Survey Review

Every dimension in a project is measured from the survey, and the survey is almost never reviewed. It arrives, it is trusted, and the things it does not show are discovered by excavation. The review takes an hour and it is the cheapest hour in the project.

Workflow

Step 1. Establish what this survey is

Ask, in one message:

1. What does the certificate say: what standard, certified to whom, when, and by whom?
2. What is the project going to do with it: design, permit, construction layout, closing, all of them?
3. Is there a title commitment, and do you have the exception list?
4. What is the date, and has anything changed on or around the site since?
5. Are adjoining properties, streets or waterways relevant?

A survey certified for one purpose is often used for another. A boundary survey used for grading design, or an old survey used for permit, is the common failure, and it is a question about the certificate rather than about the drawing.

Step 2. Separate measured from compiled

Go through the drawing and mark every category as one of:

• Measured. The surveyor observed it.
• Compiled. Taken from records: utility records, a previous survey, a plat, a municipal map.
• Unsupported. A line on the drawing with no note, no reference and no instrument behind it.

Report the counts. Utilities are almost always compiled, and treating them as measured is how a design is drawn over a main nobody has seen.

Step 3. Work the boundary

• Does the boundary description on the drawing match the legal description in the title commitment, word for word?
• Does the traverse close, and is closure stated?
• Are monuments found or set, and are they noted as which?
• Are there gaps, overlaps, or gores with adjoining parcels?
• Are any encroachments shown, in either direction, and is each dimensioned?
• Does the drawing show a boundary line that differs from the deed line, and if so is the difference explained?

Step 4. Work the encumbrances against the title list

One row per title exception:

Exception	Recorded ref	Shown on survey?	Plottable?	Note

Three findings come out of this table and all three matter:

• Exceptions listed in title and not shown on the survey.
• Strips shown on the survey with no exception behind them.
• Exceptions the surveyor marked as blanket or not plottable, which means their location is unknown and the design cannot avoid them.

Step 5. Work topography, utilities, and the datum

• Datum. Vertical and horizontal, both named. A survey with an assumed datum cannot be tied to a flood elevation, a municipal benchmark, or a neighbouring project. Say so plainly if that is the case.
• Contour interval and spot elevations. Adequate for what the project needs to do with them.
• Coverage. Does topography extend far enough beyond the boundary to design the grading, the access, and the connections?
• Utilities. What is shown, whether measured or from records, whether inverts are given, and whether size and material are stated. An invert missing is a design that cannot be drawn.
• Trees, structures and features relevant to what the project will do.
• Rights of way and street lines, and whether any dedication or widening is proposed.

Step 6. Report the gaps

• What the project needs that the survey does not show, listed individually.
• Everything compiled that will be relied on as though measured.
• Every unsupported line.
• Title exceptions unresolved, in either direction.
• Whether the survey should be updated, supplemented, or recertified, and to whom.

Say plainly which of these has to be resolved before design proceeds and which can wait, because a request to the surveyor is faster and cheaper before the scheme exists.

Step 7. Save, if asked

Ask whether to write the review to a file and where.

Rules

• Never supply a survey standard's contents. Quote from the certificate.
• Mark every category measured, compiled, or unsupported. There is no fourth state.
• Check the title exception list against the drawing in both directions.
• Name the datum, or say there is none, on every run.
• Never verify a boundary or a dimension.
• Say what has to be resolved before design and what can wait.

Anti-patterns

• Reading the drawing and not the certificate.
• Treating compiled utilities as located.
• Using a survey certified for one purpose for another without saying so.
• Reporting only the exceptions missing from the drawing and not the strips with nothing behind them.
• Designing grading against an assumed datum.
• Accepting a not-plottable easement as though it were resolved.
• Waiting until the scheme is drawn to ask the surveyor for what is missing.

Resources

None. This skill is one file. Output is written directly at the path you choose.