Page 20 - 2022- 49.4

Red Headed

Stepchildren

Prepared by Carl R. C.de Baca, PLS
A new waterline down an existing street, a new subdivision in raw
farmland at the edge of town, a sewer lift station and force main
that will bore under the river, come up on the far side and head
cross-country to the regional STP. What do these projects all have
in common? The need for accurate three-dimensional data upon
which to base the design. How does the designer get that data?
Ugh. Groan. Call the surveyor. It’s going to cost a fortune and
take forever to get what we need. And they’ll miss important stuff
during the survey, guaranteed. The engineer thinks to himself,
“I’d better just take care of putting together the scope, fee and
time frame myself, that way the surveyor will have a fixed budget
to work within and can’t make excuses or kick the can down the
road.” Sound familiar?

I have worked about 75% of my career as a surveyor in a multi-
discipline environment. For the most part, multi-discipline
translates into “Engineers, and the other lesser disciplines.” It’s
in their nature to assume that they know everything they need
to know about Surveying and only time-management prevents
them from just doing our jobs for us. I worked for a firm once
where one of the senior owner/engineers referred to Surveying
and surveyors as a “necessary evil”. According to the Cambridge without additional education and training, despite the continuing
Dictionary, a necessary evil is “Something unpleasant that must decline in the number of professional surveyors. In my opinion,
be accepted in order to achieve a particular result”. Gulp… I’m a this is an example of an unnecessary evil. In that scenario, who
little uncomfortable with the ‘unpleasant’ part but hey, at least I’m would be considered the ‘redheaded stepchildren’?
‘necessary’ for achieving a result.
However, this is not a good thing in the long run because it would
I have heard surveyors in such firms refer to themselves as “red- probably make it more difficult for real land surveyors to untangle
headed stepchildren”. (Look it up and laugh). In some cases, this the tangles created by engineers practicing land surveying once
term describes those of us working hand-in-hand with engineers again. Work is indeed work, isn’t it? I don’t mean to scare you, but
pretty well. I stopped being offended by all that nonsense many instead, I was hoping you could consider this as another call for
years ago. Mostly I try to extract a little humor from it when I the surveying profession to take our declining numbers seriously
can. If you made my budget for me, then you have absolved me of and find a way to ramp up our recruitment efforts before it comes
any guilt when it took more than you anticipated to complete the to that stage.
task. Yes, I will take under advisement any direction you give me
regarding datums, but I’ll still properly georeference the job using
my professional knowledge and experience. Capisce?
On the California side of the Sierra, where I practice these days,
there is a category of individuals licensed to perform surveys, Help Wanted
called ‘Pre-82 Civil Engineers’. Grandfathered in to perform all of
the surveying and mapping tasks a PLS can do, they were a meme
before anyone heard of that word. Thankfully we are reaching the
end of the line for the Pre82’s. Some of those old engineers were The LahonTan ChapTer of The nevada assoCiaTion of Land surveyors
terrific boundary and cadastral surveyors, but the vast majority wiLL be working wiTh The ugrC To noT onLy updaTe The CoordinaTe
drove their Desoto or Packard to college and got their hands on referenCe frame, buT aLso esTabLishing and adding new LoCaTions for
an alidade in their sophomore Route Surveying class, and that base sTaTions. a foCus wiLL be on esTabLishing and ConneCTing sTaTions
was about it. Somehow this never stopped them from resolving easT aLong The i-80 and us-50 Corridors wiTh evenTuaLLy being abLe
boundaries and making subdivision maps. (Maybe ‘resolving’ To inTegraTe The nvgps neTwork wiTh The uTah Turn neTwork.
is the wrong word.) By and large, the most problematic, error- naLs weLComes aLL privaTe firms and pubLiC agenCies To assisT wiTh
prone and deficient record maps that one encounters while doing This endeavor. poTenTiaL LoCaTions for base sTaTions need To be
research, are those stamped by Pre82’s. seCured, as weLL as The need for periodiC mainTenanCe shouLd a base
sTaTion inCur a TeChniCaL gLiTCh. pLease reaCh ouT To any LahonTan
My sincerest hope is that licensing boards across the country will ChapTer represenTaTive if you Can Lend a hand!
not consider allowing civil engineers carte blanche to practice land
surveying, or even to be allowed to take the Land Surveyor Exam

18 The Nevada Traverse Vol.49, No.4, 2022