A post here made me think of our own cadastral marks and how little they are valued.
If one was to disrupt any of the services, footpaths or roads etc then someone would pay.
But when a service industry barges through the neighbourhood no one is concerned how many boundary marks get obliterated or boundaries are lost.
This always is very lopsided and yet it is accepted by the public who inevitably at some future date pay to have their boundary remarked.
Perhaps they aren't aware and other surveyors see it as a means of income? Not sure about latter.
Curious what other countries do in similar circumstances.
Around here, there is not an elected official or hired badge that has a backbone when it comes to enforcement to force the replacement of monuments.
The services you speak of rarely try to place the service in the assigned location or mark a path before they start construction.
Have caught them with a compass and a wheel laying out their easements as lately as a few weeks ago.
In Oregon we passed a law that creates a 1' utility exclusion easement around a monument. I would have to look it up to see if it was just for newly platted pins or retroactive to old pins and new utilities. Hopefully this will at least end the practice of pinning a new subdivision only to have the utility crews use said pins as c/l stakes.
John
The general public is clueless, as to how the mark got there. Therefore, they are clueless as to how it's going to get put back.
This includes our elected officials, the ones who decide what is to be done and how it is to be done. This can be scary, when it comes to survey control.
Radar
Totally agree here. Greater majority of property owners don't know where their lines are and certainly are not aware that their property corners are knocked out when "improvements" are made. Likewise, lots of public works office staff are not aware that property corners get destroyed. I did a recent proposal for the city and they were shocked when I included what I called "post construction services" in my man hours. When called on to explain what they were for I simply replied that were there to replace the property corners that your construction crews will knock out during the construction process. Is it really fair to make the property owner pay me to survey their property to replace their property corners that your contractors knock out? I could tell by the deer in the headlight look on their faces that they had no clue...
I totally agree that boundary marks get moved by construction.
Here is a pretty good example that I am SURE you will find interesting.
That 1' utility exclusion easement is an interesting concept. Do you have more information on that?
Thanks
Ric
I was doing a new subdivision and the developer was getting utilities in. A line of monuments had been destroyed by a builder (even though they were clear of any construction and well marked with fence posts) and the developer needed them back in for a waterline. He wanted them to see the easement limit and figured since the monuments needed to be replaced anyway that would work well-so he called me.
Got the line reset and fence posts back on them. Marked them with lot numbers on the caps and signs on the fence posts. The water line guy came in and trenched right through them-right down the property line. He just couldn't understand why he needed to move his line back into the easement and pay to re-replace the monuments.
This is how I've always done it he says.
Thanks for the laugh. That's a good one!
ORS 92.044 section 7
"(7) Unless specifically requested by a public or private utility provider, the governing body of a city or county may not require a utility easement except for a utility easement abutting a street. Utility infrastructure may not be placed within one foot of a survey monument location noted on a subdivision or partition plat. The governing body of a city or county may not place additional restrictions or conditions on a utility easement granted under this chapter."
Looks like it only covers plats. Does not mention any fines, good luck in civil court.
Everything is protected except for boundary monuments.
They don't pave over manhole covers, water valves, gas valves or the other stuff out there but monuments are kind of out of sight out of mind.
I think it is partly related to the ad-hoc system we use for surveying. We don't have a concerted public effort to maintain a framework of boundary control for the most part.
Water, sewer, storm, gas and electric boxes are public utilities and are well known to be out there and raised to grade.
One advantage of monument boxes is they have a better survival rate.
