Construction Surveying vs Land Surveying
I’d like to reignite this topic, with the hopes that one day there will be a totally different license, for those of us who couldn’t care less about boundary.
For some context, I work in Illinois for a GC, performing layout, as-builts, settlement monitoring, scanning etc to aid the construction process.
Some owners or architects require a stamp by PLS or PE for asbuilts; Obviously not a bad idea, it gives some credibility to the asbuilts and shifts the liability to the person who signed off on it.
However- When you get into the real gritty world of construction surveying, my guess is 95% of PLS’ would tremble at some of the work I do on a daily basis. Sure regular old topos and measuring inverts are common to land surveyors. But explain to me how the current curriculum or exams will prepare a land surveyor for real construction work. It doesn’t. And to be fair most PLS don’t want any involvement in our world. To some, it’s beneath them.
And sure, in places like IL, CA and NY we have unions which gets us in the door. Great money too. But to an extent we have limitations. Many of us are bound to the field for our entire careers. You hit a ceiling that can’t be broken without getting that stamp from the state.
Much of what we do cannot be learned by books or adjacent experience. Only by direct involvement for a long period of time. By learning from those who came before you; Endless hours of studying blueprints and working with other trades in the field.
Explain to me where a PE or PLS knows how to do an anchor bolt survey, or how to take up a concrete building? Or how to field engineer caissons? Or aisc tolerances? Pci? Aci? Steel expansion rates or engineered camber for beams? Who’s willing to lay out windows on the edge of a building 50 stories up? Work on swing stages or boom lifts? Can they make decisions on the fly? While you have concrete drying or ten carpenters waiting on you to frame columns?
This is the true distinction between construction surveyors and land surveyors. Now I’m not saying every state should just hand out licenses to guys who’ve pounded hubs for 10 years. But there needs to be a lane for those of us who chose the trade route. Some credibility to sign off on the work we actually performed in the field. Work that a PE or PLS couldn’t perform as accurately, timely, or knowledgeably.
And by formally making this distinction, I think it does three things.
A. Helps land surveyors allocate their time to cadastral surveying and stops PEs being able to sign off on things they have no idea about.
B. Protects survey work to be performed by surveyors. Without legitimacy in the construction world, our work is susceptible to being stolen by other trades. A lot of it is, but that line will continue to blur.
C. It increases the bargaining power we all have. It’s simple. Gives us a bigger voice to preserve surveying before it all becomes deregulated.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for hearing me out. This is not a rant- Simply a guy who sees the room for improvement in our industry, and cares to see the next generation exist.
