> Some topos are the easiest survey work I’ve ever done. Others are the hardest survey work I’ve ever done.
:good:
Exactly. This seems to be the “Year of the Topo” at our office having done nearly 20 this year (whew!).
One was about 30 acres for a railroad and industrial park with existing rails, points of frog, ground, old drainage structures (circa 1890) new roads, boundary, conflicts, houses over the lines, fences, big big a$$ dogs, crazy bluffs, et cetera.
Except for about 3 acres, it was WIDE open. It took me more than 7 days to complete it and WELL over 1000 shots. It also took nearly three days in the office to complete also. It would have taken much longer but we had all control already set and I came in each night for about an hour and downloaded data and connected breaklines up and generated contours each night so that I could see holes and problems that I’d missed.
We have done some that were 5 acres, wide open, that took a few hours.
Topo, especially if you mix in as-built and boundary with it, is quite possibly the most mentally grueling of all field work since you’re having to keep up with three scopes for the project and constantly thinking and reviewing in 2 and 3D.
We no longer use conventional total stations for the work as I get tired of listening to instrument men bitch about being in the sun all day. We have a robot and I can keep the notes and tell the rodman what to get and how to get it. The biggest problem with that is them not remembering changes in rod heights as they absolutely cannot think in 3d and have no idea why I froth at the mouth about it or about them sticking the range pole in the dirt 0.1′ on every shot. 🙂