St. Louis MSD needed to relocate several hundred SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) towers for sanitary lift stations to accommodate a new region-wide system. M3 was retained to investigate potential sites and to design fiber optic lines under railroads and highways. Using GIS, M3 analyzed all properties in circular footprints at one-half mile radial increments from the existing towers. GIS assessor’s plats and property layers were used to document distance from the existing tower, addresses, owners, acreage, and availability to accommodate a new tower. Once the high-potential properties were identified, a SCADA signal analysis was performed to ensure that a new tower could adequately transmit data to and from the SCADA Master Station.

M3 also designed several thousand feet of fiber optic line and encasement in locations where buried cable was prone to excessive live loads, such as railroads and highways.