One of the most recognizable parts of the Boston skyline is the Prudential Center – a complex that includes an urban mall and the Prudential Tower, the city’s second-tallest building. DGT was tasked with providing above- and below-ground mapping of a section of sidewalk along Huntington Avenue for planned grading improvements. DGT’s unique contribution was in deciphering the complex and overlapping underground infrastructure beneath this small but vital patch of Boston real estate.

Some of the subsurface elements below the Prudential Center were already identified, including ramps leading to and from the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) and the MBTA Commuter Rail/Amtrak mainline corridor. But there were other facilities beneath the sidewalk that were not clearly mapped. Fortunately, DGT’s surveyors have a long history of surveying at “The Pru,” and our offices are home to extensive archives from our predecessor firms who were involved in the 1964 erection of the Prudential Tower.

DGT was able to provide mapping with cross-section views of the underground facilities that might be encountered in rebuilding the sidewalk and landscaped areas. In addition to the highway and railroad, those facilities included part of the Prudential parking garage, Department of Transportation vaults, an abandoned commuter rail platform, and the MBTA’s Green Line “E” branch tunnel, which continues on under Boylston Street.

In the heart of Boston is Faneuil Hall Marketplace – a prime location for tourists visiting Boston’s historical sites and a meeting place for locals that want to enjoy local festivities, food and seasonal entertainment. The challenge with historic, iconic locations like Faneuil Hall is the need for constant repair, maintenance, expansion and renovation to accommodate consumer demands.

In 2018, DGT was contracted to survey and map portions of Faneuil Hall for planned renovations.  Delving into the archives, DGT uncovered a history that dates back over 200 years. Faneuil Hall was once the Boston shoreline but over time, land reclamation pushed the seafront back to accommodate a growing, vibrant city. Additionally, Faneuil Hall was once used for wholesaling food and produce, requiring brine, or salt water, lines running from the harbor to cool the product and prevent spoilage.

DGT’s survey team prepared detailed site plans for the iconic structure, as well detailed mapping of the buried anomalies in the streets and walkways around FHMP. In our work, DGT discovered unknown piers, harbor walls, concealed bulkheads and more from past generations of builders to inform in safe and smart development decision for the designers involved.

Since 1998, DGT Associates has provided comprehensive survey support services for a series of commercial development projects in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood – including Pierce Boston, Van Ness, 1330 Boylston and Fenway Triangle Trilogy.

DGT is the area’s go-to surveyor for numerous developers, construction managers, civil engineers, attorneys and project consultants. Transforming various under-utilized industrial sites into vibrant mixed-use properties required DGT’s expertise at every stage. From researching land ownership histories to establishing building control grids to creation of vertical subdivision plans, DGT has met the complex needs of these ambitious projects.

Starting with original site surveys by our legacy firm Gunther Engineering, DGT Associates has played in an integral role in the creation of this iconic new cultural center in Boston’s burgeoning Seaport neighborhood. DGT has provided a full spectrum of construction support, layout and as-built surveys. And as the site is a vital waterfront location, DGT has further assisted with multiple city, state and federally required regulatory filings, including sea level rise reporting, Massachusetts Chapter 91 Public Waterfront Act compliance, FEMA Flood Elevation Surveys and environmental Order of Conditions Surveys.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey Island is one of the oldest continuously operated Navy facilities in the US. Its history began in the 1800s with emphasis on building wooden vessels, and today the base focuses on the repair and refurbishment of highly classified nuclear vessels.

As with older Department of Defense facilities, the need to rebuild, repair and construct new infrastructure is ongoing. However, excavation and construction on older facilities military installations always carry a higher risk of surprise discoveries underground. Additionally, prevention of any interruption of services to the contractors and military personnel working is vital.

On a recent housing and new pipeline construction project on base, DGT was contracted to perform a subsurface investigation using geophysical technologies such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electromagnetic Induction (EMI)  in conformance with ASCE 38-02 guidelines. The survey results were plotted on a CAD file for the constructors to mitigate risk and damage to underground facilities in development.

DGT is providing survey support to the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary in support of a planning and design of entrance improvements.  DGT is teamed with project designer Nitsch Engineering. DGT was called on by the MEEI Facilities Department to continue a history of surveying at the MEEI site and the abutting Mass General Hospital campus by our legacy firms Cullinan Engineering and William. S. Crocker Co.

Founded in 1824 as the Boston Eye Infirmary, the MEEI is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and is one of the oldest hospitals in the United States.  DGT is honored to play a small role in helping the MEEI in its specialty health missions.

Images reflect our current survey, Cullinan’s prior survey, and Crocker’s’ 1969 survey of the original building.

Faced with the needs of a growing student population, the Town of Lexington embarked on an ambitious school modernization plan for the 500-student, K-5 Estabrook Elementary School. The DGT Associates engineering team based in Framingham (formerly Schofield Bros.) provided extensive environmental, site and construction monitoring services for the $43-million, 92,000-square-foot new build of school and related improvements including new athletic fields, play areas, parking lots and driveways.

UnionPoint is the multi-phase redevelopment of the 1,400-acre former South Weymouth Naval Air Station straddling the South Shore towns of Weymouth, Rockland and Abington. The project will create a new community based on innovative “smart city” ideas on place making and urban technology. Starting in 2017, DGT Associates launched its work to map the entire site’s complex network of subsurface utility lines. With both high-tech solutions and dogged research, DGT has met the challenge created by incomplete records from decades of military and industrial building and redevelopment across the site.

For this unique and innovative active adult, 55-plus community project, DGT Associates provided numerous engineering and survey services in partnership with an award-winning residential developer. Nestled in the woods of Sudbury, the development of the 26 townhouse condominiums required extensive environmental planning and permitting. DGT’s site engineering and design beautifully preserves the natural elements of the 19-acre property and created sensitive and beneficial connections to, and utilizations of, adjacent woodland conversation lands and trails.

Trusted for both “landside” and “airside” projects, DGT Associates has been a partner in modernizing Boston’s air transportation hub for nearly 20 years. We’ve provided subsurface utility mapping for airfield improvements, ongoing deformation monitoring for settlement levels and construction support for the Hilton Hotel and Terminal A projects, among many other capital improvement projects. We’ve even done the surveys to properly paint the lines that guide taxing aircraft. We take great pride in the public trust of helping travelers stay safe at the New England’s most important airport.

On its ever-evolving Allston campus, DGT Associates has been a constant partner in fulfilling the long-term mission and vision of the Harvard Business School. From our earliest predecessor firms, Aspinwall & Lincoln to William S. Crocker to Gunther Engineering, DGT has assisted the Harvard’s facility managers and numerous architects, construction managers and civil engineers through our rich archives on the area and our ongoing site work. The work continues today with extensive 3D structural mapping, utility tunnel surveys and construction support and permitting.

At 87,500 square feet, the John W. Olver Design Building at The University of Massachusetts Amherst is the largest and most technologically advanced modern academic wood structure in the United States. Utilizing a mass timber construction technique, the building features exposed glulam columns, beams and braces and cross-laminated timber (CLT) interior.

Mass timber is a construction technique that promotes sustainability and depends less on emissions-intensive materials. In addition to innovative the timber structure, the Olver building’s wood-concrete composite floor system is the first in the U.S. of its kind and based on technology researched at UMass by the interdisciplinary architecture, building and construction program, now housed in the building. The inherent and unique challenges of these materials are larger-than-usual building movements during the construction phase.

DGT was on site from 2015-2017 providing construction survey support to Suffolk Construction. Our task, successfully executed, was to maintain rigorous building line-and-grade during the erection process and pouring of the concrete floors.