used to establish the centerline of the original survey. In this rare circumstance, permission was given to produce the legal plan with colors to clarify the purpose of each lot created. For his efforts in determining a solution for this very complicated puzzle, Doug Dodge, BCLS, CLS was presented with the David Thompson National Geomatics Award for challenging cadastral survey projects by the Association of Canada Lands Surveyors in 2015.
