California Question Re. PE Act 6731.1, and Civil Engineers Doing Work Traditionally Reserved for Land Surveyors

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Last Post by steven-metelsky 4 years ago

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transitman

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I am a land surveyor in California and have become interested in the change a number of years ago to the Professional Engineers Act, which appears to allow Civil Engineers to do a number of things, under the heading of ?ÿ??Engineering Surveying?? ?ÿwhich were traditionally the ??turf?? of land surveyors.?ÿ I am referring to section 6731.1 of the California PE Act (2022).?ÿ

Surveyors still have the exclusive right to define boundaries and, oddly, GPS.?ÿ ?ÿHowever, I do not see a corresponding item in the California Professional Land Surveyors?? Act which would allow this traditionally land surveyor??s work, such as construction staking, topographic mapping, volume surveys, etc., to be done by Civil Engineers.?ÿ Also, ?ÿhow can construction staking be done by a someone who is not trained in boundary analysis, like land surveyors??ÿ Eventually, even with construction staking, you typically get to a boundary line.

Has this actually gone to court??ÿ How has this been addressed in practice??ÿ I have seen some older communication regarding this matter on this site, but was wondering what the current thinking was.

Posted : February 6, 2022 1:22 pm

ashton

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A broader question is the case where one of the laws about professions and occupations allows members of a certain occupation to do X, but another law says that only members of some other occupation may do X. I'm not going to look up the exact passages, but in Vermont, PEs may investigate technical matters. But the law concerning private investigators says only PIs may investigate matters that are likely to go to court. So may a PE investigate a technical matter that is likely to go to court?

Posted : February 7, 2022 9:22 am

steven-metelsky

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construction stake out in nj does not have to be done by a pls. However, boundary work and property lines must be resolved and marked before a company starts their stake out work.

Posted : March 5, 2022 7:12 am

holy-cow

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One must remember that land surveyors have not always been recognized as a profession by each State.?ÿ Those duties, plus a wide range of other work, fell under the Engineering Profession.

Posted : March 5, 2022 7:24 am