By Timothy Devaney, team leader at McClure, has always enjoyed science, history and the outdoors. Growing up in Boone County, Devaney and his brothers would spend their time exploring and learning together on the family farm. That’s when his passion for the outdoors sparked.“Surveying is a profession that allows for me to combine these fascinations daily,” Devaney says.
Before land becomes a shopping center, a school, or a roadway, McClure surveyors are there, using state-of-the art technology, and gathering critical data that becomes the foundation for achieving your vision.
While working at McClure, Devaney has been part of many fascinating projects involving the newest surveying technology, which uses a combination of tools, including drones and terrestrial scanning. “The processing of this data has become a passion of mine,” Devaney says.
“In order to take such an incredible amount of data, combine it and refine it into a usable end product, we must develop some complex and fascinating workflows.”
Using that technology, Devaney has captured drone data of wind farms to scanning structures in Florida. He has been involved in large scale energy projects and in the construction layout of more than 40 state and county bridges across Missouri.
Surveyors will analyze the data and deliver it in traditional, plan-view survey drawings, complex BIM models and renderings or through drone animations and time-lapse videos of construction sites.
Throughout all of his projects, Devaney continues to follow the three rules of surveying: “check, check, check.” Surveying involves accuracy and precision, and the new surveying technology is no exception to those rules. “We must use proper methods to validate our data and perform redundant measurements for statistical confidence,” Devaney says.
For the past six years at McClure, Devaney says the industry has radically changed, leading to a shortage of surveyors, engineers and technicians. And as technology continues to advance, the demand for skilled individuals will only increase, making McClure focus heavily on recruitment and training. “We put forth great effort to encourage young people to explore surveying as a career,” he says.
McClure focuses on its people, incorporating its five core values of integrity, kindness, innovation, commitment and fun into everyday work, rewarding creativity, professional responsibility, and personal growth.
Throughout his time at McClure, Devaney says he has been given many amazing opportunities to grow and learn, while never losing sight of his roots. “I am fascinated with the way our industry is headed and look forward to the future of surveying,” he says.
To this day, Devaney enjoys spending his free time working on his family farm, raising and caring for the beef herd, working on an apiary of honeybees and tending to his family’s large garden.
MCCLURE | 1901 PENNSYLVANIA DRIVE, COLUMBIA MO573-814-1568 | MCCLUREVISION.COM
