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.

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...

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....

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.