It's not a boundary survey... it's boundary maintenance.
Well, there's a little weasel word that should keep the cost low and allow just about anyone to perform on the project. Which is exactly what project management must have been thinking when they wrote this in the statement of work for which I am being considered.
"... the boundary line markings for this project have already been surveyed" was the reply I got when I asked why this agency would allow statements such as "...a surveyor's license or equipment is NOT required for this contract."
Similar to someone's tag line, you don't need to be a?ÿ ...?ÿ surveyor if you find all the corners (and there is no reason to think they are disturbed).
@bill93?ÿ
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I believe, what the "...surveyor" was insinuating; Original, undisturbed monuments are paramount, everything else is secondary.
But I could be wrong...
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Don't wonder what the Board would think, ask them.
Every monument is subject to destruction, obliteration, damage and intentional movement.?ÿ At any point in time after its installation by a surveyor.?ÿ Right??ÿ So finding something does not mean it is where it was put.?ÿ Finding two things that agree does not assure they both weren't moved the same amount.?ÿ This is why land surveyors are licensed.?ÿ To protect the public's interest.
Around here:
WAC 196-29-110
Land surveying practice standards...
(1) The monumentation, posting, and/or the marking of a boundary line between two existing corner monuments constitutes the "practice of land surveying" as defined in chapter 18.43 RCW and chapter 196-16 WAC, and consequently requires said work to be performed under the direct supervision of a registered professional land surveyor...
Let me take a guess on the agency, USACE?
It's not a boundary survey... it's boundary maintenance.
Well, there's a little weasel word that should keep the cost low and allow just about anyone to perform on the project. Which is exactly what project management must have been thinking when they wrote this in the statement of work for which I am being considered.
"... the boundary line markings for this project have already been surveyed" was the reply I got when I asked why this agency would allow statements such as "...a surveyor's license or equipment is NOT required for this contract."
The boundary was surveyed twenty years ago, in fact. So, I will maintain it is not a legitimate claim that a surveyor need not be involved. Any work at or near a boundary requires a licensed individual to make that determination. It should not be left to the project manager to decide.?ÿI'm wondering what the Board would have to say on this matter.?ÿ
interesting.?ÿ I work a fairly large company that used to do structural inspections, and I asked if the Miami Condo collapse and the fallout afterwards generated more business.
I was told it's no longer called structural inspection but now it's 'building maintenance." the Use of sanitized phrases and insider context is to avoid public spectre and potential liability I was told.
that's all coming from the engineers and the risk management sector, so maybe they figured they could weasel the survey people into that mind set too.
great question for the board.
hopefully they have at least as many Surveyors seated at the discussion as engineers.
It's unclear- the job could be freshening paint, blazes, and signs.
USACE is a federal entity. I don??t believe any state board would have jurisdiction over how the federal government choses to maintain its boundary lines, no matter how lame their procedures might be. And that??s the rub.?ÿ
@bushaxe The Board would run up against tge supremacy clause if they went after USACE on federal interest land. The attorney general however could whack any unlicensed dufus who marked boundaries common to private or state lands.
Most federal entities are smart enough to avoid battles like this. Out West it adds to the anti-fed sentiment so most work under state authority laws and rules when private is involved. The exception is the one federal entity with actual authority, the BLM. Even they tread lightly a lot more these days.
My first survey task (crew of 4) when I started with the USACE in 1980 was to walk the entire boundary of a large lake, blaze and paint the line, and recover all of the monuments. What I didn't know at the time (I had zero survey experience when I started) is that a survey contractor had been hired to (re-) monument the boundary with new USCE disks on pipes. Prior to that, some of the corners were marked by stones, others not marked at all. The Corps gave them SP coordinates for all of the corners, as well as a network of control points to come off of. At each found corner we would set three point ties in trees, H beam, etc. One section on a steep hillside we could not find any monuments. We weren't sure if we were just missing them, maybe in the wrong area, or what. Then we found a pile of about 10 pipe monuments thrown over a cliff. So they didn't want to go through the effort of setting them in difficult locations. As far as I know, the contractor was never penalized for it nor made to make it right.?ÿ
Anyway, that task was "boundary maintenance". We did not reset any mons, just walked the line marking it and recovering mons if present.?ÿ
As the Forest Engineer for a large paper company. I had oversight of a company wide program called "boundary maintenance".?ÿ All it amounted to was the re-painting of company land boundaries every 4 years, and replacing metal signs if any were missing. No surveying work. This work was done by forest work crews that had the responsibility of kudzu control spraying, beaver pond dam removal, searching for and gathering of "super" pine cones for experimental forest use, etc. IOW, no high level of education. I think other paper companies in the Southeastern US had the same programs.
I surveyed a portion of a USACE line where the painted line was 20-30 feet from the monumented boundary. The adjacent homeowner made improvements based on that painted line and was cited with an encroachment violation.?ÿ
The Government Boundary in this area had been ??maintained? by similar maintenance contracts for 60 years. One maintenance contractor got off line at some point and every maintenance contractor there after followed his paint.?ÿ
@bushaxe?ÿ
This is where I get confused. If no surveyors are maintaining the boundary then how do the lines get marked in between the monuments that establish the boundary? It seems they are just hit or miss locations and the only tool they use is paint.
I've seen boundaries marked by foresters before and they are not very accurate. I'm starting to think that I do not want this project because these people are ethically compromised.
They wrote that a "forester compass" was appropriate for this project and I can understand how that might be appropriate to perambulate the line and inventory the monuments, but not to mark the lines.?ÿ
Right?
It Depends...
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Maybe it's Depends these days for the most senior set and some of the youngun's.
Survey method note as seen on a survey done by a licensed surveyor in 1991
