First I want to express my utter dismay toward the surveyor that did the topography on this particular lot where an original 1919 GLO cap is located.
First this person did not locate the monument when doing their topography and second they did not utilize the vertical datum on this monument but instead chose an arbitrary benchmark that checked 1.5 feet off to the lot design, therefore forcing me to go into detective mode and figure it all out.
To this I say, WHAT THE HELL MAN???
I am grateful for guys like this. He spends all of his time being a bad surveyor so I can spend mine being a good one.
Enough of that, let me tell you how I saved a piece of sectional history.
I have been hired to do the staking for a new custom home. During the calculations I pulled the plat and checked the boundary in the cad file and noticed that a section corner lands in that lot. Sure enough I found it.
Now the good part, the civil engineer being unaware that the monument was there, designed a retaining wall so the footing would be right on the cap. I quickly noticed this and placed a couple of extras points in the ground to be sure.
I promptly got the builder on the phone and asked him to come over. Upon his arrival I showed him the monument and promptly began to tell him why he needed to save it.
I told him that it is illegal for him to remove it and that he would be killing a piece of history.
Needless to say the idea of breaking the law made him uneasy and I think he liked the the idea that it was placed there in 1919.
I told him I have a simple solution. I took him to the truck and explained that we could move the wall a foot or so in 1 direction and it would not take away from anything. He immediately agreed, gave me the green light to move the wall and right then history remained in tact.
I took a 4' lathe and wrote " Government Section Corner Save" and placed it next to the cap. I also wrote a TBM elevation on the lathe to also ensure that they will save it.
Hopefully this old guy will be here forever. If it survives this nothing else can touch it and it will actually be protected.
Right FREAKEN on John Ware !!! – Kudos’ to you. If only you were in charge of the staking of Sun City :-)
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, my (all of our) frustration with this kind of thing goes on and on and on…
I would love nothing more than to actually have much, Much more serious consequences for anyone that disturbs ANY Survey Monument. I just hope “Poco” doesn’t rip it out with his backhoe while digging the footing. That being said, it would also be another great thing if EVERY Project Superintendent of every General Contractor & their “personnel” were “forced” (by Law) to attend functions & seminars, and understand the importance of the Land Surveyor, the history, the law, the math, the technology, and on and on. This should also include the idiots at all city crews who wipe out all the (original ?) centerline monumentation while they re-pave, chipseal, etc…
Thanks a lot “Town of Gilbert” – you idiots….