Hello Surveyors
I am a Crew Chief for a county in Central California and we are trying to find the most efficient way to protect well lids during the Chip Seal process. One person on staff had said he found someone that sold monument well size stickers. That way we could lay them down and then come through after they chip and just pull the sticker off. Its supposed to save time instead of having to put duct tape down.?ÿ
Does anyone know of these and what they are called or have an efficient way that you have found that works when trying to protect lids?
Cover them with a thin layer sand.
The bitumen sticks to the sand and when the road is swept the lid is automatically exposed.
?ÿ
@jimcox Thank you for the tip Sir. I will definitely look at that option.
What is being done for the various valve covers and MH lids?
@norman-oklahoma so the deal is that the chip seal crew are supposed to be spraying any lid with an oil or some sort of liquid that makes the chip not stick. then they are supposed to be clearing them off as they go. My boss, the County Surveyor, drove past a whole section of lids that they didnt uncover. He raised hell and now it sounds like its being put to us to deal with the lids. So he is looking at different options of how to protect them ourselves.
@jimcox ??? ????ÿ my apologies. I am originally from Texas. Everyone is Sir or Ma'am. My Dad made sure of that.
My opinion: back charge the chip seal contractor.
County crew doing chip seal? Take it out of their budget.
One solution is to use an adhesive on the back of a piece of cardboard cut to protect the actual shape, square or circle.
I'm working on a job in Portland on Columbia Blvd.?ÿ It appears the city's paving crew has covered over the centerline mon boxes over the years.?ÿ I get a nice ring on them.?ÿ Of all things, I talk the to PDOT's survey manager & he is going to have them uncovered by the maintenance department.?ÿ Of course the maintenance department is goin to back charge the survey group.
Everything gets sealed here, been that way for decades.?ÿ
Nice that PBOT is doing that for you. Digging them up yourself is no fun.
@michaelrod no offense taken here, I grew up all over the place but the South was a big part of it. One of the things that stuck with me was sir/ma'am growing up. It's an ingrained sign of respect.
What is the issue with oil and sand over a monument case lid??ÿ Jp
I claim no ownership or responsibility - its just the way we do it down here.
I am involved in the counties annual chipseal process. Here are our steps:
1. prelim chipseal schedule published, I create maps for the field crew, and we paint up every monument to be protected. (Not all our mons are encased). Positions are GPS??ed if not already part of our control network.
2. Just before chipseal starts we check against the final vs the prelim to see if any roads added/removed. We drive the roads to make sure the paint is still clear.?ÿ
3. day one of chipseal operations, I assign a survey crew member to train the road crew guys to properly cover the mon case with tar paper and a skiff of sand. Please note that too much sand (a pile, not a skiff) will actually break the mon lid and push it into the case! For road mons, (or mons not every 1/2 mile), I have the road crew mark a pink spray paint stripe in the ditch to assist in finding it again.?ÿ
4. after chipseal is complete, the survey crew goes out and uncovers the mons. 90% are at least partially visible, and most just need the edges cleaned up. In Washington state, the county or municipality is required to uncover mons after chipseal operations.
tips and tricks: the most valuable tools for uncovering monuments are a portable wet/dry vacuum and the smallest roto-hammer you can find. The county has Milwaukee M18, and I have Dewalt 20V. Both work great, but the Milwaukee has a more powerful vacuum. For roto-hammmer, you actually want the lowest impact and highest beats per minute. This will help in not damaging aluminum caps if you uncover them. Bosch makes a perfect tiny little case of bits, perfect for survey work (HCST006). Also, there a industrial cleaning product called Citrol that does an incredible job of cleaning road tar off of tools and survey caps. If you can??t get it where you are, PB blaster or brake cleaner are probably the best alternatives.?ÿ
