Franklin Surveys was hired in December 2024 to provide land surveying and construction stakeout services for a new exhibition space, the Wells Boat Hall, at the Mystic Seaport Museum in the Mystic section of Stonington, CT.
Mystic Seaport Museum is widely regarded as one of the world’s preeminent maritime museums. The museum reports that the “The Wells Boat Hall will consist of 35,000 square feet of space in the Rossie Mill that will be converted from low-value warehouse space into high-value public exhibition space.” The new exhibit will allow full public access to the museum’s watercraft collection for the first time while conserving the historic Rossie Velvet Mill building.
The project construction manager, Mattern Construction (Baltic, CT), hired Franklin Surveys to support the site layout alongside Cherenzia Excavation (Pawcatuck, CT), who is performing site work on the project. Franklin Surveys was responsible for establishing horizontal controls and a project benchmark. We reviewed the site and structural plans, and prepared worksheets in advance of our field visit. On site, we recovered and verified nearby benchmarks and verified and transferred them to client-specified locations. Our first layout task was establishing marks relative to the stairway at the main entrance for visitors.
Franklin Surveys worked with the construction manager to determine which benchmarks would best suit their layout needs. We worked through challenges including interpreting dimensions from structural plans, and calculating dimensions using trigonometry and a standard hand calculator. For quality control purposes, we re-reviewed the benchmarks that we set after-the-fact, and verified dimensions calculated in the field.
Franklin Survey’s expertise, high-quality work, and attention to detail made for a smooth process in working with Mattern Construction and Chereniza Excavation during this stage of the project. The Wells Boat House is scheduled to open to the public in the Fall of 2025.
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