Ok, I might as well admit it, this is called "baiting surveyors".
Is it the yellow line?
Is it the "seam where the 2 lifts of paving meet?
Is it the middle of the pavement, regardless of where the paint truck drove. (I suspect he was out on the booze last night....) Do you consider, that he swerved to miss some wildlife?
Is it taken by shooting all the R/W markers, and computing it back in?
How do you deal with holding record Degree of curvature, or radius, and now, you discover that the PC and PT RW markers were set with "Wingdings" for 90°, and are just sort of thrown out there.... so, none of the published curve works with the hwy dpt plans.... do we do broken back curves?
Say, do any of you know which way north is?
Sigh. I wonder sometimes.
Anybody got 25k for a new set of GPS gear+ another 25k for a new truck, that you don't need?
🙂
N
The pavement, stripes, and construction seams were likely all done without benefit of survey control, so I will say that the roadway is only good for a last resort check at best.
The mountains are to the west, so north must be thattaway.
I feel your pain.
Around here hardly any rural state roads were monumented.
I try to use the center of paving. Then I check that against the fences, which in most cases were built prior to the actual construction. Its a juggling act at times.
When I get all the field work in my system I check to see if I'm getting roughly the same deltas from the alignment tangents. Some adjustments may be necessary to re-built the alignment to fit.
Very seldom do I stake anything the first time in the field, but sometimes I am lucky enough to work in an area where I have already have the alignment down to coords.
No button-pusher here.
That's an easy one if you do the way they're doing in my neighborhood on this project:
http://vtransmaps.vermont.gov/projectinfo/map.htm
$12.6 million dollars for 10.1 miles, almost $900k of which is for construction engineering, not counting the $500k they spent on engineering after Irene demolished (like, really, really demolished; like no road, no sub base, no guard rails, no nada for miles...took it back to the way it was in 1780 demolished).
The contractor bought what must have been close to $250k on the latest Topcon stuff...base stations setup everywhere, rovers galore. Remote units on the graders, on the rollers. Heck, I think the project manager had one in his truck so he could see how it was going driving back and forth all summer.
They completely re-shot it, start to finish, after Irene. Then they re-designed every curve, every grade. They're currently on the 2nd of 4 layers of asphalt (8" total), after having sculpted it beautifully. Most of the station offset stakes are still there, so it'd be pretty easy to find the centerline. You can tell by the magenta line they put down after every layer, too.
>
> Anybody got 25k for a new set of GPS gear+ another 25k for a new truck, that you don't need
> 🙂
Maybe you should check with the contractor when the project's over.:-D
My favorite "where is the centerline question" this is amongst surveyors usually:
Street is platted at 50 feet, and the centerline may be monumented it may not. Then there is a 10 foot right of way dedication on the south side. Now it is a 60 foot ROW. Where is the centerline?
The centerline is where the map says its at.
The beach is to the east, so north must be thataway.
Half the distance between the stonewalls, most of the time.
The center of asphalt / seam / stripe should coincide and would be a Construction Centerline.
The centerline of the layout would be another that should match the construction centerline.
North is towards Santa 364 days of the year.
>Where is the Centerline?
Where it's always been...right were it was originally laid out.
James you are right. But where is that 50k I asked about?
🙂
Nate, that's actually a good question. One I ask my self often. As a rule, the centerline crack seems to be the best in my area but sometimes its a combination of ROW markers and the actual centerline crack. I also sometimes make up my own curve data if the published stuff doesn't fit.
Which centerline are your referring to? The centerline of the road alignment or the centerline of a right of way strip?
I think you get the point... they are not always the same... and life is loaded with exceptions.
Gotta look at the plans, and extrapolate the real deal, based on real numbers, and theory numbers!
N
As usual, it depends...
Most of the States I work in have similar laws. Center Lines must be monumented at Platting. That Platted line does not move unless a new Subdivision Plat 'obliterates' the old. A dedication would simply add to the width of that side of the Right-of-Way. The prime reason to track it is to return the property use to its proper owner in the event of vacation...
Well if you want the answer..........it depends.
What I wonder about with the pre-Revolution road in front of my house, and the early 20th century on the side, both town roads, is whether the centerline is whether the traveled way is where the vehicles usually drive, or where they could drive without wrecking their undercarriage. Or maybe it's the center of the horse manure.
Most of the early roads had a rough preliminary route survey and a dedicated width.
Constructing a road consisted of rolling small rocks and logs out of the way, and clearing some brush. Over time the roads developed ruts and people found higher ground or simply moved over until that location got muddy.
So the question that arises - does the dedicated strip move with the re-located road, even if there is still evidence of the original road bed? I believe there is a lot of case law on this subject and it depends on when the road was dedicated.
> As usual, it depends...
> Most of the States I work in have similar laws. Center Lines must be monumented at Platting. That Platted line does not move unless a new Subdivision Plat 'obliterates' the old. A dedication would simply add to the width of that side of the Right-of-Way. The prime reason to track it is to return the property use to its proper owner in the event of vacation...
This is why if it were up to me it would never be called a CL on the plat. A monument line is a better option, if indeed monumented. And if not monumented then there is no reason to show a CL or a monument line.
Technicality I know... but I have seen the situation that I brought up. 50' ROW gets a 10' dedication and the next surveyor show 30' to CL. Sorry.
What about vertically? For construction purposes, since most roads around here have some sort of crown in them, then the centerline would be the top of the crown.
And the beach is to the south.
HEY, what about teh money? I got the CL and the crest of the hill, at the "Great divide", but what about teh money!
🙂
