The key to intelligent growth is providing adequate transportation options from the developing regions to the job market. Highways, railways and trolley lines can be very complex projects threading their way thru communities and affecting numerous disciplines and jurisdictions along the way. Photo Geodetic has been very active in Transportation mapping throughout Southern California.

In most major transportation projects numerous firms and agencies are involved and it is important that as the mapping firm Photo Geodetic Corporation be flexible. When supplying the mapping products, we must be able to provide software requirement needs as well as the complex specification needs of each agency. Careful planning is important on projects which may require delivery in various datums, softwares, even conversions between Metric and English versions of the products. The mapping must be planned and collected in a way that makes these various requirements affordable and seamless in transition.

The following projects are some of the major transportation projects which Photo Geodetic has been involved in, providing mapping and photographic services to the large team of professionals and agencies required on these interesting and complex projects.

NCTD, Coaster Light Rail

Photo Geodetic was contracted to provide services in various phases. Phase 1 of the project included high altitude photography and rectified photos to assist with right of way acquisition and alignment studies of the area from San Diego to Oceanside.

Once the alignment was established Photo Geodetic provided design accuracy mapping of the corridor and proposed station sites. Overall mapping was delivered to North County Transit District (NCTD) and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Individual station site mapping was delivered to the engineering firms working with the various cities affected.

A Metric version of the primary mapping corridor was delivered in both Autocad.DWG and Microstation.DGN format with Caltrans and NCTD specifications. Depending on the requirements of the engineering firm and the cities involved, station sites were delivered in Autocad.DWG in either Metric or English foot versions.

State Route 125

Photo Geodetic provided base mapping for design of the SR125 corridor from SR-94 to the Mexican border crossing. This was a very complicated project that involved an international consortium of engineering firms formed under California Transportation Ventures as well as Caltrans and numerous cities.

This project required extremely detailed project management and record keeping, as every entity involved required different versions of the data.

The SR-94 portion of the project had to be collected and delivered in NAD 27 Imperial units to match existing Caltrans design files, while the remainder of the project was translated and re- projected in NAD 83 Metric units. While most of the design work was to be produced in Metric format from Microstation files, many of the cities and engineering firms involved required files in AutoCAD format and Imperial units or different datums. This was further complicated by constant alignment changes over a 16 month period as various environmental concerns were addressed and city planning groups reviewed the proposed alignments.

The SR125 Toll Road project is currently under construction and will be one of the first toll road projects in California developed and constructed by the private sector and eventually turned over to Caltrans. When completed, it will provide a primary transportation corridor from the Mexican border into California.

Mission Valley East Trolley Extension

The Mission Valley East Extension of the San Diego Trolley system was the latest project Photo Geodetic was honored to be involved in for the Metropolitan Transit District Board (MTDB). Photo Geodetic has provided mapping services for numerous trolley extension projects including: the primary line from downtown San Diego to the Mexican border, the West Mission Valley extension from the Qualcomm Stadium to Old Town, and most recently the 5.8 mile Mission Valley East extension from Qualcomm Stadium to Grossmont Center.

Photo Geodetic first produced high altitude color photography which was enlarged into a mosaic photo 40" x 200". The proposed alignment was then superimposed on to the photo and printed on folding panels for use at numerous public meetings.

Photo Geodetic was originally contracted to produce a base map for right of way acquisition, but after meeting with MTDB, it was decided that Photo Geodetic would produce design quality mapping for the entire alignment. Once again Photo Geodetic delivered the project in Metric and Imperial units as required by the firms involved in various phases of the project. During the course of the project, Photo Geodetic was further contracted to provide full mapping coverage of the San Diego State University (SDSU) Campus.

This project was very interesting because it involved two overhead freeway crossings, connections into existing stations at Qualcomm Stadium and Grossmont Center, and a complicated underground tunnel and station at San Diego State University.

This project is now complete and has had a positive impact on this heavy traffic corridor. The trolley access to Qualcomm Stadium, SDSU and the Alvarado and Grossmont medical facilities greatly increases public access to these facilities, provides mobility alternatives to San Diegans, and reduces automobile traffic in the area.