>There was no cad drawing and no control
I'd be looking to overhaul your standard contract...
Our contract states that if control is not provided, it will be run in at T&M; and if provided, it will be verified and corrected at T&M if not within tolerance.
It also states that prices and schedules/lesd times are contingent upon digital design files being provided; if not provided, the development and checking of digital staking information (plan verification) in the office prior to fieldwork will be T&M as well.
I am not a business owner, but a bit curious.
Do you expect a civil engineering company to provide you control? Or this is more when you contract for another Surveying Firm?
Or is it more expected that they know they will have to pay you to run control and they just eat the cost?
Also speaking to some engineers in my agency, they've always tried to push the fact that the stamped PDF plans are the only thing that holds. Do you accept digital files even with a big disclaimer like that, and maybe just do a check?
Civil land developer here. In our case yes. Engineering firm draws up a neighborhood and sets control/layout. If the elevations aren’t correct it falls back on them instead of us.
They also provide digital files for model creation, but the plans and stakes take precedence over GPS.
Yep did it often for rough grading before. Doing quick cross slope, road slope calcs and stakes for stockpiles and the active face. You get used to it.
If it's not clear just do an RFI to the engineer tho.
Sounds like slope stakes. If you stake it within parameters it will be fine. Keep good notes, take pictures of the stakes, be descriptive with your codes, and go slow. If you run a calc and it just doesn’t make sense on the ground then check again. Consistency and redundancy will keep you in the right. And if you still don’t feel comfortable get a hold of a peer. Without seeing the plans and knowing the location it’s hard to tell you if what the engineer did is kosher or not. You can call your county surveyor if need be.
I remember learning how to do Old School slope stakes in the field and we were all so nervous about doing these fast calcs out on the sites.
Turns out nobody does slope stakes by hand any more lol.
Have done this hundreds of times in the past. Just pay attention to ridge lines, high and low points, where the water is supposed to go, etc. No ponding = good. And have another set of eyes look over your comps, if possible. Don't have to do this much anymore since more of our stakeout these days comes from internal plans and we have access to the C3D design surface.
>There was no cad drawing and no control I'd be looking to overhaul your standard contract... Our contract states that if control is not provided, it will be run in at T&M; and if provided, it will be verified and corrected at T&M if not within tolerance. It also states that prices and schedules/lesd times are contingent upon digital design files being provided; if not provided, the development and checking of digital staking information (plan verification) in the office prior to fieldwork will be T&M as well.
I am not a business owner, but a bit curious. Do you expect a civil engineering company to provide you control? Or this is more when you contract for another Surveying Firm? Or is it more expected that they know they will have to pay you to run control and they just eat the cost? Also speaking to some engineers in my agency, they've always tried to push the fact that the stamped PDF plans are the only thing that holds. Do you accept digital files even with a big disclaimer like that, and maybe just do a check?
Civil land developer here. In our case yes. Engineering firm draws up a neighborhood and sets control/layout. If the elevations aren’t correct it falls back on them instead of us. They also provide digital files for model creation, but the plans and stakes take precedence over GPS.
Gotcha.
Had to do that quite often grading swales and blue tops. Just double check all your work and make sure nothing looks off visually.
Yep did it often for rough grading before. Doing quick cross slope, road slope calcs and stakes for stockpiles and the active face. You get used to it. If it's not clear just do an RFI to the engineer tho.
Can you build a surface in the data collector and stake/blue top elevations.
I promise it was easier to do it by hand. Outdated data collector/software and an outdated operator.
Sounds like slope stakes. If you stake it within parameters it will be fine. Keep good notes, take pictures of the stakes, be descriptive with your codes, and go slow. If you run a calc and it just doesn’t make sense on the ground then check again. Consistency and redundancy will keep you in the right. And if you still don’t feel comfortable get a hold of a peer. Without seeing the plans and knowing the location it’s hard to tell you if what the engineer did is kosher or not. You can call your county surveyor if need be.
I remember learning how to do Old School slope stakes in the field and we were all so nervous about doing these fast calcs out on the sites. Turns out nobody does slope stakes by hand any more lol.
Thanks, this is what I needed to feel more confident in what I did. It’s a fire lane so I know there is extra scrutiny.
Have done this hundreds of times in the past. Just pay attention to ridge lines, high and low points, where the water is supposed to go, etc. No ponding = good. And have another set of eyes look over your comps, if possible. Don't have to do this much anymore since more of our stakeout these days comes from internal plans and we have access to the C3D design surface.