Surveying Class Part 3

June 23, 2005

Today was another lesson in surveying. I needed to cross-section East Lang Road to get the quantities for Common Excavation. It should have been fairly simple, I had already measured out the offsets for the elevations shots at the slope intercept, the ditch line and the shoulder point. And I had done this exercise with my staff in the past, so it shouldn’t be too much of a chore. I asked Nura to come and help me and to hold the rod at all of the locations that needed shots, and in fact to simplify things, I painted marks where I wanted to take elevation shots. The “tricky” part about taking these shots is that the difference in elevation from the ditch line to the slope intercepts throughout the project is as much as 23 feet. This will require that the rod, which is a telescoping rod and can be expanded up to 25 feet, be expanded the entire 25 feet. To cut down on the walking I told Nura to start on the slope intercepts and then when she got to the end to shoot the ditch line and shoulder points, this would mean that she wouldn’t have to keep walking up and down the slope at each station, as the back slopes were rather larger and long. I also told her before we started that we will be shooting stations 606+50 to 612+00 (Every 50 feet). So when she starts, she goes to station 606+00. Not a real big deal, I just told her to move up a station, but you will find why this information is relevant later. So as we are taking the shots on the slope intercepts, Nura went past me, as I was set up in the middle of the area that we were shooting. I told Nura, that when we got to shooting the ditch line, to make sure that each section of the rod was totally extended and locked. I told her this because I knew she was going to screw this up. When I was getting the elevation on the third ditch line point, I noticed and sure enough the rod on one section was not pulled out all of the way. Not a real big deal. I went down and talked to Nura and showed her that the rod needs to be pulled out and locked so that we can get an accurate measurement. So we only had to re shoot the last three stations, nothing to get too worked up over. Now that was the second time I told Nura to make sure that each section was completely pulled out and locked. I would also like to state that I didn't say it to her in a mean or condecending manner. Normally you would think if you told someone something twice that they would remember it. We continued on and finished one side, then went across the road and shot the other side. Over the course of these shots, due to the elevation and because the rod is easier to carry when the rod is shortened up, Nura had been pulling out and collapsing sections on the rod. We get to the second to last station, I look through the level, and see that one section is not all the way pulled out. I walk down to Nura and she asks if something is wrong. I show her that the section was not pulled all the way out, and then upon further inspection, I noticed that the next section up wasn’t pulled all the way out. I told her to forget it and that all of our shots were junk and that we would have to re do it the next day. She asked if we could just reshoot the last shot. I asked her if there was any way she could tell me where was the last shot where she had the rod correct, and she couldn't. So our shots could have been off by at least a foot. I don't know if this sounds like a big deal to you or not, but a 1 foot difference over an area that is 50 foot by 100 feet could be as much at 185 yards. The following day I decided that it would be best to let Nura be and have Sue help me. I explained what we were doing and where we were taking shots. And after shooting the bench mark Sue did the exact same thing that Nura did the day before, she walks right up to station 606+00. This is right after I tell her that we are shooting stations 606+50 to station 612+00. Is it me? Am I missing something? Is this a joke? I know what you may be thinking, and yes, they both are that dumb.