A Day in the Life of a Land Surveyor
Land surveyors collect important information, measurements and data for many types of projects. You may see a surveyor in the field at a construction project, on the side of the road or on an undeveloped site.
To celebrate National Surveyors Week, we tagged along with our Kansas City survey crew for a day to experience a Day in the Life of a Land Surveyor.
March 16, 2022
Our surveyors started the day early, generally arriving at the office around 7:00 a.m. to get their schedule of plans for the day from the survey manager.
The first project we went to was construction staking for the back of the curb of a parking lot. Construction staking sets stakes in the ground with notes for the contractor, essentially taking paper construction plans and marking them on the ground.
Once we got there, the surveyors spoke with the contractor and studied their environment to get an idea of where to start. The instrument utilized was a robotic total station. A total station measures distance, and horizontal and vertical angles. It uses site control points to make consistent measurements for the placement of construction stakes.
The survey crew had different tasks to do on the site, but they all worked as a team to complete the job correctly and in a timely manner.
After completing the construction staking, we went to our next site, a building with plans to be rehabilitated. This job was a topographic survey, which creates a three-dimensional surface of the features on the property.
For this project, the survey crew collected information on the locations and features of improvements like the sidewalk, pavement and more. We also saw a cat in the lot next to the building.
Our surveyors mentioned that they learn something new each day. From encountering animals in the field to finding out interesting history about a property, every day is different for land surveyors.
“It’s kind of an adventure,” one of the surveyors commented.
Land surveyors have different experiences each day in their jobs, from the type of work they’re completing to what they encounter at a project site. Because they’re working in the field, they sometimes must think quickly on their feet.
The theme of this year’s National Surveyors Week is communication, and it’s clear to see that communication is one of the most important aspects of a surveyor’s job, whether it’s coordinating with each other, a contractor at a job site or the project manager in the office.
Happy National Surveyors Week to all of our land surveyors, and thank you for the hard work you do to help projects succeed and improve our communities!