Topcon GMS-2 at St. Clair County, Michigan GIS

Have you ever tried to find the stump
of a broken off stop sign hidden
under a snow bank?”

Justin Burns’ question is not rhetorical.
He’s the GIS Coordinator of the St. Clair
County, Michigan, Road Commission, and
he knows first hand just how important
it is to be able to accurately locate any of
the more than 30,000 road signs his crews
are responsible for maintaining. They have
two specially-equipped “bucket trucks”
dedicated exclusively to sign maintenance
on the 1,800 miles of roadway within the
county.

Until recently, each of those trucks
was equipped with a 6-inch thick book
detailing the location of every sign in the
county that the crews used to locate any
requiring repair or replacement. Once onsite,
the job of locating the broken post
was done by Road Commission employees
with shovels. But that has all changed since the crews were equipped with Topcon GMS-2
handheld GPS receivers in July 2007.

‘The dual constellation capability is a big advantage. We have a couple of old single constellation units from another manufacturer, and they often struggle to connect to the GPS satellites. With the GMS-2, crews in the
field can even get good information through the windshield of their trucks. That’s going to be a real benefitin the winter, and a big contributor to both improved crew morale and productivity.’ – Justin Burns, St. Clair County, MI Road Commission