I've got this aquiantance that works for a government agency. He's reviewing this survey of a farm tract in a rural area, in a state a ways off from this one. The surveyor that conducted this survey calls for witness corners being 0.09' from the corner. Why such a small distance? Because the surveyor can't set them on the actual corner because he would disturb the monument that is already there, but NOT exactly on the calculated corner.
My advice to him was to tell the surveyor that if he didn't fix it, he was going to send the survey to Jeff Lucas so he'd have something to write about next month.
We have a charge to educate the public, and the public also includes other surveyors.
Yeap,the existing marker did not fit the numbers so the surveyor made his own and is letting everyone know that he, by the way, found the old ones.
I've said before that any surveyor that pulls such a stunt should have their license suspended because they don't know what the hell they're doing.
I am trying to wrap my head around what you're saying. This guy finds monuments and sets witness corners less than a tenth away? Is this a habit?
> I am trying to wrap my head around what you're saying. This guy finds monuments and sets witness corners less than a tenth away? Is this a habit?
Must be a good measurer.
He found a monument. He decided it was off. He couldn't set his own at that spot because it would hit the other monument. He sets his own less than 0.1' from his calculated corner.
Here's the kicker. On the plat he states his positional accuracy is 0.09'
This ole boy needs a class in statistics.
Sounds like another pin farmer because, as Mr. Myhill stated, he is a good measurer.
Witness monuments should be set no less than two feet from the true corner and in increments of whole feet (2.00', 3.00',4.00', etc.)
That is totally absurd.
Sadly, I have crossed paths with too many that feel this is correct and will either show this absurd references in their paperwork or physically change the location of the monuments to fit their math.
I am waiting to hear of someone that has done this on the State Exam, any references to that anyone.
😛
Our culture has a built-in assumption that whatever is on paper must be correct, despite the fact that it often isn't.
Where in his surveying education did he miss the fact that no measurement can be perfect and the rule "Monuments over measurements" ?
I got a call quite a few years back from another surveyor, asking if I had a problem with him pulling my monuments and replacing them with his. This was on a 40 acre parcel that we both had to traverse in from the township line, about 2 miles away and in the winter. He disagreed with my positions by about 0.4'; we both had similar closures, about 1 in 20,000, but I don't think he ever did get a grasp of the math enough to figure out why I didn't think his corners were more right than ours.
Tommy,
I found one of these a few years ago on a plat, and to the best of my memory, is the only time I have ever seen a surveyor use a "witness corner" to resolve their own internal dilemma of how to accept a monument when their data collector instructs them to set it a slight distance elsewhere.
Of course, this act does not in any way meet the legal criteria for a witness corner. And, the fact that a monument for a 1/16 corner set by a licensed surveyor decades earlier with different tools than GPS, and accepted and recognized by relevant landowners, lies less than one foot away than where the modern data collector directs the surveyor to set the "proper" 1/16 corner (in rugged mountains) seems just too much to be "acceptable" makes us wonder, gee, what CAN we do when we want avoid setting multiple monuments but just can't find it in our hearts to accept a monument?
Invent a reason for NOT accepting a monument?
In my case, I filed a complaint but there were several other acts that were included in the complaint. I obviously am not going to say any more about it here, but will say that other than that, I don't know what to do about such a blatant act of substandard practice.
ww CO PLS
Geez That is really dumb. To follow his logic,
he could have used the found monument as the witness corner.:-|
There is a surveyor locally who will reference corners found in very close proximity to his opinion of where the corner is supposed to be.
He will not pincushion in the dirt only on paper. It doesn't due the land owner much good and it perplexes any surveyor following his work.
I guess the title/closing attorneys kept happy.
We have a surveyor around here who has called up other surveyors and told them to come move their monuments because they were .05 out. I believe they get hung up on a lot. 😀
You'd think after more than once it would occur to him that maybe he shouldn't be doing that, and to ask questions about why it's wrong.
If you relate this to an earlier thread, "Smallest Traverse," 0.09' is big stuff and deserves a note on the plat.
:good:
😛
Just do this
Sad to say, I have seen the above style of pin-cushioning more than a few times in my career.
