In the wake of the Great Recession and the 2008 housing crisis, the surveying industry across the United States changed almost overnight. Faced with economic uncertainty and shrinking budgets, many firms — including my own — shifted from traditional two-person field crews to solo operators equipped with GPS receivers and robotic total stations. The logic was simple: one person, one vehicle and a smaller payroll. It worked — at least on paper. In hindsight, that cost-cutting pivot came at an enormous price. It weakened one of the most critical foundations of our profession: mentorship. And if we’re honest, it also eroded safety, quality and the pipeline of future surveyors along the way. Safety Is Not Optional Surveying is a boots-on-the-ground profession. Our work takes us to the center of busy roadways, active construction sites and remote terrain. It’s not work designed for solitude. Ask yourself: How safely can a single operator set up on a control monument in the middle of a live roadway, open and clean a monument well, occupy it for a sufficient duration and close it up — all while dodging traffic and watching their back? The honest answer is that they can’t do it safely — not consistently. A second crew member isn’t just helpful; they are a safety lifeline. They provide traffic spotting, equipment handling and situational awareness. They prevent incidents before they happen. No data point or deadline is worth a life, and when it comes to field safety, redundancy saves lives. Mentorship Is How Our Profession Survives Most of us didn’t grow up dreaming of being surveyors. We stumbled into it — fresh out of high school, pounding hubs, clearing brush or chasing section corners in the mountains — and fell in love with the work because someone saw something in us. When we exclusively work in one-person crews, we remove that first rung of the ladder. There’s no seasoned crew chief to show the ropes, explain boundary evidence or model professional field practices. There’s no on-the-job apprenticeship, which is how most of us learned. BY MICHAEL NADEAU, PLS, CFedS, MERIDIAN ENGINEERING INC. UCLS Foresights 19
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