Meet the Team: Dave Woods

Dave Woods joined Watson Engineering Company (Watson) 30 years ago this month. When asked what he’s enjoyed most about his time at the firm, he is unequivocal. “Teamwork. The design team does a great job with preparing much of the information I need to succeed in the field.” As Senior Surveyor and Crew Chief, he also appreciates that he works for a full-service engineering firm that can take a project from start to finish, with the capability in-house to quickly address project concerns or issues that may arise.

When first starting out in his career, Dave received his associate degree in drafting and then took a position with an engineering firm. During his time there he was able to gain a comprehensive understanding of how projects were built – from design though construction. That experience gave him insight into what he enjoyed most about the building process, which was being out in the field - spending his days outdoors meeting interesting people.

During his time with Watson, Dave has witnessed first-hand how technology has improved productivity; it has changed how he does his job. The most impactful change has been the introduction of equipment that utilizes GPS. “GPS has improved accuracy and the overall efficiency of taking measurements in field,” observes Dave. For him, those improvements are most noticeable in the fact that where it used to take a crew of three to four surveyors to complete a job, it now only takes one or two.

Dave reflects on some of the challenging projects he and his crew have worked on over the years: the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and a temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cedar City, Utah. Both buildings were multi-story structures, which necessitated an extremely narrow margin of error.