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HomeMy WebLinkAbout060622ca03 Department of Public Works O Consent Agenda Page 1 of 1 Jefferson County Board of Commissioners Agenda Request To: Board of Commissioners Mark McCauley, County Administrator From: Monte Reinders, Public Works Director/County Engineer./, Z Agenda Date: June 6, 2022 Subject: A Policy for the Protection and Preservation of Survey Monuments Statement of Issue: Adoption of a policy for the County's road department for the protection and preservation of survey monuments. Analysis/Strategic Goals/Pro's Et Con's: Recent changes to 136-50 WAC, Standards of Good Practice - County Road Department Administration, require the county's legislative authority to develop and adopt a policy for the road department related to the protection and preservation of survey monuments in the county road rights of way. Public Works has developed a policy using the guidance provided by the County Road Administration Board (CRAB). Adoption by resolution is required by CRAB and the WAC. Fiscal Impact/Cost Benefit Analysis: The costs associated with protecting and preserving monuments in the county road rights of way are not insignificant although hard to estimate. The costs to set survey monuments or replace ones that have been destroyed are likewise not insignificant. The requirement to preserve and protect monuments is not new and the Department has already been doing this. Much of the impetus for this new policy is to make sure that monuments are not covered during paving and chip sealing operations. To do so requires an extensive review of available documents, field investigations, and then raising or encasing monuments. Setting cases around survey monuments requires traffic control, excavation, casing installation, and pavement patching all performed in the presence of a licensed surveyor. Existing casings often have to be raised during paving or chip seal operations. Recommendation: Please review the attached policy and adopt the policy using the attached Resolution. Department Contact: Monte Reinders, Public Works Director/County Engineer x242 Reviewed By: Mark McCau , County Administrator Date STATE OF WASHINGTON COUNTY OF JEFFERSON In the Matter of Establishing a x RESOLUTION NO._ Policy Regarding Survey x Monument Protection x And Preservation x WHEREAS, survey monuments are public domain and belong to all of the citizens of Washington State; and, WHEREAS, RCW 58.24.040(8), RCW 36.86.050, and 332-120 WAC require county road departments to manage and protect survey monuments located within the county road rights of way; and, WHEREAS, no survey monument shall be removed, destroyed or have reasonable access impeded without first obtaining required permits from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources; and, WHEREAS, Chapter 13 6-5 0 WAC - Standards of Good Practice — County Road Department Administration specifies policies and notifications to be coordinated between the County Engineer, county legislative authority, and the County Road Administration Board; and, WHEREAS, Chapter 136-50-050 requires that the county legislative authority develop and by resolution or- ordinance adopt written policies, within the limits of existing state law, that cover certain matters relating to county road department administration, maintenance, and construction; and, WHEREAS, Chapter 136-50-050(5) requires a policy regarding preservation, maintenance, and restoration of survey monuments within the county road right-of-way; and, WHEREAS, the Department of Public Works has developed a policy for survey monument preservation and protection which incorporates the minimum content suggested by the County Road Administration Board (CRAB); NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners hereby establishes and adopts the Survey Monument Protection and Preservation Policy attached as Exhibit A. ADOPTED THIS DAY OF , 2022, SEAL: ATTEST: Carolyn Gallaway, CMC Clerk of the Board 2 JEFFERSON COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Kate Dean, Commissioner, District # 1 Heidi Eisenhour, Commissioner, District #2 Greg Brotherton, Commissioner, District #3 Exhibit A Survey Monument Protection and Preservation Policy & Procedure (2022) Jefferson County Department of Public Works Adopted by Board of County Commissioners by Resolution TITLE: SURVEY MONUMENT PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION PURPOSE The purpose of this policy is to ensure that the Department understands its duty to protect and preserve survey monuments when performing any type of work, but in particular construction projects and pavement preservation projects where there is a risk that monuments could be disturbed or covered. Survey monuments are public domain and belong to all of the citizens of Washington State. RCW 58.24.040(8), RCW 36.86.050, and 332-120 WAC require county road departments to manage and protect survey monuments located within the county road rights of way. No survey monument shall be removed, destroyed or have reasonable access impeded before a permit is obtained from the DNR. The County Engineer, as a licensed professional engineer in the State of Washington, can be held accountable for improper survey monument protection perpetrated by the county road department. RELEVANT STATUTES The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has rule making responsibility regarding survey monument protection within Washington State. RCW 58.24, RCW 58.09, 332-120 WAC. The Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors has regulatory over individual professional engineers and land surveyors regarding monument protection... but lacks authority over public agencies. RCW 58.09, 332-120 WAC, 196-27A-030(5) WAC, RCW 58.04.015. The CRABoard has regulatory authority over Counties/county road departments regarding "provisions of law relating to county road administration and the standards of good practice". RCW's 36.78.070(3), 090(1)(b), 100, RCW 36.86.050, RCW 58.09, 332-132 WAC, 136-50-050(5) WAC. RCW 58.24.040(8) Requirement to preserve and protect monuments and DNR's authority RCW 36.86.050 Duties of County Engineer regarding U.S. Government corners that fall within the county road right of way. 332-120 WAC Rules regarding the removal or destruction of survey monuments and the requirement to protect survey monuments during construction and paving/chip seal operations. Full text of the selected RCWs and WACs is attached after the signature page in this document and may easily be looked up on line. Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 1 OTHER DOCUMENTS Other documents relevant to the policy and procedure are included as an appendix. These include: • Memorandum of Understanding with the State Department of Natural Resources Public Land Survey Office and Jefferson County • Annual Certification Letter (Example) DEFINITION OF TERMS "Shall" — A statement of required or mandatory practice. "Should" — A statement of recommended, but not mandatory practice in typical situations. "May" — A statement of practice that is a permissive condition and carries no requirement or recommendation. Other Definitions are contained in the statutes in the above paragraphs. TRAINING OF STAFF County Road Department staff including engineers and road maintenance staff shall be provided with a copy of this policy which shall be integrated into existing policy manuals. Staff shall be trained on the contents of the policy, the requirement to research, identify, preserve, and protect monuments in the course of county road work OR apply for DNR permits to remove or destroy a monument. Training shall occur with any new staff and at least once per year when other mandatory trainings are conducted. This material should be discussed at pre -project meetings, tailgate meetings, and chip seal season briefings. Any questions should be directed to the employee's supervisor and ultimately to the County Engineer if necessary. When in doubt, ask! SURVEY AND ENGINEERING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Jefferson County Public Works has a long history of positive engagement with the local surveying community. The Department uses many of these surveyors as consultants on its projects for base mapping, development of right of way plans, construction staking, road monumentation, and assistance with locating and preserving existing monuments or filing forms with the DNR to remove, destroy, and/or reset monuments. Surveyors may contact the Department of Public Works at (360) 385-9160 or via email if they discover that a monument is potentially covered or inaccessible due to legacy issues. The Department has worked with surveyors when these issues have been discovered and will continue to do so. In a typical scenario, a surveyor will locate a monument that is buried under a layer of asphalt, mark it with paint, and contact the Department. The Department will then work Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 2 with that surveyor, or another licensed surveyor, to raise the monument or install a casing around the monument. Work around a survey monument, such as setting a monument case, should not be performed when there is any chance that it will be disturbed unless a licensed surveyor is present to assist. CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT PROCEDURES Each capital construction project will have a Project Manager. It shall be the Project Manager's responsibility to perform a due diligence search for monuments within the project boundary. This may be done by reviewing relevant surveys in the area of work and/or by consulting with the licensed surveyor who has prepared the base map. Survey monuments should be shown on the base map, and the Project Manager should review the plans for potential conflicts with these monuments. The Project Manager may need to conduct a physical site reconnaissance to determine whether there are potential conflicts with these monuments and shall take all required precautions to preserve and protect these monuments, up to and including special provisions in the construction documents for this purpose. If the monument cannot be preserved, then it shall be the Project Manager's responsibility to follow the DNR's permitting procedures and options for disturbing, destroying, and resetting the monument(s) and for completing required applications and forms. When new monuments are set as part of a project, a survey shall be recorded by a licensed surveyor in accordance with the Survey Recording Act. A survey shall be recorded for any right of way monumentation set during a project. CHIP SEAL PROCEDURES The Department creates a 3-year look -ahead chip seal plan. In addition, asphalt overlay projects are typically planned several years in advance and included on the 6-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). By January Is' of each year, the Roads Superintendent will prepare a notification to the DNR PLSO detailing the upcoming summer's chip seal program, as required by the MOU. At least one year prior to construction, the Roads Superintendent will provide the Department's Right -of -Way Representative (or other trained and designated staff) a list of planned chip seal and asphalt paving projects. This person will download and print from the County's Laserfiche system any relevant long plats and right of way plans depicting the existence and locations of survey monuments in these roads where this work will be performed. This person will highlight the monuments for easy identification by those subsequently using the maps. These maps will be provided to the Roads Superintendent who will in turn provide them to appropriate Foreman or other staff. The Foreman or other staff will inspect the roads, or designate staff to inspect the roads, and locate any of the visible survey monuments shown and highlighted on the maps. These will be marked with paint and a record kept of their location. This person will note and keep a record of whether the monument is in a monument case or should have a monument case installed or whether the monument was not visible. Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 3 Monuments shall be preserved in one of several ways: • Monument in Existing Case — If the survey monument is already protected in a monument case, it may only be necessary to temporarily cover the lid with tar paper during chip sealing and then remove the tar paper after the chip seal work is completed. The Foreman shall ensure that the tar paper is removed after chip sealing and make a written record that this was accomplished. The locations should be marked with a Temporary Raised Pavement Marker (Type Y) , and it is also recommended that an offset stake be used beside the road to indicate said location. If the monument case lid is already more than 1.5 inches below the surrounding pavement surface, or will become more than 1.5 inches below the pavement surface after the work is completed, then a riser ring should be added to the monument case. Make sure that the rings are never higher than the surrounding pavement or they will be damaged by snow plowing. • Monument Not in Existing Case — If a survey monument is not protected by an existing monument case, it may be possible to temporarily cover it and then remove this covering after the chip seal work as described in the paragraph above. If, however, this will leave an unacceptably deep or large hole in the road, then a monument case should be installed. In order to ensure that the survey monument is not disturbed during the installation of the case, this work shall be coordinated with a competent licensed surveyor who can be present when the work occurs. Monument Not Visible at the Surface — In the case of survey monuments that cannot be found, the Department has embarked on a program to uncover these monuments and install monument cases, again in the presence of a competent licensed land surveyor. The Department also has communicated to the land surveying community that if they uncover a monument in a County road, they should report this to the Department so that the Department can take measures to protect and preserve said monument. At the completion of the chip seal season, the Roads Superintendent will prepare a letter for signature by the County Engineer to be transmitted to the DNR Public Lands Survey Office as required by the MOU. Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 4 SELECTED RELEVANT STATUTES RCW 58.24.040 Official agency designated —Powers —Standards, maps, records, report, temporary removal of boundary marks or monuments. The agency designated by RCW 58.24.020 is further authorized to: (8) Permit the temporary removal or destruction of any section corner or any other land boundary mark or monument by any person, corporation, association, department, or subdivision of the state, county, or municipality as may be necessary or desirable to accommodate construction, mining, and other development of any land: PROVIDED, That such section corner or other land boundary mark or monument shall be referenced to the *Washington coordinate system by a registered professional engineer or land surveyor prior to such removal or destruction, and shall be replaced or a suitable reference monument established by a registered professional engineer or land surveyor within a reasonable time after completion of such construction, mining, or other development: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That the department of natural resources shall adopt and promulgate reasonable rules and regulations under which the agency shall authorize such temporary removal or destruction and require the replacement of such section corner or other land boundary marks or monuments. RCW 36.86.050 Monuments at government survey corners. The board and the road engineer, at the time of establishing, constructing, improving, or paving any county road, shall fix permanent monuments at the original positions of all United States government monuments at township corners, section corners, quarter section corners, meander corners, and witness markers, as originally established by the United States government survey, whenever any such original monuments or markers fall within the right-of-way of any county road, and shall aid in the reestablishment of any such corners, monuments, or markers destroyed or obliterated by the construction of any county road heretofore established, by permitting inspection of the records in the office of the board and the county engineering office. WAC 332-120-020 Definitions. The following definitions shall apply to this chapter: Covering: The physical covering of a survey monument such that the physical structure is no longer visible or readily accessible. Department: The department of natural resources. Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 5 Engineer: Any person authorized to practice the profession of engineering under the provisions of chapter 18.43 RCW who also has authority to do land boundary surveying pursuant to RCW 36.75.110, 36.86.050, 47.36.010 or 58.09.090. Geodetic control point: Points established to mark horizontal or vertical control positions that are part of the National Geodetic Survey Network. Land boundary survey corner: A point on the boundary of any easement, right of way, lot, tract, or parcel of real property; a controlling point for a plat; or a point which is a General Land Office or Bureau of Land Management survey corner. Land corner record: The record of corner information form as prescribed by the department of natural resources pursuant to chapter 58.09 RCW. Land surveyor: Any person authorized to practice the profession of land surveying under the provisions of chapter 18.43 RCW. Local control point: Points established to mark horizontal or vertical control positions that are part of a permanent government control network other than the National Geodetic Survey network. Parcel: A part or portion of real property including but not limited to GLO segregations, easements, rights of way, aliquot parts of sections or tracts. Pavement preservation treatment: Asphalt light bituminous applications such as slurry, micro seal, cape and chip seal treatments that are typically less than 5/8 inch thick. Removal or destruction: The physical disturbance of a monument such that the physical structure no longer marks the location of the land boundary position. Survey monument: The physical structure, along with any references or accessories thereto, used to mark the location of a land boundary survey corner, geodetic control point, or local control point. Survey Recording Act: The law as established and designated in chapter 58.09 RCW. WAC 332-120-030 Applicability. (1) No survey monument shall be removed or destroyed before a permit is obtained as required by this chapter. (2) Any person, corporation, association, department, or subdivision of the state, county or municipality responsible for an activity that may cause a survey monument to be removed or destroyed shall be responsible for ensuring that the original survey point is perpetuated. It shall be the responsibility of the governmental agency or others performing construction work or other activity (including road or street resurfacing projects) to adequately search the records and the physical area of the proposed construction work or other activity for the purpose of locating and referencing any known or existing survey monuments. A government agency, when removing a local control point that it has established, shall be exempted from the requirements of this chapter. (3) Survey monuments subject to this chapter are those monuments marking local control points, geodetic control points, and land boundary survey corners. In regard to local or geodetic control points the department will defer authorization for the removal or destruction of the survey monument to the agency responsible for the establishment or maintenance of the control point. Such agency may, at their discretion, exempt Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 6 the applicant from the remonumentation requirements of this chapter. Such exemption shall be noted by the agency on the application form. WAC 332-120-040 Monument removal or destruction. (1) All land boundary survey monuments that are removed or destroyed shall be replaced or witness monuments shall be set to perpetuate the survey point. (2) A land boundary survey corner shall be referenced to the Washington plane coordinate system as established and designated by chapter 58.20 RCW, prior to removal or destruction. See WAC 332-130-070(2), land boundary survey standards. An applicant may request a variance from this referencing requirement by so noting in the applicant information section on the permit and providing the justification on the back of the form. The department shall note whether the variance is approved or not approved and shall provide the reason for not approving the request. WAC 332-120-050 Application process. (1) Whenever a survey monument needs to be removed or destroyed the application required by this chapter shall be submitted to the department. It shall be completed, signed and sealed by a land surveyor or engineer as defined in this chapter. (2) Upon receipt of a properly completed application, the department shall promptly issue a permit authorizing the removal or destruction of the monument; provided that: (a) In extraordinary circumstances, to prevent hardship or delay, a verbal authorization may be granted, pending the processing and issuance of a written permit. A properly completed application shall be submitted by the applicant within fifteen days of the verbal authorization. (b) Applications received by the department concerning local or geodetic control points will be referred to the appropriate agency for action. The applicant will be notified when such action is taken. (3) One application may be submitted for multiple monuments to be removed or destroyed as part of a single project; however, there shall be separate attachments to the application form detailing the required information for each monument removed or destroyed. WAC 332-120-060 Project completion —Perpetuation of the original position. (1) After completion of the activity that caused the removal or destruction of the monument, a land surveyor or engineer shall, unless specifically authorized otherwise: (a) Reset a suitable monument at the original survey point or, if that is no longer feasible; (b) Establish permanent witness monuments easily accessible from the original monument to perpetuate the position of the preexisting monument. Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 7 (2) Land boundary survey monumentation required by this chapter shall meet the requirements of the RCW 58.09.120 and 58.09.130. (3) After completion of the remonumentation, the land surveyor or engineer shall complete the report form required by this chapter and forward it to the department. (4) A record of survey or land corner record shall be completed as required by the Survey Recording Act to document the remonumentation in the public record. WAC 332-120-080 Survey monument preservation MOU for chip seal projects. The purpose of this section is to cooperatively promote a reasonable method of land survey monument preservation throughout a pavement preservation treatment project in lieu of requiring an application for permit to remove or destroy a survey monument, per WAC 332-120- 030. (1) It is the responsibility of the licensed engineer, or their designee, in responsible charge of any pavement preservation project, which may cover existing visible survey monuments, to search for and identify any such survey monuments within the project limits. (2) A state, county, or municipal agency conducting annual pavement preservation projects that cover existing survey monuments in the roadway may enter into an MOU with DNR which must include the following requirements: (a) Annually, prior to the start date of planned pavement preservation projects, send notification to the department of planned projects for that year with road names and mileposts and/or beginning and ending intersections, including start date and expected date of completion; (b) Acknowledgment of the agency's responsibility to ensure that all known survey monuments within the project area are located and protected; (c) All monuments that were covered during a project shall be uncovered and made accessible after completion of annual activities; and (d) The professional engineer in responsible charge of pavement preservation projects shall submit an annual letter to the department certifying that the affected monuments were uncovered. (3) An agency which does not enter into an MOU under this section is required to submit a permit application following WAC 332-120-030 through 332-120-070 for any pavement preservation project that will cover a survey monument. Survey Monuments Protection and Preservation Page 8