3D Scanning in Folsom, CA

Few cities this size have as much heavy civil structure inside their limits. Folsom Dam holds back Folsom Lake, and the auxiliary spillway built beside the main concrete dam by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, substantially complete in October 2017, added a 1,100-foot approach channel, a gated concrete control structure, a 3,100-foot chute, and a stilling basin. Folsom Lake Crossing opened in March 2009 after the road across the top of the dam was closed for security. Downstream, the Rainbow Bridge carries traffic over the river on a concrete arch, the 1895 Folsom Powerhouse is one of the oldest hydroelectric plants in the world, and Folsom State Prison, opened in 1880, was sited where native granite was at hand to build it. Documenting structures like these is work for the agencies and engineers responsible for them, and it is control-network work: targets tied to project control, so a scan can be compared with design or with a later epoch rather than simply looked at.

In town, the work is buildings. Sutter Street sits inside the city's Historic District, where the Historic District Commission reviews projects that affect a historic property and larger additions at commission level. Architects preparing those submittals need facades, storefronts, and floor levels as they really are, which on Gold Rush-era masonry is never square. South of Highway 50, the Folsom Plan Area is building out with new neighborhoods, schools, and commercial centers. On new construction we scan before and after the pour and verify structural steel and anchor bolts to 1/8 inch, with total station check shots on any bolt group near tolerance.

We are a licensed California surveyor based in the foothills a short drive from Folsom. Control is GNSS primary and total station secondary, held to 0.01 US survey feet relative to project control; scans come from a Trimble X9, check shots from a Trimble S3, processing in Trimble Business Center. You receive a registered, cleaned cloud (E57, LAS, or RCP) plus scan-to-CAD plans, sections, elevations, and 3D linework. See 3D laser scanning, as-built surveys, scanning in Sacramento, and our Folsom surveying page.