Contractor that uses own "surveyors"

Happens all the time, no big deal. Large contractors use in house Field Engineers backed by PE's.
I guess if you've never been exposed to this, it seems like something dramatic.

Here's what the CEO of the company had to say:

"We made a mistake," said Doug Weible, chairman and chief executive officer of Fred Weber. "The only people who were impacted by that was Fred Weber Incorporated."

Any number of things could have went wrong there, calculations is just one consideration. The bottom line is that the company has its employee's back.

Ralph

Unless it happens in one of the states that for some reason requires a licensed land surveyor to oversee construction projects, seems like a non-issue.

Seems like the only person hurt by this is the contractor. The have already lost some on the work performed - hopefully they will not face penalties for running past a end date on the project.

Having a licensed surveyor on staff would not mean these issues still wouldn't happen occasionally.

> Unless it happens in one of the states that for some reason requires a licensed land surveyor to oversee construction projects, seems like a non-issue.
>
> Seems like the only person hurt by this is the contractor. The have already lost some on the work performed - hopefully they will not face penalties for running past a end date on the project.
>
> Having a licensed surveyor on staff would not mean these issues still wouldn't happen occasionally.

:good:

I can understand them not having a registered surveyor employed. A registered surveyor determines "boundary lines". According to some state boards, construction surveying is NOT boundary surveying and experience as such does not count toward required experience as a boundary surveyor.

> Unless it happens in one of the states that for some reason requires a licensed land surveyor to oversee construction projects, seems like a non-issue.
>
> Seems like the only person hurt by this is the contractor. The have already lost some on the work performed - hopefully they will not face penalties for running past a end date on the project.
>
> Having a licensed surveyor on staff would not mean these issues still wouldn't happen occasionally.

:good:

Having worked directly for contractors for several years when I was younger I can unequivocally attest to Jon's statements.

Although the biggest piece of concrete I got wrong was approx. 10' x 20' by 1'. I had a pretty good track record.
B-)

Anybody here wish they were the license with the liability for this? It's how it should be, the general contractor is responsible and will make the correction needed. They can hire anyone they wish to do the work. Most hire the best and pay them well.

I am not trying to bash those out there doing this for a living I myself used to work for one of their competitors doing such machine control layout stuff. I don't do it anymore as I now know it isn't what I want to do. I just cringed when I saw the headline.

Unless I missed something, the story doesn't say whether the layout guy was licensed or not. It wouldn't have mattered though, if he was an employee of the company, they would still be responsible. It might cause a firing if it was just being careless, but there is probably more to it than that.

>. "The only people who were impacted by that was Fred Weber Incorporated."

I bet old Fred still makes money on the job

Could have very well been operator error by who ever was running the paving machine or something else that didn't have anything to do with the in house lay out crew.

> >. "The only people who were impacted by that was Fred Weber Incorporated."
>
>
> I bet old Fred still makes money on the job

:good: YEP

> Anybody here wish they were the license with the liability for this? It's how it should be, the general contractor is responsible and will make the correction needed. They can hire anyone they wish to do the work. Most hire the best and pay them well.

:good: YEP

In Mass this would fall under the definition of "land surveying"...the alignment and grades of roads is clearly outlined in the definition of land surveying as requiring a PLS.

Maybe

250 CMR Section 3.05(10) states:

250 CMR: BOARD OF REGISTRATION OF PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS
3.05:
continued
(10)
Land surveying work may be performed only by or under the direct supervision of a registered Land Surveyor qualified by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to so practice except that a Professional Engineer registered as a Civil Engineer may perform land surveying incidental to engineering work excluding property line determination. Any plan which requires the location of a structure in relation to a real property boundary involves property line determination and must be performed by a Land Surveyor.

Clearly, this case doesn't require a property line determination.

Is that the new pavement going under Exchange Ave? I laid out the Exchange Ave exit ramp for a different contractor. We were asked to stake it with 4' HORIZONTAL grade offsets, that is, not projected grade. This seemed very odd and we questioned the superintendent of his request. He said to stake it like he requested. Turns out, the paving machine would only run off of projected lines (like we thought.) The contractor replaced most of that ramp. Fortunately, we documented the request in writing. When we got called to the site to discuss the problem, we were prepared for a battle. We got out of the truck and the first thing the superintendent said to everyone was that we staked it just like he asked us to. Phew!
It should have been caught before the pour. The superintendent was checking his subgrade before he poured. Problem was, he only checked the elevation at the CL of pavement. This is of course the only point on the surface that would have been correct no matter how the machine ran.

The worst part? That pavement was built to spec just like all of the rest of the permanent pavement. Only problem is that is was designed to be ripped out when the next phase went through. That pavement, along with all of the fancy, replaced median divider only was in place for less than a year before the next phase started. Is there any wonder why Illinois is so broke?!?!?

Edit: I just saw who you were...Geez Ryan, tell the stories of your old company^^^^^^!!!

The ramp you were discussing is the ramp we had to tear out. The ramp in the article is Webers and 1200 feet long on I-70.

> The ramp you were discussing is the ramp we had to tear out. The ramp in the article is Webers and 1200 feet long on I-70.

I understand that. My point was that a licensed surveyor (me) staked the ramp as requested. It wasn't a problem caused by a surveyor (licensed or not.) It just seems that you were implying that the cross slope was wrong due to layout by a non-licensed surveyor. I'm sure you are aware that a non-licensed surveyor can do just as good, if not better work than some licensed guys.