Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 245 - State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors › Chapter 15 - Licensure and Practice of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors › Subchapter 13 - Minimum Standards for the Practice of Land Surveying › Section 245:15-13-2 - Minimum Standards

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
(a)
Definitions:
as used in these standards, the following terms shall have the following meanings where the context permits as provided in 59 O.S. 475.1 et seq. and Chapter 245:15-1-3 of the Rules of the Board.
(b)
Research and investigation.
Every property boundary survey shall be made in accordance with the boundary description, as provided to or as created by the professional land surveyor, as nearly as is practicable. The professional land surveyor, prior to making a survey, shall acquire available necessary survey data, which may include record descriptions, deeds, maps, Certified Corner Records, government notes, subdivision plats, road records, and other available section and boundary line location data in the vicinity. The professional land surveyor shall analyze the data and make careful determination of the record title boundary of the property to be surveyed. From the information gathered, the professional land surveyor, or those working under his or her direct control and personal supervision, shall search thoroughly for all controlling corners and all other available field evidence of boundary location. In the event of the discovery of a material disagreement with the work of another surveyor, the surveyor should make reasonable efforts to contact the other surveyor in an attempt to resolve the disagreement.
(c)
Minimum technical standards for land or boundary surveys (field and office).
(1) In order for a plat, subdivision plat, map, or sketch of a survey to be acceptable in terms of this rule, it must be complete and shall be certified or otherwise stated as meeting these minimum technical standards.
(2) All measurements made in the field shall be in accordance with the United States Standard, using either US Survey Feet or meters. All measurements shall be referenced to the horizontal or vertical plane, with the exception of geodetic surveys.
(3) All survey documents produced by an individual practicing under his or her own name shall bear the name, address, and telephone number, along with the license number, seal, signature, and date of signature of the professional land surveyor. All survey documents produced by a firm shall bear the name, address, telephone number, and Certificate of Authorization number, along with the name, license number, seal, signature, and date of signature of the surveyor.
(4) All survey documents must bear the date of the last site visit and bear the date of any revisions thereon. If the site visit was performed on multiple dates, the drawing may specify the range of those dates.
(5) A designated north arrow and scale of the map shall be shown prominently upon the drawing.
(6) Any symbols and/or abbreviations representing physical objects used on the drawing will be clearly noted upon the drawing.
(7) The basis of control used in the survey must be shown on the survey and shall be based upon one or both of the following:
(A) Projections (state plain coordinates or other) with specifics to elevation, vertical datum, horizontal datum, zone, ground to grid factor used, state plane or UTM zone including all pertinent metadata, if applicable, measured and published geodetic control values based upon an online position user service (OPUS) solution or geodetic control stations or other control;
(B) A reference to all bearings shown must be clearly stated, i.e., whether to 'True North'; 'Grid North as established by state plane datum'; 'Assumed North based on the bearing of a well-established line'; a 'Deed call for a particular line'; or 'the bearing of a particular line shown upon a plat'; etc. A specific line between two points either found or re-established set points as shown on a filed plat or in an existing deed description. If a solar observation, GNSS observation, or other means for determining True or Geodetic North is used, it shall also include the accompanying latitudinal and longitudinal value of the observation point. 'GPS North' or similar ambiguous notations without explanation are unacceptable.
(8) Referencing surveys.
(A) Surveys based on the United States Public Land Survey System shall be referenced to original or properly restored corners. The appropriate Bureau of Land Management Manual of Surveying Instructions shall be used as a guide for the restoration of lost or obliterated corners and subdivision of sections into aliquot parts.
(B) Lot surveys within platted subdivisions shall be referenced to existing corner monuments within the subdivision as necessary to verify the survey.
(9) Where evidence of inconsistencies is found, such as overlapping descriptions, hiatuses, excess or deficiency, or conflicting boundary line or monuments; the nature and extent of the inconsistencies shall be shown on the drawing.
(10) All survey drawings shall show the change in direction between lines, lines and curves, and between adjacent curves, by angles, bearings or azimuths. Circular curves shall show:
1. The length of radius;
2. The arc distance; and
3. The chord distance and chord bearing. Sufficient information must be shown to mathematically close all lots and/or parcels.
(11) All easements, rights-of-way and building lines drawn or referenced on recorded subdivision plats on or across the land being surveyed and the width of the rights-of-way of all section lines adjoining or within the surveyed property shall be shown upon the survey drawing. Physical evidence of roadways providing access to or through the property being surveyed shall be shown and/or noted. If location of easements or rights-of-way, other than those drawn or referenced on recorded subdivision plats is required, this information must be furnished to the professional land surveyor.
(12) The professional land surveyor shall establish or confirm a monument or confirm the prior placement of monuments at each and every property corner on the boundary line or boundary lines of the parcel or tract of land being surveyed. In such cases where the placement of a required monument at its proper location is impractical, a witness or reference monument shall be placed with the data given to show its location upon the ground in relation to the boundary lines or corner. In any case the type and size of all monuments, either found or set, and the relationship of the monuments to the surveyed lines and corners will be shown on the drawing. Where practical, monuments shall be constructed of material capable of being detected with the conventional instruments for finding ferrous or magnetic objects. All set monuments shall have affixed thereto a durable marker or cap bearing, at a minimum, the license number of the land surveyor in responsible charge, or the Certificate of Authorization number of the firm performing the survey. Monuments for the exterior corners of a subdivision shall be set by the surveyor who certified the plat of the subdivision prior to the recordation of the subdivision plat. It is the responsibility of the surveyor to set the interior corners on all lot and block corners prior to the conveyance of the lot, block or any part thereof within thirty days of completion of the infrastructure improvements, but no later than one year after recordation of the subdivision plat.
(13) Accuracy of measurements. The accuracy of the measurements for the survey shall be based upon the type of survey, and the current or expected use of the land. The accuracy of the measurements thus performed shall be substantiated by the computations of the traverse or the results of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) survey; the relative error of closure permissible shall be no greater than the following standards given below:
(A) Where there is or will be zero lot line construction on small tracts in a high density urban area, the allowable closure error is 1:10,000 or the allowable positional error is plus or minus 0.10 feet.
(B) In residential or commercial subdivisions where the length of lines does not exceed 300 feet, the area of tracts does not exceed 2 acres, and there is no plan for zero lot line construction, the allowable closure error is 1:10,000 or the allowable positional error is plus or minus 0.25 feet.
(C) In suburban or rural residential or industrial tracts where the length of lines does not exceed 1000 feet and the area of tracts is between 2 and 40 acres, the allowable closure error is 1:10,000 or the allowable positional error is plus or minus 0.50 feet.
(D) Rural tracts of 40 acres or more where the corners of the tract may be connected with traverse legs in excess of 1000 feet, the allowable closure error is 1:10,000 or the allowable positional error is plus or minus 1.0 foot.
(E) Rural tracts of 40 acres or more in rough or tree covered terrain where the corners of the tract must be connected with short traverse lines because of poor visibility between the corners of the tract, the allowable closure error is 1:7,500 or the allowable positional error is plus or minus 1.5 feet.
(F) Field work performed which has a closure error greater than the maximum allowed, or linear error of closure greater than the maximum positional error shown, shall be considered unacceptable and shall be corrected. Adjustment of a traverse must not shift the position of any point more than the maximum positional error listed above.
(14) When special conditions exist that effectively prevent the survey from meeting these minimum standards, the special conditions and any necessary deviation from the standards shall be noted upon the drawing. It shall be a violation of this rule to use special conditions to circumvent the intent and purpose of these minimum standards.
(15) A survey plat, sketch or map must be created whenever a land or boundary survey is performed. Every survey plat, sketch or map must contain the legal description of the land being surveyed, either on the face of the survey plat or attached to and referenced to the survey plat. If the professional land surveyor prepares a new description, then both the surveyor's description and the original description must be on the drawing.
(16) Additions or deletions to survey drawings by other than the signing party or parties are prohibited without written consent of the signing party or parties.