On my way home today, I saw a survey crew locating a point with RTK on the shoulder of the highway. I stopped out of curiosity and because I didn't reconized the truck or surveyors. I asked the surveyor who was occupying the point, what they were doing, he replied that they were doing a control survey, it turned out the control was for a boundary survey for a tract of land about 800 feet wide and 2000 feet long adjacent to the highway. The tract is an alfalfa field with a home in one corner. The tract is owned by, and the home of a local real estate agent. The survey crew was from a suburb of Denver, over 200 miles away. A few things crossed my mind, like that's a long way to come to do a somewhat small survey, why would you need control if your using RTK, how much is this survey going to cost the real estate agent and what was she thinking. I have never done work for this real estate agent, once she complained about the cost when I gave her an estimate to do a survey and I never heard from her again.
Buy a $50,000 RTK system then you too could cut your prices!
Dave Karoly, post: 426897, member: 94 wrote: Buy a $50,000 RTK system then you too could cut your prices!
They were using a Trimble
billvhill, post: 426896, member: 8398 wrote: On my way home today, I saw a survey crew locating a point with RTK on the shoulder of the highway. I stopped out of curiosity and because I didn't reconized the truck or surveyors. I asked the surveyor who was occupying the point, what they were doing, he replied that they were doing a control survey, it turned out the control was for a boundary survey for a tract of land about 800 feet wide and 2000 feet long adjacent to the highway. The tract is an alfalfa field with a home in one corner. The tract is owned by, and the home of a local real estate agent. The survey crew was from a suburb of Denver, over 200 miles away. A few things crossed my mind, like that's a long way to come to do a somewhat small survey, why would you need control if your using RTK, how much is this survey going to cost the real estate agent and what was she thinking. I have never done work for this real estate agent, once she complained about the cost when I gave her an estimate to do a survey and I never heard from her again.
Maybe they were completing the survey because it is related to a design that their engineering department was gonna handle. I recently did a boundary survey on 60 acres 300 miles from my office. Crazy to drive that far for a boundary, but we also did a full topo on the creeks, abandoned RR bed, roadway, etc. The 60 acres of cotton (yes there is cotton in the bootheel of MO) will be transferred into a waste water treatment plant and a sewage spray field that our environmental department is designing.
StLSurveyor, post: 426908, member: 7070 wrote: Maybe they were completing the survey because it is related to a design that their engineering department was gonna handle. I recently did a boundary survey on 60 acres 300 miles from my office. Crazy to drive that far for a boundary, but we also did a full topo on the creeks, abandoned RR bed, roadway, etc. The 60 acres of cotton (yes there is cotton in the bootheel of MO) will be transferred into a waste water treatment plant and a sewage spray field that our environmental department is designing.
Oh and yes we use Trimble gear 😉
billvhill, post: 426896, member: 8398 wrote: On my way home today, I saw a survey crew locating a point with RTK on the shoulder of the highway. I stopped out of curiosity and because I didn't reconized the truck or surveyors. I asked the surveyor who was occupying the point, what they were doing, he replied that they were doing a control survey, it turned out the control was for a boundary survey for a tract of land about 800 feet wide and 2000 feet long adjacent to the highway. The tract is an alfalfa field with a home in one corner. The tract is owned by, and the home of a local real estate agent. The survey crew was from a suburb of Denver, over 200 miles away. A few things crossed my mind, like that's a long way to come to do a somewhat small survey, why would you need control if your using RTK, how much is this survey going to cost the real estate agent and what was she thinking. I have never done work for this real estate agent, once she complained about the cost when I gave her an estimate to do a survey and I never heard from her again.
Out of town, means nothing these days. If you have the equipment, are licensed, and you have a client who'll pay you to do it, travel is minor.
I stopped taking work more than about 25 miles from home years ago. I also stopped getting worked up about other people I see surveying in what seems like "my turf." You never know who is someone's nephew or brother-in-law or teammate from high school. People hiring surveyors have a real mixed bag of criteria.
Sounds like a survey for a commercial or industrial site development . Survey client is either the buyer or buyer's broker.
The local real estate woman probably has nothing to do with the surveyors except as a name on a piece of paper.
You already insinuated that she was not the type to pay a reasonable fee for a survey. She's most likely not paying for one as the seller.
Worked for a few Surveyors who had corporate clients. We would be sent many miles to do a simple boundary.
I've been following this site for a while and just joined. I enjoy reading the posts on this site. Anyways, to the subject...Some surveyors are road warriors. If times get slow in their town, they will take work somewhere else. I've spent a lot of time on the road doing surveys hundreds of miles from my home. My 'turf' is any state in which I'm licensed.
Matt McKeegan, post: 426923, member: 12709 wrote: I've been following this site for a while and just joined. I enjoy reading the posts on this site. Anyways, to the subject...Some surveyors are road warriors. If times get slow in their town, they will take work somewhere else. I've spent a lot of time on the road doing surveys hundreds of miles from my home. My 'turf' is any state in which I'm licensed.
Welcome Matt.
edit: Welcome to the site, Matt. ("welcome mat" just didn't sound quite right after I typed it. ;))
We have clients that would rather pay us to travel and find local knowledge than train a new Surveyor on what they need. Pretty common these days.
There is a general etiquette about wandering into unknown areas, and "doin a bit of surveying".
Such as:
This section is about 330' longer than GLO record, N-S, and the whole town is laid out, holding 2640, and 3960, from the south end...
It's just good professional manners, to talk with the local surveyor. Not to mention the liability factor.
N
Sometimes you have a regular client that asks you to do a job in a place that you wouldn't ordinarily go.
I think Robert has it figured out.
I stumbled onto a small survey recently of a tract maybe 200 feet by 200 feet performed by a company from 140 miles away. A few lots in a block in a town of maybe 500 people. But, it adjoins a US highway that crosses several states. I think this will become the site of a retail store owned by a company that has thousands of such stores. I would bet this survey company has probably been involved in dozens or hundreds of such surveys for that company. The company knows exactly what they will get and saving a few hundred dollars (maybe) on using a local surveyor is a drop in the overall project bucket.
Nate makes an excellent point about checking in with a local surveyor. We need to be willing to help each other out when we can. A few minutes of conversation may save two days of wasted time digging through the volume of material available.
Another warning: Don't assume that all section corner reports are of equal merit. Search through the surveys on file in addition to getting the section corner reports. Many times the information in the surveys will tell you what you really need to know. Grabbing a few monuments per corner reports does not fill you in on how things have been done. Nate's example where things have been run at exact distances from a certain point is a great example of that. You really need to know the full story of what has been going on in your precise area, by whom and why did certain oddities come into being.
Long ago we entered into an agreement with Payless ShoeSource to handle all their surveying needs in the region, boundary, ALTA, topo, construction staking. It was a well written contract which included travel time & lodging for remoter sites. It was quite remunerative. After two years the let us go. I asked their contract administrator why they picked us and why they let us go. She said they hired us because of our local reputation for timely and competent work and a history of regional work (+-200 miles); they couldn't afford establishing relationships with dozens of local surveyors because of the headaches generated. She said they let us go not because of price but they decided to go with the firm which was handling a lot of their surveying needs nationwide and had established a regional office in our area. She was one smart cookie; she said they make serious offers in areas where the "big boy" has no presence, and reject those bids which are obviously lowball, a disaster in the making according to her.
StLSurveyor, post: 426908, member: 7070 wrote: Maybe they were completing the survey because it is related to a design that their engineering department was gonna handle. I recently did a boundary survey on 60 acres 300 miles from my office. Crazy to drive that far for a boundary, but we also did a full topo on the creeks, abandoned RR bed, roadway, etc. The 60 acres of cotton (yes there is cotton in the bootheel of MO) will be transferred into a waste water treatment plant and a sewage spray field that our environmental department is designing.
What a coincidence, we are surveying a spray field next trip out. WASPO says he'll hold off on spraying for a week before we get there, hope that's enough, it stinks out there. WASPO is State speak for Water and Sewer Plant Operator.
Almost all of my work involves travel.
Meanwhile in Alaska there may be no licenced surveyor within 400 mIles of a project.
aliquot, post: 427034, member: 2486 wrote: Meanwhile in Alaska there may be no licenced surveyor within 400 mIles of a project.
If it werent for flies that grow inside you I would add to the density. Oh, and snow. I hate snow...
Nate The Surveyor, post: 426936, member: 291 wrote: There is a general etiquette about wandering into unknown areas, and "doin a bit of surveying".
Such as:
This section is about 330' longer than GLO record, N-S, and the whole town is laid out, holding 2640, and 3960, from the south end...
It's just good professional manners, to talk with the local surveyor. Not to mention the liability factor.
N
Unfortunately in my experience the local surveyor tends to be territorial and withholds info in my experience. I look at it from a different perspective, new guys are going to come into town to support corporate clients, I would rather share as much as possible that way they don't create problems for me to fix later
