Rassenfrassen people who wouldn't know North if a polar bear walked by.
Looking for a reported 1/2-inch iron bar with cap at a section corner.?ÿ Paved roads to east-south-west. Gravel road to north.?ÿ All dimensions listed are straight line with tape.?ÿ Reference #1 says something like 36.72' northeast to "+" on north end of RCB headwall.?ÿ The RCB runs north-south so the?ÿ "+" is on the west end where we found it.?ÿ Reference #2 says 70.98' southeast to mag nail and shiner on southeast face of corner post.?ÿ Wait a minute!?ÿ Why would you set a reference nail on the direct back side of a post from where you are measuring with a steel tape??ÿ There are three possible corner posts to choose from.?ÿ Only one might be about the right distance from where the bar "might" be.?ÿ There is no nail/shiner in any of the three.?ÿ Co-worker happens to notice a single corner post to the northwest with a mag nail and shiner on the southeast side of the post.?ÿ So, we figure that must be what was intended.?ÿ Reference #3 is supposed to be 60d nail in power pole 73.45' to the northwest.?ÿ There is not now nor has there ever been a power pole to the northwest.?ÿ There is a power pole to the southeast, however, but, it was set maybe two years ago so was not the one present in 1984.?ÿ It is in the right ballpark for distance.?ÿ Reference #4 says the bar is 2' south of apparent road center line east-west. (Again, which way is north?"?ÿ Reference #5 says the bar is 4' east of apparent road center line north-south (Same question).
We have painted arcs on pavement resembling some kid creating a hopscotch challenge.?ÿ No believable signals at any points where two arcs cross.?ÿ Best guess is the one spot with a potential null result.?ÿ Probably took some fierce pounding to set the bar fully.?ÿ County has probably chip and sealed this intersection 18 times in the past 36 years.?ÿ Gave up.?ÿ Put in a call to the office where the now-retired surveyor was employed in 1984.?ÿ Anyone knowing how to open a CAD drawing is out in the field for the rest of the afternoon.?ÿ Our theory is to find other bars found or set on that survey and back in to where this is really supposed to be.?ÿ Maybe a call will come in on Monday.
Field crew sketches scene with South up on the page and fails to include a north arrow.?ÿ Office puke fails to realize that. Produces corner record in accordance.?ÿ
Time passes.?ÿPower pole snaps off in windstorm and is replaced in situ.
The CCRs I did in OK all include references to adjacent PLSS corners and SP coordinates because I figured that was a more reliable way to perpetuate them than swing ties to fence posts and nails in power poles. And, with RTK, often easier to use.?ÿ?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
Sadly - I surveyed behind a guy who placed the north arrow on his map pointing straight up, about 220?ø off. Or, in a nicer way to describe it, 140?ø off. Also, no tie, wrong township, no adjoiner info, showed a 30?? easement as 20??, showed pipes at corners that are not present, did not show rebar that were present, and showed a detached garage within the bounds of the property when in fact it encroaches on the adjoining owner by 0.9??. The property owner told me he only charged $350 in 2018. I said, ??well there you go.? I??m conflicted on what to do about it if anything. I looked him up, he??s had past board violations. I sent a copy of his map to a surveyor friend of mine that lives about 100 miles north of me. He immediately recognized the name and gave me a little bit of unflattering history on the guy. It??s frustrating. I don??t want to get involved but people like that make us all look bad and cost us money by offering sub par services at a fraction of a normal fee.?ÿ
Please, no boundary plats with North not up (or south in the parts of the world that is appropriate), be creative, try portrait. Land surveyors can usually handle rotated plats, but plats are primarily prepared?ÿ for land owners/users not other land surveyors.?ÿ
?ÿ
Our plats are prepared for many reasons, not just for the benefit of some future surveyor.?ÿ Thus, the information we provide must be usable by non-surveyors.?ÿ A recent thread mentioned the need for monument preservation.?ÿ If the entity who might destroy them cannot locate them easily, they will complete their task without a search.?ÿ A good example from yesterday's work is a case of a county road culvert having been installed precisely where we were planning to do a search for a GLO stone.?ÿ Providing our data such that relatively untrained construction workers can find our essential monuments is critical.?ÿ Swing ties to numerous objects of varying reasons for existence provides that simplicity to all.?ÿ Put that information on the plat.?ÿ Don't simply segregate it to a separate form for permanent storage in some State-level data abase.
If you are following somebody who surveys that poorly, it is your business. That person is damaging the survey infrastructure and harming the public far beyond his client. Letting these guys slide is part of the reason we are considered by some.to be (at best) tradesmen with muddy boots.?ÿ
Every case like this is different, but it sounds like he is a frequent flyer who hasn't learned his lesson. Help the public and the profession. Make the effort to deal with it.
My .02, Tom?ÿ
Yawn, sigh.... public land state problems. Bless your hearts.?ÿ
I don't see anything about the above complaints specific to PLSS except possibly the requirement to file corner records separate from surveys.
I have no knowledge of recent practices in Colonial states, but the project I recently looked at in one such state showed that in prior decades there were ambiguities such as misclosure by many feet, missing calls in descriptions, insufficient information to check closure, etc. Poor records don't seem to have a geographic limitation.
I have worked in colonial, PLSS and foreign systems (and Texas). The problems may vary a bit, but the percentage of dirt-bags is fairly consistent.
I know little about lysdexia but some of this may be due to such an alemint.?ÿ Did the person mean to say something is South 43.5' TO the monument or South 43.5' FROM the monument??ÿ The old "to or from" question has come up many times over the decades.
The same now-retired surveyor has had similar directionally-challenged references related to other jobs we have had.?ÿ At first I thought he might be fulfilling the filing requirement while secretly keeping the true information for his own use.?ÿ Now I believe it is a case of unintentional sloppiness.?ÿ This is the same fellow who would copy his old Land Survey Reference Repots that go to the State and insert a new date and job number but never confirm the references were even still present, let alone measure to double check for movement (which does happen, by the way).?ÿ The exact same data may be filed ten times for the same monument over ten years but the headwalls of the box culvert that were used for reference were ripped out eight years ago and replaced with a?ÿ large corrugated metal pipe.?ÿ The other references may still exist and fall within a few hundredths of matching the record data.?ÿ Continuing to report clearly erroneous information is unforgiveable.
We are now seeing corner reports being filed for monuments that were not actually recovered to verify whether or not they still exist.?ÿ It is too easy to trust the coordinates from an old job are still one hundred percent accurate and simply add new data to the data from 12 years earlier.
I hear ya. The map I am describing did have a North Arrow pointing up. The only problem is the surveyor failed to rotate the survey, I guess his north arrow is just graphic.?ÿ
You??re telling me. It??s a dang mess. I??m reviewing the procedure for reporting him.
