Surveying By "Others"
Surveying By "Others"
(OP)
I work as a land development PM for a civil/survey company. Most of the time our development contracts include both the initial survey (topo and platting) along with the design portion of the contract.
A recent developer shopped out our survey, but appears to want to go with the civil design. I am a bit concerned about this because for one, our survey price isn't out of the ballpark for this area. In other words, I think the developer has found the bargain basement survey contract and to save a fraction of overall cost on a large project (17 acre commercial)
I've run into this problem before to some degree. It always seems to cost you in scope creep when survey by 'others' doesn't seem to match what is in the field. (Re. the cheaper surveyor half-a$$ed his field work to meet the reduced budget)
Has anyone had experience with this before? If so, what sort of things did you do to mitigate the potential problem. (On plans, a note indicating survey by others for sure)
But other than that, when the future calls from contractor occur, and things aren't where they should be (earthwork, infrastructure, property pins), what can be done now to protect me from scope creep in the future?
Any thoughts?
A recent developer shopped out our survey, but appears to want to go with the civil design. I am a bit concerned about this because for one, our survey price isn't out of the ballpark for this area. In other words, I think the developer has found the bargain basement survey contract and to save a fraction of overall cost on a large project (17 acre commercial)
I've run into this problem before to some degree. It always seems to cost you in scope creep when survey by 'others' doesn't seem to match what is in the field. (Re. the cheaper surveyor half-a$$ed his field work to meet the reduced budget)
Has anyone had experience with this before? If so, what sort of things did you do to mitigate the potential problem. (On plans, a note indicating survey by others for sure)
But other than that, when the future calls from contractor occur, and things aren't where they should be (earthwork, infrastructure, property pins), what can be done now to protect me from scope creep in the future?
Any thoughts?





RE: Surveying By "Others"
I think you're making too big a deal of this.
RE: Surveying By "Others"
RE: Surveying By "Others"
RE: Surveying By "Others"
RE: Surveying By "Others"
In your contract with your client, specify a T&M line item for "coordination with surveyor". In addition you should also have a line item for "topo check" and "boundary verification".
Your situation has come up more and more at my company and my only advice to you is to not trust someone else's work.
At a minimum make sure you are on the same datums (vert and horiz)and get some discalimers on your plans that the survey was done by others.
If you are doing the construction staking you had better due your diligence on the other surveyors work. You can bet your ass that if there is a bust and a lawsuit is involved, your company will be named no matter how many disclaimers you put on your plans..
No diligence = higher insurance premiums/deductables in the long run!!
RE: Surveying By "Others"
RE: Surveying By "Others"
I suggest you make it clear to your client that you will be calling their surveyor for all issues, no matter how trivial, and if your client complains set up a separate contract for dealing with surveying issues on this project. I'm sure when your client realizes it's a gravy train for you he will think twice about budget surveying in the future.
RE: Surveying By "Others"
That said, cheaper doesn't always reflect a deficiency in quality... sometimes its just Capitalism.