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take a piece of ground that's fixing to be a subdivision surveyor survey feed information to engineers engineers design sewer ,water, storm drains, roads ,etc..
engineer feed surveyor information survey enters information stakes project, engineering or surveying company depending on the case feed our GPS over the information our rover , that intern feeds the information to other GPS powered equipment. all items are installed within GPS guidelines and tolerances. city or county inspectors come out and something is not within spec to them. get Rover out pointing out everything's within GPS specs , Show them original plans at the city or county approved. Then starts the big piss and match.
who's out the money to redo to put into what they want the city or county that approved the plans as they was written the engineers that did not write it up according to the city or county code? but it sure as hell ain't going to be us or the developer. We go through this all the time...
and some wonder why the real working people have so many engineers and inspector jokes and dislikes..

Having both often made iit easier to maintain tight schedules for the large Land development projects I preferred. Had to be careful not to step on other's toes though.

I suspect you and Hook are two of the many I would have enjoyed working with.

I get that a lot, seems to me they went to school for 4+ years while I worked and made money. They paid off student loans while I was buying my first and second home. Now both make similar salaries, I figured this all out before the age of 19, but I certainty wasn't smart enough to be an engineer.

Sounds like the estimator needs to pay closer attention to the project specifications and utilize a construction method that can successfully meet the contract requirements

The rod I was talking about was metric. I expect whoever got it thought it was feet and returned it when they discovered it wasn’t.

Some people used to think it was a compliment to call me an "engineer". My standard response was "It has been years since I have ridden on a train, and I've NEVER driven one!"

well I will use this for an example the plans are approved by city and county as written and delivered from the engineers. one part of the specifications water pipe must be at least 18 in of separation from sewer pipe ..
and elevation of top sanitary manholes. set the depth of the sewer pipe,which of course leaves the sewer pipe running whatever percent between them usually somewhere around 2%.

then when water pipe is on the same side of the street and needs 18 inches of separation easy enough. but the city once the water main 4 ft the top of pipe from finished grade.(their reasoning is so if they ever have to do repairs in the future they won't have to use trench boxes) which then puts a lot of junctions less than 18 in from the sewer pipe.
so then anywhere the water main crosses the sewer main you have to 45 down go under 45 back up well using 4-45 8-in joints gets quite expensive and the extra time and such do things. the estimator/contractor does beds based on the plans giving by the developer... in the end the developer is usually the one who gets the extra bill but it went in fact it is the engineer or city's fault the city should not approve what does not fit within their code in the engineer should also know the code of what he's planning up for that area...

I’ve had to do that many times. You have to place a riser clamp on each side, pour a dead man around both riser clamps with 5/8 rod poking out, sucker rod the pipe and fittings to keep them from blowing apart. The larger the water main, the more it sucks. I’m glad I don’t do that cshit anymore

be easier to sink the whole water main deeper unless expensive. or the whole sewer main should have been deeper so you could go over the top of it..

I certainly agree that the plans need to be correct and that it is the Professional Registrant's responsibility. I read your earlier post as implying that as long as construction was within "GPS tolerances", the contractor has met their responsibility. I do take exception to that. GPS is good for many things, but may not provide adequate precision for some construction. Construction needs to be within the specified tolerances and if a more labor intensive, precise approach is needed, that needs to be accounted for in the bid and execution of the work by the contractor. Means and methods to produce the final product are the responsibility of the contractor.

the contractor should be able to stay within GPS tolerance and be legit when following the plans that's my point. these plans were engineered drawn and approved by the city or county but then the contractor has to deviate from plans in certain ways to make it meet the city or county's code for the inspectors.. this means somebody in the planning design messed up and this happens over and over and over.

I've been using gps guided equipment for 17 or 18 years as an operator, gradesetter, and now as a foreman. The survey is god.... the gps model is only as good as the cad file that the engineer provides to the person building the model and the model is only as good as the guy building it. We use it (gps) all day everyday.... sometimes up to 10 pieces of equipment on one job. It will never be "perfect"....as long as there are humans involved there will be screw ups....... some companies are really taking BIG chances by skipping a lot of construction staking thinking they are cutting a fat hog in the azz but the reality is, is that the surveyor and his "STAMP" is an insurance policy. If they are wrong, it's on them..... without their stakes you are taking on that liability as a contractor.
The gps also works as a damn good quality control for those same surveyors.... problem is, on long projects when new control is added, the contractor fails to add this new control to the gps calibration and the surveyors can start moving up or down, left/right.

As long as you are matching the survey and the plans, any conflicts that come up are on the customer, the engineer/surveyor, or the governing body.

Another source of screw ups is the design changing after the original plans are provided and not getting those changes out to the field in a timely manner.... I could write a fuggin book 🤦🏻‍♂️

All gps work.....

exactly what I'm getting at the GPS puts you reasonably close very reasonably close. it's when the engineers and the planners don't get together. can you have to deviate greatly .this has been mentioned on here so you have to 45 down 45 across and over and back up using for 45 8-in cast fittings plus thrust blocks it gets them expensive fast when you do this a dozen times in a project.. all because the city planners or the engineers or whoever's to blame did not catch the mistake in the engineering phase....
and agree the survey pins are the pin your GPS very slightly you need to calibrate or something needs to be fixed..
the biggest issues rerun into is piping in the ground depths ..

Civil engineering isn’t necessarily something special, don’t get get jerked off by attention whores. Most of it is public record
.

Around here Rock is commonly 3'-6' below the surface. Installing main lines in rock is very expensive (~$200/ cubic yard). In order to meet Local, State and DEQ requirements, bury depths for water (min. depth required for frost cover 36"-42" locally), sewer and pressure irrigation are commonly in the same plane or close. There are horizontal separation requirements (10' between potable and non potable) as well as vertical separation requirements. When a crossing occurs without min. clearance there are several options that meet the requirements of the agencies stated above. We denote on our plans where a vertical crossing of potable and non potable main lines occurs the contractor has several options for construction of said crossing. These requirements and details are clearly stated on the cover page and specifications. It is the contractors responsibility to meet these requirements. This information is provided at the time the contractor bids said project and it is the contractors responsibility to bid accordingly.

That said there are always conditions that no one can see. Buried pipes, abandoned conduits, things buried by farmers 75 years ago without any documentation etc. These items are where the contractor has a legitimate case for a change order.

I've received plans revisions a year after a project was completed and finaled out. Fun stuff I do not miss.