Control Point Associates, Inc. has the capability to utilize LIDAR technology to generate remarkably accurate 3D information for its clients.

Control Point Associates, Inc. exemplifies a company born of vision and necessity. In 1992, Ludwig “Lud” Bohler realized he needed his own survey team to service his very fast-growing civil engineering company, Bohler Engineering. As a means to control how he was getting his surveying done, he formed Control Point Associates. Although Bohler has since sold his engineering company and survey division, and retired fully from his position as CEO of Control Point, he put in place the leadership that would guide Control Point Associates well into the future.

Today, three partners—Richard A. Butkus Jr., President/Managing Partner; Paul Jurkowski, Sr. Vice President/Partner; and James C. Weed, PLS, Sr. Vice President/Partner—head up the successful stand-alone company, providing the talent needed for projects critical to Control Point’s clients’ success. Control Point—which has eight offices throughout New York, as well as in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania—offers a variety of professional land surveying, construction stakeout, 3D laser scanning and modeling, geographic information systems (GIS), mobile LIDAR, subsurface utility engineering, aerial photogrammetry, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with aerial LIDAR, and hydrographic services to meet the demands of an expanding client base.

A Surveying Standout

Weed, who oversees the construction group, notes that Control Point is an anomaly in the survey world. He says, “With nearly 160 full-time employees, we’re enormous for a full-service land surveying company. We have the ability to mobilize over 40 field crews with a much quicker response time than most smaller companies.”

With a core coverage area from Maryland to Maine, as well as being licensed in Ohio, West Virginia and Florida, Control Point is able to take its skills on the road. Closer to home, the company performs a tremendous amount of building monitoring throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Weed says, “Our construction division specializes in vertical construction, laying out access lines and benchmarks for high-rise construction. That’s kind of a niche service; not a lot of companies do that kind of work since it’s high liability.”

Incorporating a combination of traditional methods and advanced technologies, Control Point has 13 laser scanners, as well as in-house 3D modeling and UAV services, among its many capabilities. Weed shares, “We have a fleet of drones, and we have a separate division that does pre- and post-construction surveys as well as interim aerial surveys for financing purposes.”

Oftentimes, a customer will bring Control Point in during a retrofit, particularly when there are no existing plans or record of what is there. Weed explains, “We get called in and they don’t even know how we’re going to do it. They just know they need an accurate as-built of where the walls and columns and structural elements are. In many of those cases, we’ll employ 3D technology to create a point cloud and then develop 2D floor plans so the architects and structural teams know what’s there and know what they can design from.” Depending on the application or the software an individual architect is using, deliverables can range from 2D floor plans and reflective ceiling plans to, in some cases, full-scale 3D Revit models that have intelligence.

Adding Value: Saving Time and Money

Not surprisingly, the sooner a customer gets the Control Point Associates team involved on a given project, the better the information is going to be and the smoother the project will go. That is, by starting off with good survey information, everything that follows is going to be more accurate. The value here is cost and time savings that result from fewer change orders and fewer delays because the design engineer can actually design based on real conditions.

As an example, Weed cites a project at a major hospital in New York where the client was going to retrofit numerous mechanical objects through an existing chiller room. He recalls, “They had us laser scan and model it so that the design engineer had a very accurate model of what they were trying to fit pipes through and around. In the past, they would have gone out and just tried to field fit it, which would have taken forever and created significant back charges from the trades. Having quality, detailed information up front saved time and money.”

Whether for new construction projects or retrofits, Control Point Associates has both the experience and the technology to provide fast, accurate surveying. “My favorite phone call,” Weed shares, “is when a customer calls me and says, ‘Jim, I have a problem and I don’t know what to do.’ We have all the tools in the toolbox to figure out the best, most cost-effective, quickest way.”