We use 8" dock spikes and they seem to last a long time. We routinely recover nails from 10-20 years ago.
We also use pk nails alot too. I make a small depression with the hammer before I set on a pk so the head stays below the pavement. We don't lose many to plows and most are in place for many years, even after the road is repaved.
A Harris, post: 361525, member: 81 wrote: 60d Nails are the universal hub and control point with a square of flag and bottle cap.
In loose ground a 1/2" x 24" rebar or better.
Don't use a rebar unless it is nowhere near a property corner.
GMPLS, post: 361988, member: 8404 wrote: We use 8" dock spikes and they seem to last a long time. We routinely recover nails from 10-20 years ago.
We also use pk nails alot too. I make a small depression with the hammer before I set on a pk so the head stays below the pavement. We don't lose many to plows and most are in place for many years, even after the road is repaved.
Ya I've been just pounding mine a bit farther to get them flush or sunk a bit. Maybe I'll start depressing the pavement first as well.
How do they remain after repaving? You dig down in the new asphalt to get them? That wouldn't work around here as they scrape the roads first and remove like 4 inches before they put new asphalt.
The trick to really good control points is to place them where no one else would ever look for anything and then put them down a bit such that no one would ever stumble onto them. Size is somewhat dependent on just how long I feel it will be needed.
@ Rich:
There are alot of rural roads around here so they just get repaved and not ground and yes, we sometimes chip them out if we really need them.
Steve Gilbert, post: 361990, member: 111 wrote: Don't use a rebar unless it is nowhere near a property corner.
Nothing permanent should be set near a boundary corner, period.
Some fool is gonna think whatever they find near their measurement is the true monument. If I can't see the monument, I will improvise and set some temporary point or more than one and strap in the actual location so as to not leave anything except the monument to be found.
I've had a surveyors and random folks that called my 1/2in rebar with a yellow cap marked "GPS CONTROL / Phone Number" that was 20feet out into the TxDot ROW a property corner.
:-O
Stumbled onto what I thought was a quarter corner once. It didn't seem right but it was close enough to make me wonder about it. I was 99 percent sure which company had set it as they were working on about 150 miles of highway that was to be built/renovated. Good thing I called. It was merely a control point but was identical to the section corners and quarter corners I had been recovering in that area around that date. Poor practices by the field crew 150 miles from home.
6-inch mag nails. I have bought 40- and 60-penny common nails, and used a metal punch to put a dimple in the top.
The device I used was a piece of 4-inch steel pipe welded vertically to a plow disc for a stand. Then we placed a piece of 1/2" steel on top that had about 12 holes drilled into it. We would drop 12 nails into the holes, place the steel plate on top of the hollow pipe and hammered a dimple in the top of each nail. During rain days, the field crew made set-up nails, flagged them and put them back in the 50-pound box they came in. These work well enough for typical surveys when normally I would never use the point again. Mag nails work best for most situation, but they are a little expensive.
Rich., post: 361536, member: 10450 wrote: We use PKs in asphalt roads mostly. We don't put the survey marker washers because that would make it too easy for plows to pull em out. As it is, each winter the plows rack up plenty of casualties.
So I got myself a nice grinder and started putting crosses on the curbs and sidewalks.
I have liked using drill holes with or with out mini mags put in them depending on the plow conditions. 1/4" drill hole is easy to spot if your lookin for it.
Holy Cow, post: 362002, member: 50 wrote: Stumbled onto what I thought was a quarter corner once. It didn't seem right but it was close enough to make me wonder about it. I was 99 percent sure which company had set it as they were working on about 150 miles of highway that was to be built/renovated. Good thing I called. It was merely a control point but was identical to the section corners and quarter corners I had been recovering in that area around that date. Poor practices by the field crew 150 miles from home.
its amazing how only 150 miles change the way "common practice" is done. great to see this stuff.
I like 12" spikes. I can center a bullseye plummet with 1 or 2mm repeatability which is sufficient for our purposes. 60s have the advantage the head is the same apparent size as the bullseye at our setup height. I have dimpled them on a drill press.
Cotton Gin Spindle...
Edit: Url http://www.baselineequipment.com/cotton-gin-spindle
I do mostly Road Corridor surveys now.I was taught to traverse through the Road Monuments,but with traffic these days,I traverse off the roadway. ( really grinds me to do this ). I use magnails,with a brass washer in pavement,and 18" rebar and cap off the pavement.I " RP " my points,with a diagram so they can be found by other crews where I work.
Some of these young guys,no " RP's ",no diagrams,just " set mag nail ". What is that all about ?? !!
