The right hand versus the left hand, aka nobody is in charge.
Twenty years ago I did a six-mile topographic survey on Rocket Range Road at Edwards Air Force Base. I immediately saw that some other crew had been there recently, same site, same topography. I reported to the engineering office and was told to proceed anyway because they were so big it was hard to keep track of the projects and it could have been anyone. Sigh. My hard earned tax money at work.
So, several years ago I was asked for a proposal for a boundary and topography on a new site for the Salvation Army in Tucson. I figured about $5,000 total cost, but offered to do it for free. They accepted, I did the survey, and then things died down with the economy. They finally started building this year, and on a whim I looked at the development plans. You guessed it. Two years after my survey they hired another firm to do a boundary and topography on the same site I surveyed. I feel like an idiot for volunteering my services. A whole week of my life down the drain for nothing.
Rant over.
> Two years after my survey they hired another firm to do a boundary and topography on the same site I surveyed.
Can't help but wonder if someone got your CAD file and retitled it...
No, I can tell the new one is aerial photogrammetry, so it was indeed a real survey. Good thought, though.
I never survey for free. I give my charity in the form of direct monies to the causes I find worthy. It lowers the value of your service if you are willing to give it away.
Personally, I believe that this is the result of our profession's historically poor commitment to metadata.
We use powerful computers. Why can't our points now include metadata with each point? Would love to see datums, accuracy of control used, date collected, etc.
Elegant, small ascii files are great, but perhaps from a different era.
We did some pavement topos for an unnamed large statewide road department (;-)) at a previous firm that I worked for. They were going to redesign a series of intersections and add HC ramps at the returns. We surveyed four intersections, super busy intersections on this particular highway. I was sent after the topos were prepared in CAD to walk the sites as a QC of the field work and make sure we got everything in each location. At the fourth intersection as I pulled up I noticed about half the intersection was covered with fresh overlay pavement and the other half had been grinded away and was ready for overlay.
So much for the accurate survey the design team asked us for. Maintenance and Engineering apparently do not call each other. The other three intersections were fine, but on this one we placed a big note saying we surveyed the site per the notice to proceed on XX/XX/XX. On YY/XX/XX we went to QC our survey and the road had been grinded and overlayed. We also sent photos of the new work along with our deliverable.
Seems no matter how winded I get trying to explain that it takes REAL time,money,and labor to do, and re-do any survey.
All I end up overhearing at the front of the office, "Oh, no worries, we'll just re-survey it!".
As you can guess, the "we" does not include ME.... 🙂
It's possible that an Architect hired a surveyor without knowing you did a previous survey. I had that happen with a Vol, Fire Company I previously belonged to.