U.S. - Mexico Border Map

This is a cool link to an interactive U.S. Mexico Border Map. If you click on a cell, it will take you to an orthophoto of that area. The Otrhos are old, but interesting nonetheless.

ALTA Table A Item 11(b)

As a surveyor who performs many surveys that follow the American Land Title Association (ALTA) standards, I need to register my dislike with item 11(b) on Table A - as follows:

Item 11(b) Location of utilities (representative examples of which are shown below) existing on or serving the surveyed property as determined by:Observed evidence together with evidence from plans obtained from utility companies or provided by client, and markings by utility companies and other appropriate sources (with reference as to the source of information)railroad tracks and sidings; manholes, catch basins, valve vaults or other surface indications of subterranean uses; wires and cables (including their function, if readily identifiable) crossing the surveyed premises, all poles on or within ten feet of the surveyed premises, and the dimensions of all crossmembers or overhangs affecting the surveyed premises; and utility company installations on the surveyed premises.

In my opinion, this item is an attempt for the surveyor to take liability for something that is not really the purview of the surveyor. I always cringe when 11(b) is requested because there is a large amount of uncertainty associated with this request. As-builts are generally unreliable, and we really have no way of knowing exactly where the utilities are on site. We typically hire a utility locating company, but there is still a level of uncertainty. I always preface the utility mapping data with a note stating where the data came from, methodology used and limitations. Never will I certify that all utilities are shown (unless the client wants to dig up the entire site to some depth - and then only would I certify to that depth). Typically, this request is made by the Title company and/or finance institutions and it really does not benefit the owner much other than the title and finance institutions have some level of comfort as to where the utilities are. I believe their comfort is misplaced though and I try to sell 11(a) rather than 11(b). The cost difference associated between these two can often times be quite large.


I'm working on an estimate for a very complex and large site where HUD is insisting on 11(b) - I don't think the data will ever be used other than to satisfy a HUD requirement. I tried to convince them that 11(a) would be more appropriate, but no luck. Oh well - I guess the work must be completed, but it's going to be a mess and be quite costly.
I wish 11(b) would go away...

Quite the Busy Week

Sorry - I haven't posted for a few days - it's been quite the busy week. We probably put out about 15 estimates/proposals this week and I was also involved in signing 3 surveys plus dealing with 7 or 8 other projects. There didn't seem to be much time to breathe this week. I shall be posting more frequently next week...

Disciplinary Action

The following is all of public record. I've left the name of the individual but removed the company's name from the documents out of professional courtesy.
I came across the following plat (you need to click on it to see it enlarged) a couple of years ago. Quite interesting when you start looking closely. The short story is that this subdivision plat was stamped and signed by a structural engineer. Something for another post but why do structural engineers think they are something different than civil engineers - I'm not sure the distinction other than it is a speciality of civil engineering.

Anyhow, you need to read the certification he posted on his plat - (by the way - it is against the law for an engineer to perform a boundary survey - in Arizona and most other states that I am aware of).

To Quote:

I, MOHAMMED M. SIDDIQUI, HEREBY CERTIFY THAT I AM A PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER IN THE STATE OF ARIZONA THAT THIS MAP, CONSISTING OF 1 SHEET CORRECTLY REPRESENTS A MINOR LAND DIVISION FOR NEW HOMES MADE UNDER MY SUPERVISION DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER, 2005. THAT THE SURVEY IS TRUE AND COMPLETE AS SHOWN: THAT ALL MONUMENTS SHOWN ACTUALLY EXIST AS SHOWN, THAT THEIR POSITIONS ARE CORRECTLY SHOWN AND THAT SAID MONUMENTS ARE SUFFICIENT TO ENABLE THE SURVEY TO BE RETRACED. STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS ARE THE MOST EDUCATED CIVIL ENGINEERS. CIVIL ENGINEERS SUPERVISE AND INSTRUCT REGINSTERED LAND SURVEYORS. THIS MAP IS INCIDENTAL TO NEW BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.

What gives??
Let's break it down sentence by sentence. First, he is a professional engineer in Arizona (or was at the time). It seems a bit odd to certify that you are licensed. He is correct in that this plat is one sheet and that it is a minor land division. A surveyor would probably call it a minor subdivision, but close enough. "True and Complete" - that is for the reviewing agency to determine, but let's say it is. Here's one that is not very astute - "that the monuments shown actually exist as shown". What if one is destroyed? What if there was an error or bust in a measurement. It would be safe to say they were found and located as shown, but I wouldn't certify to them being there now and forever. "That they are sufficient to enable the survey to be retraced"?? Says who? Well, he does, but what about latent ambiguities in his survey or the adjoiners? He states the monuments are there, but what if they are destroyed? What then? Is it still sufficient to be retraced??
The last two sentences speak for themselves. I know many structural engineers - some are good friends. The ones I know seem to understand where their expertise exists and that it is illegal for them to perform a boundary survey. That would be like a surveyor designing and stamping and signing a bridge plan set. I'm a Professional Civil Engineer and I would never take it upon myself to certify a structural plan set/design. That is way out of my area of practice. This guy seems to think that he is above the surveyors though and thus, is within his rights to do their work. Not to say engineers and surveyors are on the same playing field as surgeons, but for comparison's sake, I wouldn't want a neurosurgeon to perform an open heart surgery just because he thought he was better educated than the heart surgeon. I would want the expert in his field. Seems that the client here may have been taken for a ride as well - paying for services rendered illegally. All said, a bit of an ethical and technical misstep I'd say.
Needless to say, the board of technical registration made their ruling recently and this gentleman voluntarily relinquished his engineering license.

NSR: PC vs. Mac

This is kind of funny. I'll leave it at that....

Time in a Bottle

I haven't had the luck of finding a fully intact old bottle, but I keep my eye out. I suppose an old Coke bottle doesn't count (I'm not even sure how old this is - 2 years maybe).
Anyhow, bottle dating can be useful in determining the possible age of an old fenceline or monument when you are working far from civilization - problem is you have to find the bottle first and then be able to date it. Just a possibility I guess, but one worth considering enough that the BLM has their own web page dedicated to the subject. This is an interesting link to the BLM archeology site concerning hisoric bottles.

Find the Property Monument: #2

This one is a bit more difficult. The point is visible though and this is roughly what it looks like from the roadway. Here you have the benefit of the lath being flagged up - heading to the point, there was a standing lath but no flagging. I'd rate this one a 4 out of 10 for difficulty.

Find the Property Monument: 1

I was out in the field yesterday reviewing a topographic map of a house and snapped this photo. The challenge - see if you can spot the property monument in this photo - I'd rank this order of difficulty a 2 - 1 being in your face and 10 being Waldo in a sea of Waldo look alikes in a library of Where's Waldo books. You may have to click on the photo for a full view. More of these to follow in the future...

Searching for Survey Records

Seems that in Bernalillo County, NM, there is a bit of a gap between recording surveys (non-subdivision plats) and how they are indexed and located. We have for years had microfiche of all the plat books, but we've never received the survey book. The survey book is for plats of surveys, boundary surveys, ALTA surveys, etc. They are rarely reported on in Title commitments and I believe the reason why is that they really aren't indexed very well (or indexed at all for that matter). Makes one wonder which surveys are really found during the course of research and which are not. It is poor database management to index something such as S10, T4N, R5E, N.M.PM - if I run a search on S10, T4N, R5E, NMPM, it would probably not come up - depending on the search engine. The county (and area professionals) need to come up with a better solution here and implement it pronto! We're missing out on a lot of good data (I'm assuming) and every day that passes, is another day that legacy data is missed. At least the Clerk's Records Search is online - but I wish we could get to the level of Maricopa County's map locator. Maybe someday....

Nevada LS

Well, I've submitted my paperwork and application to sit for the Nevada LS exam. One of the three remaining states I intend to pursue a license in (the others being Utah and California). Of the states I've been involved with thus far, Nevada seems to be fairly organized. They are also populous enough to have 4 state specific exams each year, so that works well into schedule for a summer license try. BHI's regional effort is expanding nicely - in the past week or so, we had two guys in our Colorado office sit for Kansas and Wyoming and Rob here in the Albuquerque office will be sitting for Utah some time in June. That will bring our license coverage to NM, CO, TX, AZ, NE, and MI with WY, KS, UT, and NV within the next several months.

By the way, the Nevada Department of Transportation has some nice maps for free download (State Maps, Quad Maps, Area Maps and Historic Maps). A nice collection for getting acquainted with NV...

NSR: Busy Week

Not sure why it's been such a busy week. I've been working on several smaller type projects plus trying to get caught up on some administrative tasks. I suppose it all just adds up to a busy week. My dad sent me this old photo. As the caption says "image taken at Camp Dodge in Iowa and used eighteen thousand men." - all before the days of photo shop...

David Rumsey.com

I came across this map site about 7 or 8 years ago - a fantastic collection of historic maps. I haven't visited it recently but then just found this YouTube Video. Looks like David has been up to some cool innovation in the realm of historic maps.


This video is about 10+ minutes, but an interesting history of his map collection and some of the things he has done in a digital sense as of late. I have been doing some similar tasks with Bohannan Huston's plat database and we have also worked with similar geo-referencing of scanned images in conjunction with our GIS projects and Mapping projects. It is quite powerful to be able to pull up all the documents created for a given area - all of which are geo-referenced and layered so that you can at a glance, understand the history of survey and mapping for a given location. Very Cool!

NGS Datasheet "Tab"

Recovery for NGS point "Tab" got published the other day (scroll all the way down to see the last recovery for 2008). It's unfortunate that after the long hike (about 1 hr each way - shown on my post on March 17th) evidence was found. So I know I was in the right place, but after about 30 minutes searching for the actual point - nada. Officially the point is not destroyed unless you have photographic proof or the actual monument.

NSR: F-4 vs. Concrete

Some interesting footage of some tests performed out at Sandia National Labs in years past. I remember watching a rocket sled track test/show at SNL family day back in the 1980's - it's amazing how fast those puppies really go. My dad got to watch this one in person!


This one I'm not certain was done at SNL, but the terrain looks like the Sandia/Manzano mountains in the background.

North Arrow

Learned something new today (or at least re-learned it in the case that I knew it once and forgot). In older maps, a full North Arrow is intended to mean true North while a half North Arrow may indicate magnetic north with a east or west declination depending on which side the arrow is on. Everything we do here at work is true North / Geodetic North / Grid North so I guess I haven't thought about the north arrow in light of indicating declination. Luckily we our typical north arrow looks like this...

so it shouldn't matter much.

Daylight Savings x 2

I thought about it several weeks ago when daylight savings time sprung forward and then it happened Sunday morning. We have a clock radio that automatically adjusts for DLST each spring and fall - problem is that it was purchased before the federal government fiddled with things a couple of years ago. Since the spring forward/fall back day has now been legislated to something different, we have to manually change the clock on the actual date. The problem is that the clock adjusted forward another hour on Sunday (the old date) without us knowing and we got up an extra hour earlier. By we, I mean my wife did - at 6:30am but it was really 5:30am - I was too out of it to get up (now we know why). When I finally rolled out of bed at 7:12am, I looked out the window and noticed it was still dark. That's when it dawned on me what was going on. Needless to say, we were quite bummed about loosing our hour of sleep. Not only did we hit the early service, we hit it really hard. I tried to point out to my wife that not only did we loose an hour on Sunday, but we also gained an hour on Sunday as well when I reset the clock, but that didn't seem to help much. I think I'm going to have to use our clock radio as sledge hammer practice and get a new one - there's no way I'm going to be able to remember Daylight savings time every 6 months on the actual date and the old date as well.

Book Down: Profit With Honor

Finished up Profit With Honor. A fairly quick read advocating Stewardship Ethics as the path the future economy must take to regain trust lost in the recent scandals of the past several years. Of interest was a quote stating that then Eliot Spitzer was prosecuting relentlessly those companies and individuals with a lapsed sense of ethics - times they are a changin'. He also foresaw the bursting of the housing bubble created by the baking and financial industry and lamented the potential buyout that would be required similar to the S&L of the 80's. RE. the last week's sale of Bear Stearns.
One of Yankelovich's examples of stewardship ethics is the Hybrid vs. the Hummer.

vs.

Toyota's Prius being an example of the company's stewardship ethics in their willingness to realize long term profits with short term losses because the hybrid was the right thing to do - environmentally and economically. Contrast that GM's Hummer - a gas guzzling SUV that has shown short term profits, but is not necessarily the right thing to do environmentally or in light of current gas prices, may not show the long term profits that the Prius will because of the Hummer's MPG inefficiency.

A worthwhile read in the field of business ethics - I'd say about 3 professional development hours of literature review / ethics (although it took me longer to read because I'm a slow reader...)

Earthquake

Purple dots - places you might want to watch out for. They might be a good place to be from.

Drought Monitor

This is interesting to check in to from time to time. I don't think I have ever seen New Mexico not have some level of dryness - we are a desert though. The title link shows a 12 week animation (it would be nice to have it play a bit faster, but the trends are clear.

Cave LiDAR Mapping

This would be a great survey project. I'd like to figure out how to get some funding in place with the NPS to map Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. This would be fun!!

To Accept or Not to Accept

I'm working on a boundary survey in the east Sandia Mountains - being the NW 1/4NW 1/4NW1/4, S34 (Approximately 10 acres). The terrain is quite rough and very wooded. Turns out the county road isn't along the section line like it is supposed to be.

That's not too much of an issue (from a survey standpoint) - it is clearly not along the section line - Oops.

The preceding plat corner monuments are waayyyy out.

These will simply be rejected - they're just plain bad.

The fences (lines of occupation) in some places are right on, others are way off...

The terrain is so rough here that I really can rely on the fence/occupation as decent evidence. The fences predate the BLM survey in 1976, but the BLM apparently didn't put much weight on the fence line/occupation line.

There are some other monuments that are fairly close on.

These pose a bit of a problem. Are they acceptable? In terms of the terrain - probably so, but the section line is the section line. I really can't introduce an angle point in that line where it does not exist. The monument pictured here is not called for anywhere. In NM it's against the law to remove a property corner, so my option is to reject the point and set a new one (about 0.7' away) or to accept the old monument which is reasonable for when it was set, but not so hot for today's day and age. Thus the dilemma....

Mile High Tower

I don't know about you, but I don't think I could live or work in something like the Mile High Tower

let alone this building.


Structural engineering at it's greatest, but I think this is a waste of excess. Your (our) gasoline and oil dollars at work...

Seven Deadly Norms

I’m reading Profit With Honor by Daniel Yankelovich – I wasn’t real excited about this read for the BHI book club, but it is turning out to be quite interesting in terms of business and cultural ethics. So far, he has discussed the deterioration of the ethical norms both in business and in our society as a whole. He postulates that we are in the early cycle of a downturn in trust in the business environment and in the past century, the downturn lasted 10 to 15 years. If he’s correct, we’re only 3 to 4 years into this cycle which means the next 11 to 12 years may prove quite interesting in terms of ethical issues. For thought, he speaks about he seven deadly norms that are causing most of the ethical confusion in the nation as of late:
1. Equating wrongdoing exclusively with illegality
2. Win at any cost
3. Gaming the system is good
4. Conflict of interest is for wimps
5. The CEO as royalty
6. Twisting the concept of shareholder value
7. Free-market economies require deregulation

More to follow on stewardship ethics as discussed in this book…

Out of the Office

I'll be out of the office for a few days and won't have a chance to update the Blog. I will return soon...

Book Down : The Measure of All Things

I finished up the book The Measure of All Things. Interesting read on the history of the metric system. The last chapter speaks about the adoption of the metric system over the past 200 years and the difficulties of incorporation into any given society. Thoughtful quote from the last chapter

"America, in Jefferson's terms, has preferred to mold the law to its citizens, rather than its citizens to the law - at least where commercial interests are at stake"

From the standpoint of the USA, that is a unique quality of the country in how we progress and as Ken Alder argues, one of the reasons why the US stands alone in the world to the meter. While many bemoan the globalization of economy, especially those in Europe, the US refuses to globalize it's system of weights and measures.

Worth the read - a bit slow in parts, but thought provoking.

Easter!

Happy Easter! He is Risen!


He is Risen indeed!

Hats off to the Pilot

(Not Survey Related - NSR)
This is some pretty good flying by the pilot considering the crosswind conditions...

Going Metric

I had always assumed that the meter and metric system was a development of the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, but it turns out, that the USA narrowly missed going metric from the very beginning of the nation…

From the beginning, the French had expected America-their sister republic-to be the first country to join the metric system. They had been delighted when Jefferson dropped his preference for a pendulum standard at the 38th parallel (near Monticello) in place of a standard at the 45th (near Bangor, Maine), clearing the way for trilateral Franco-British-American cooperation. In 1792 a committee of the United States Senate even recommended this pendulum standard as the national unit of length. But when the French savants switched to a meridian standard that traversed France alone, Jefferson became convinced that the French show of internationalism was a sham. Congress put off any consideration of the legislation.

The French did not give up so easily on America, however. Soon after the passage of the metric law of 1793, they dispatched the naturalist-explorer Joseph Dombey to convey the new (provisional) standards to the United States in the form of a copper meter stick and a kilogram weight. In January 1794 Dombey set sail from Le Havre on the American vessel The Soon. Unfortunately a storm drove him to the Caribbean, to the fractious French colony of Guadeloupe. From there, his mission went from bad to worse. Local plantation owners imprisoned Dombey as an emissary of the radical Jacobin government. Released upon threat of violence by those loyal to Paris, he disguised himself as a Spanish sailor and boarded a Swedish schooner, only to be captured by British corsairs and escorted to the prison island of Montserrat. There he died of illness in April.

Miraculously; Dombey's papers and the precious copper meter and kilogram weight arrived safely in the United States (where they are Still preserved in the Museum of the National Institute of Standards And Technology) and the French ambassador took up Dombey's mission With enthusiasm. Ambassador Fauchet said he was delighted to learn of The metric reform and expressed his confidence that "an enlightened And free people would receive with pleasure one of the discoveries of The human mind, the most beautiful in theory; and the most useful in application." By this he meant the French people. He also hoped the adoption of the metric system in America would "cement the political and commercial connexions of the two nations." His hopes were echoed in newspaper editorials urging all Americans-or at least, all educated Americans – to adopt the rational French measures voluntarily.



For a time, success seemed within reach. Fauchet was friendly with President Washington, who was friendly toward France, and the President asked Congress to reconsider the metric system. Washington had stressed the great importance of uniform measures in all three of his earliest State of the Union addresses. Although this sort of repetition is almost always a bad omen, Fauchet still held out hope. In a coded letter sent back to Paris, he noted that American adherence to the metric system might well prove advantageous to France. "Would it not make the People here more French if they shared in our knowledge; would it not bind them closer to us with commercial ties if they were subjected to our System of weights and measures?" He did worry; however, that Congress, having learned that the measures were merely "provisional," would deliberate and delay "as they so like to do."

While Congress dithered and America began a diplomatic rapprochement with Britain, Fauchet recklessly supported the Whiskey Rebellion, as a prelude to a great Jacobin revolution in the United States. This infuriated President Washington and prompted Fauchets recall to Paris. Six months later the House of Representatives voted to adopt national standards based on a modified version of the English foot and pound. These were not the ordinary foot and pound, but standards fixed by scientific experiment, and divisible into subunits of ten. The Speaker of the House urged passage. So long as each former colony had its own standards of weights and measures, national commerce would remain uncertain. This time, it was the Senate that killed the legislation by inaction.

Ken Alder
The Measure of All Things

A mathematician, an engineer, and a physicist...

A mathematician, an engineer, and a physicist are out hunting together. They spy a deer(*) in the woods.

The physicist calculates the velocity of the deer and the effect of gravity on the bullet, aims his rifle and fires. Alas, he misses; the bullet passes three feet behind the deer. The deer bolts some yards, but comes to a halt, still within sight of the trio.

"Shame you missed," comments the engineer, "but of course with an ordinary gun, one would expect that." He then levels his special deer-hunting gun, which he rigged together from an ordinary rifle, a sextant, a compass, a barometer, and a bunch of flashing lights which don't do anything but impress onlookers, and fires. Alas, his bullet passes three feet in front of the deer, who by this time wises up and vanishes for good.

"Well," says the physicist, "your contraption didn't get it either."

"What do you mean?" pipes up the mathematician. "Between the two of you, that was a perfect shot!"

(*) How they knew it was a deer:

The physicist observed that it behaved in a deer-like manner, so it must be a deer.

The mathematician asked the physicist what it was, thereby reducing it to a previously solved problem.

The engineer was in the woods to hunt deer, therefore it was a deer.

This is a bit grainy, but shows a quick view of some property corner recon from last Thursday in the east mountains. This was quite dense forest with a ton of scrub oak under the juniper and pinon coverage. There was quite a bit of elevation gain to get to point 1 as well which was a recon of the NGS point TAB. It took about an hour to get there through the dense underbrush and to no avail - point TAB appears to have been destroyed. Nice day looking for property corners though.

Metric System??

The following metric cartoon was published on 1999 October 04 in the Buffalo (NY) News following the crash of NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter into the planet Mars. The cartoon was reprinted in the 1999 Nov/Dec issue of Metric Today with permission of the newspaper.

Some points to ponder, as I'm reading the history of the metric system (albeit a bit long and not really action packed), it is somewhat interesting in it's origin. As surveyors, we use all types of units of measure, chains, varas, feet (US Survey foot and international foot) and of course metric as well. No mater how legislated the mater is, we have our history so firmly planted in the imperial system through the public lands survey system, that I would guess that commerce as a whole, in the USA, will never fully adopt metric. Attempts to do so have had mixed results - read about a costly Metric Mishap

Metric can be much more straight forward though. See below....

"BHI’s Chris Freeman Awarded for Survey Career Video
By Kris Toth on 3/13/2008
BHI surveyor and project manager Chris Freeman has received a Presidential Award from the Texas Society of Professional Surveyors (TSPS) for his work to produce a surveying career video for middle school students. As 2006-2007 TSPS Dallas Chapter President and a member of the TSPS Public Relations Committee, Chris was able to enlist a local high school media program, organize promotional efforts, and raise donations from area surveying firms to finance the video’s production. Bohannan Huston, Inc., was among the firms that made a donation to offset the production costs of the film. Students at Lakeview Centennial High School in Garland, Texas, produced the video, which you can view via the link shown below. The video is used statewide for career day activities and school presentations, and has received “thumbs up” reviews from students. Congratulations, Chris, and thank you for your contributions to the Texas survey community. "

There are 2 videos at the Surveytexas.org site, the second one on the page is the one mentioned above. One is about 10 minutes and one is about 5 minutes geared towards a high school or mid school audience.

What's the backsight?

This screen shot reminds me of a story told me by Jim Wheeler. Back in the day using total stations of setting out a proposed centerline for a road. There wasn’t much around so Jim set a temporary back-sight on a boulder near the horizon. Every two or three shots, he’d re-zero on the temp BS and after several rounds of this, noticed that his gun (total station) wasn’t holding it’s angle very well. Four or five more shots later, they began to notice that the staked centerline, which was supposed to be in a tangent (straight as an arrow) was curving off to the left. They kept going for a while until about 25-30 shots in, Jim noticed that the boulder he was back-sighting near the horizon was actually a cow grazing along. The centerline of the road was following the back-sight position of the cow. Oops…

Find That Monument

We don't have to deal much with the vegetation problem here in New Mexico. Looks fun...

BHI on the Front Cover of POB

BHI made the front cover of POB (Point of Beginning) on the March 2008 issue. POB is a national professional publication for those in the geomatics (surveying) profession. The article, Tunnel Vision, is written by Tim Jackson out of our Dallas, TX office and reviews our award winning scanning project of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit tunnels. Interestingly, the other lead article pertains to a NASCAR Superspeedway scanning project. BHI has also been involved with a NASCAR project from several years ago at Talladega. Cool technology with some high tech applications. Way to go Tim!