Benchmarks & city survey markers

[+Jedi Cacher]

While out benchmark hunting today I ran across 2 city survey discs. They are metal and embeded in concrete but do not have a number nor are they logged in the benchmark site. There is a small sign nearby stating official survey marker. The disc reads "City of Rapid City" and that is about it. Would these be considered actual benchmarks that can be logged?

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Hi Jedi Cacher -

 

Those sound like actual benchmarks. They cannot be added to the regular benchmark database. However, they can be logged on Groundspeak's US Benchmarks site (Waymarking).

[+Jedi Cacher]

Hi Jedi Cacher -

 

Those sound like actual benchmarks. They cannot be added to the regular benchmark database. However, they can be logged on Groundspeak's US Benchmarks site (Waymarking).

 

 

Thanks for the info on both of my threads. I will return to the survey site and photograph the sign and the marker. I could post the photo under under my topic, but I have never posted a photo before on the forums. I tried to do it several times before a couple of weeks ago but failed in doing so. Apparently I can't just pull the photos from a folder and post them.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Well, if you waymark the item, then you can connect to the picture on the Waymarking site in this forum.

 

(To post a picture in this forum, the picture must already be on the web somewhere.)

Edited June 16, 2007 by Black Dog Trackers

[+Jedi Cacher]

Well, if you waymark the item, then you can connect to the picture on the Waymarking site in this forum.

 

(To post a picture in this forum, the picture must already be on the web somewhere.)

 

 

Got it! Is there a place on the web that you would recommend to place your photos to be used on the forums.

[+A tapeworm]

Is there a place on the web that you would recommend to place your photos to be used on the forums.

 

If you have a personal website or some online community (Facebook, I suppose, for instance) where a URL directs one to the photo, it's easy:

- Click on "New Topic" from the Forum page

- At the top of the message box there's a menu bar (bold, italics, etc) - the small icon which looks like a tree inserts an image - just add the URL to the pop-up window after you click the tree.

 

Without the online-pic-URL capability, it's stupid complicated but possible (I think opening a new browser page makes this easier):

- Go to the Geocaching home page; click "My Account"

- On the right side, under "Account Options", click "Edit My Profile"

- Scroll down to "Virtual You: Your Photo" (sounds frightening)

- Under "Your Photo" click "Choose Profile Image"

- Click "upload new image" - browse to where the image is loaded on your computer & click "upload"

- The photo now appears on the Choose My Profile Photo page you were at a page or 2 ago.

- Click on the photo - the URL that appears on the new page can be Cut&Pasted in the box after clicking on the tree from waaaay before.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Is there a place on the web that you would recommend to place your photos to be used on the forums.

Well besides doing the Waymarking log I suggested, you could alternatively use the geocaching "my account" idea, or another alternative is to put a picture on a free site. A picture on a free site will expire at some point; I don't know how long it will take. So.. here's trying it (I haven't tried it before):

The first upload I did was HUGE, so I used a photo editor to set it to 500 pixels wide at 200dpi. That size looked reasonable on a preview of this post.

 

I guess there's an advantage to a link that will disappear after a time - loading the forum topic in the future will be quicker withoug being laden with pictures viewed long ago.

[+Klemmer]

What I have done is load them onto an old geocache of mine that has been archived. You can still upload pics, and if it has been archived for some time, no one will see it there. As far as I know, GC has so far kept all pics. Maybe someday they will have to start canning some really old ones.

[+Astro_D]

Well, if you waymark the item, then you can connect to the picture on the Waymarking site in this forum.

 

(To post a picture in this forum, the picture must already be on the web somewhere.)

 

 

Got it! Is there a place on the web that you would recommend to place your photos to be used on the forums.

 

I use photobucket to upload all my pixs to the different forums I'm on. It is free and you can upload tons of photos and its simple to use. http://www.photobucket.com

 

just a thought......

 

In our area, we are coming across WIDOT benchmarks in the locations of the NGS benchmarks. Especially after a road has been widened or intersections redone. Very frustrating to think we found a marker only to discover a WIDOT disk there instead.

Edited June 22, 2007 by AstroD-Team

[+shorbird]

PENNDOT is doing the same thing in Pennsylvania as far as replacing NGS disks with their own. Sometimes their disks have no designation and other times they do. The replacements are rarely in the NGS database, though.

[mloser]

Shorbird is right in regards to Pennsylvania, but I don't think they are placing the disks any more. Based on what I have seen bridges replaced after around 2000 no longer get replacement disks. Maybe they realized they were never going to survey to them and stopped bothering even setting them.

[+Ernmark]

PENNDOT is doing the same thing in Pennsylvania as far as replacing NGS disks with their own. Sometimes their disks have no designation and other times they do. The replacements are rarely in the NGS database, though.

 

PENNDOT....here's one for 'ya:

'new' PENDOT disk is on left & KW2732 is on the right...

 

..but then KW2732 is a reset from 1976 - it could be the newer disk.

[+Ernmark]

Shorbird is right in regards to Pennsylvania, but I don't think they are placing the disks any more. Based on what I have seen bridges replaced after around 2000 no longer get replacement disks. Maybe they realized they were never going to survey to them and stopped bothering even setting them.

..we had a few bridges show up w/ disks on them in this part of PA in the past 2 or 3 years...and they're actually fairly consistent w/ placement on the bridgewall. There's also a mapping project going on here & they've set some honest-to-goodness monumented-in-the ground disks in 2006:

B 264 AZ

 

The PA Turnpike Commission seems to be dropping disks on ALL of the new bridges in the area - including a brand-new multi-gazillion dollar bridge across the Susquehanna River which just opened this month:

PTC 246.8

 

..not much in the way of adding to the NGS database, 'tho...

[+shorbird]

Here's KY2883 showing the NGS disk on the left and the PENNDOT disk on the right.

2 disks together

 

Plenty of PTC disks on the western part of the turnpike, all in the NGS database. They're mostly in the ground, though.

Edited June 27, 2007 by shorbird

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

Until recently, there was a street corner in my local area that had a City benchmark and a County benchmark - both well marked brass disks - set about 7" from each other on the top of a curb. That location with the adjacent settings was well known by local surveyors as an interesting example of datum differences. Due to different datums being used, and level runs being performed at different times, those two marks had a published elevation difference of 4.26 feet. (The actual, physical difference was about 0.01') The datum you were working in, or the Agency you were working for, determined which mark you were to use.

 

Due to road widening, both of those marks are gone now.

 

-----

 

GU3381 has got to be the worst case of two marks being set next to each other that I've found though:

Link to BIG PIC

 

-----

 

...bridges replaced after around 2000 no longer get replacement disks. Maybe they realized they were never going to survey to them and stopped bothering even setting them.

GU1669 is one of the few bridge resets I've found. The bridge was rebuilt in 1998-1999 and the mark was set in 2000, which may or may not go along with MLoser's theory. It is, however, a good example of casual benchmarkers logging the reset as the original, even with my note saying it's not the original.

 

- Kewaneh

Edited June 28, 2007 by Kewaneh & Shark

[+Astro_D]

Wow, I've never seen two side by side markers like that before. Geez, Wisconsin must be brutal as they seem to enjoy ripping out the NGS marks and setting their own on top of the original. I've yet to come across any destroyed reports either. I see cachers that insist on logging the WIDOT as the the NGS benchmark even though we posted otherwise. Seems the prevailing theory is that if the coordinates bring you to a marker, its the right one to log.