Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The author recalls his first experience setting a bound as a teenager fresh out
of high school working as a rodman for a small rural surveying firm during the
summer. Both the party chief and the transit man had many years of experience
surveying. I was just beginning to learn some of the basic duties required of a
rod man. The party chief and transit man said they would dig the hole if I would
walk back to the truck, throw a concrete bound on my shoulder, and bring it over
to the hole. The day was hot, the distance considerable and the bound very heavy
but I finally staggered back to where the crew was standing. I was told that the
hole was ready and to just drop the bound in. Out of breath and with sweat burn-
ing my eyes and impairing my vision, I failed to perceive that the party chief and
transit man were standing quite far from the hole. I also didn't notice the eager
anticipation on their faces as I approached. By that time, the weight of the bound
on my shoulder was causing considerable discomfort and I was anxious to be rid
of it so I didn't hesitate to follow their instructions and drop the bound into the
hole. The party chief had presumably forgotten to tell me that the bottom of the
hole was full of water. I don't know what the speed of the bound was when it
hit the water but, like the large meteorite which smashed into the Great Dismal
Swamp, creating Lake Drummond, it must have reached terminal velocity. I
was instantly and completely covered in mud. The success of their well-planned
and skillfully executed experiment clearly delighted the party chief and transit
man. For the rest of the summer, they took great pleasure in giving an animated
description of the events to anyone who was willing to listen.
In some cases it is possible to set many of the lot corners during the traverse
portion of the survey. An example would be where some of the property lines are
stone walls. Where a deed calls for a wall as a boundary, the boundary line is usu-
ally the middle of the wall. As noted earlier, an exception to this rule, in some
jurisdictions is where the wall is a boundary between private property and a road
or cemetery. In such cases the street face of the wall or the outside face of the
cemetery wall is the boundary.
Stone walls, particularly old farm walls, are often far from straight. It is the
surveyor's duty to take enough locations of the wall so that the center line or face,
as the case may be, can be described accurately. If the wall is very crooked this
may require taking locations of the wall every few feet. A surveyor will often set
drill holes or pins at many of the locations where the wall makes a jog or bend
during the traverse phase of the survey. Because the instrument is already set up
on a nearby traverse point this is often the most efficient way to set the monu-
ments. Many old walls are built from small field stones which are easily disturbed.
In such cases, when a surveyor comes across a large base stone, it should be used
to set a drill hole or pin. If the monuments are not set during the traverse phase but
calculated in the office, then set on a return trip to the field, the surveyor will have
no choice about where to set the monument. If it falls on a small stone it will be
necessary to rebuild that section of the wall with large stones—a time consuming
and expensive process. In such cases it is much easier to set markers in a wall dur-
ing the initial traverse phase of the survey.
