A little background first...
Just finished up a survey on approximately 100 acres of rural, semi-rugged land. It was not a cheap survey by any means. Among other issues, in particular, the client's NW corner was the N1/4 of the Section and his West line was the 1/4 line. The last known recovery of the N1/4 took place in 1943 by a surveyor named Charlie Condra (a semi-famous surveyor from my area). Since around 1985, recorded surveys of the N line of the section presume this corner is lost, and surveyors have blown through the N1/4 and have surveyed this line as straight from SC to SC. YIKES! This puts the line about 7 feet North of where it appears it actually is. It makes me wonder why no one even attempted to proportion it back in, at the least.
We spent two days piecing together some notes from 1906 by a surveyor of the name Kelley. All of the B-trees Kelley took were gone. However (using other shreds of evidence Kelley left behind), we end up recovering the stone 2-feet below grade about 1 foot North of an old fence post. Evidence of ancient tree lines run out both West and East from the stone. Bang! Bang!
We are grateful that our client values thorough practice.
Back to the topic...
On the South side of this tract lies a 250' transmission line easement. We show this and dimension it on our plat. The easement descriptions were hideous, overlapping and a PITA to straighten out in the first place.
Our client emails us yesterday and requests (for the utility company) that we need to provide a map of the easement (to said utility company) as it relates to this tract, preferably in an ESRI shapefile that said utility company prefers. [sarcasm]No problem.[/sarcasm]
But, we don't work in .shp. It's not that we can't, but it does require conversion. Maybe the fact that they assume we will do this for no charge rubs me wrong. Maybe I need more sleep?
Questions...
1) Do we have a responsibility to provide this at no cost to the utility company?
2) Does this extend our liability?
I will have to check back after while. Going to hunt for some bars 😉
Thanks in advance!
> 1) Do we have a responsibility to provide this at no cost to the utility company?
> 2) Does this extend our liability?
1. Absolutely not.
2. Probably yes since *.shp files are generally geo-referenced. You will definitely need to qualify your datum and precision. Much as I hate disclaimers, you might need to explain your location. Geo-data is some of the most misplaced and misused when circulated among various end-users in my opinion.
What a great life! Out in the county working at snooping out PLSS corners, then for fun going back to the woods looking for bears! Cool! Jp
Look at the original contract.
If it is there, you do it. If it isn't you do not without a new contract and probably more money.
If you are trying to be nice to the client, that might change things, but without a contract, I don't know how your liability isn't essentially endless. I am no lawyer, so I am interested in what comes up here.
> > 1) Do we have a responsibility to provide this at no cost to the utility company?
> > 2) Does this extend our liability?
>
>
> 1. Absolutely not.
:good:
>
> 2. Probably yes since *.shp files are generally geo-referenced. You will definitely need to qualify your datum and precision. Much as I hate disclaimers, you might need to explain your location. Geo-data is some of the most misplaced and misused when circulated among various end-users in my opinion.
:good:
Also the GIS/mapping group in the utility may have little communication with the survey (construction/engineering) group of the same company. Had a little experience with this some years ago teaching a CAD (MicroStation) course to members of a utility engineering group. Course had a segment on error induced by Ohio SPC system conversion from metric to US feet vs international feet.
This triggered questions on what they viewed as a related in house problem. From the little I was told it appeared members of upper level management wanted GIS to establish one coordinate system for use from Ohio to Texas. All historic data (NAD 27 & NAVD 29) was proposed to be converted to this new system and combined with currently acquired data. Engineering group was run by mechanical/electrical that could not understand surveyor reluctance. Was a very interesting evening.
>
>
> 1) Do we have a responsibility to provide this at no cost to the utility company?
Absolutely not, you do not have a responsibility to provide a 3rd party your data.
> 2) Does this extend our liability?
Certainly, if you provide someone data above and beyond what you are contracted to do then it more than likely extends your liability. To what degree...is unknown.
With that said, you should have a standard electronic document waiver that accompanies any and all electronic data with all the CYA phrases in case the end user decides to import your US Survey Feet data into GIS setup in FEET...or the many variations thereof.
I have no problems sending utility companies information and in turn they typically have no issues in sending us GIS files for utilities. In that aspect in can be a win-win, but just be sure your covered contractually and liability-wise.