CHAPTER 10
ENGINEERING AND LAND SURVEYS
This chapter discusses important factors of engi-
neering surveying and is presented from the viewpoint
of the party chief. Included in the discussion are de-
sign-data surveys, such as route surveys; and con-
struction surveys that include stakeout and as-built
surveys.
Also discussed in this chapter is land surveying
which is a special type of surveying performed for
the purpose of establishing or reestablishing land
boundaries, preparing legal property descriptions, and
subdividing tracts of land. Although a complete cov-
erage of land surveying is beyond the scope of this
TRAMAN, you will be acquainted with the proce-
dures and some of the legal aspects involved.
ENGINEERING SURVEYS
In the EA3 TRAMAN, you learned that engi-
neering surveys are subdivided into design-data sur-
veys and construction surveys. A design-data survey
is an orderly process of obtaining data that is needed
for the planning and design of an engineering project.
The activities involved in design-data surveying vary
according to the type and complexity of the engineer-
ing or construction project; for example, the activities
might include simply obtaining topographic data for a
proposed building site, or they may include extensive
route surveying and soils investigation for a highway.
Construction surveying is divided into (1) the layout,
or stakeout, survey and (2) the as-built survey. The
layout, or stakeout, survey consists of locating
and marking (staking) horizontal and vertical control
points to guide construction crews, and giving line and
grade as needed to establish additional control points
and to reestablish disturbed stakes. The as-built survey
includes making measurements to verify the locations
and dimensions of completed elements of a new
structure and to determine the amount of work
accomplished up to a given date.
Let’s begin the subject of engineering surveys
with a discussion of route surveying.
ROUTE SURVEYS
A route survey, as the name implies, is a survey
that deals with the route or course that a highway,
road, or utility line will follow. While the end product
of a route survey for a highway certainly differs from
that for a utility line, it may, nevertheless, be said that
the purposes of any route survey are to
1. select one or more tentative general routes for
the roadway or utility,
2. gather enough information about the general
route to make it possible for designers to select the final
location of the route, and
3. mark this final location.
Consistent with these purposes, a route survey is
usually broken down into reconnaissance, pre-
liminary, and final-location survey phases that
satisfy, respectively, each of the purposes given
above. Sometimes, however, circumstances may pre-
clude the requirement to perform all three phases; for
example, if a new road or utility line is to be
constructed on a military installation having well-
marked vertical and horizontal control networks and
up-to-date topographic maps and utility maps, then
perhaps the reconnaissance and preliminary survey
phases would not be required. Chapter 14 of the EA3
TRAMAN discusses each phase of route surveying as
applied to roads and highways. That discussion is
presented in sufficient enough depth to preclude the
need to further discuss highway route surveying in
this TRAMAN. You should, however, review that
discussion and read other publications dealing with
the subject of route surveying.
Aside from roads and highways, other uses of
route surveys are for aboveground utility lines-most
commonly power and communication lines—and for
underground utilities, such as power, communication,
sewer, water, gas, and fuel lines. The character of the
route survey for a utility will vary, of course,
with different circumstances; for example, a sanitary
sewer, water distribution line, or an electrical
distribution line in an urban area will generally follow
the streets on which the buildings it serves are located.
Also, since these areas will, in all likelihood, have
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