Chapter 5: Boundary Surveys

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Section 1: Boundary Surveying

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Overview

Boundary surveying is essential to ensure that the rights of the State and the public to their lands is protected. This chapter is devoted to establish the accountability of boundary tasks among different stakeholders.

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Roles and Responsibilities

A Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor is required to supervise creation of all documents and data that are intended to show the precise location of boundary. This includes but is not limited to plats, descriptions, maps, graphics files, easements, dispositions, encroachment exhibits, reports and geodatabases. In the case of documents, the Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor shall sign and seal each document that they produce. In the case of digital files, the Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor shall sign and seal a report indicating that the data delivered is true and accurate. This report may exclude external parties from the project team from claiming liability over the data, such as members of the public and public entity stakeholder classes. TxDOT and Project Team Members are covered by the Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor or Survey Firm if the digital files are not correct.

All surveys shall follow the relevant requirements from the TxDOT Surveyors’ Toolkit. This includes:

Any variation on these requirements must be granted by written exception from the ROW Division Surveying Section.

The ROW Division Surveying Section is responsible for the adoption and communication of all state boundary survey standards. The Section will also support Districts, project partners, and the public with tasks related to the completion of TxDOT projects. This includes:

District Registered Professional Land Surveyors are responsible for the adequate monumentation and recovery of right-of-way boundary lines in their District. This includes:

TxDOT District Survey Coordinators are responsible for ensuring that Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyors map and monument the right of way. They ensure that qualified assistance is acquired via contract, employment, or request to the ROW Division Surveying Section. They monitor and assist efforts to maintain the location of the right of way within their District. This includes:

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Location of TxDOT Boundary

All TxDOT boundary lines shall be located under the supervision of a Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor. This includes right of way lines, easements, and other rights that TxDOT has to the use of property. The Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor shall locate boundary in accordance to the rules of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, state law, case law, and the ROW Preliminary Procedures for the Authority to Proceed Manual.

Location of boundary is considered a service. TxDOT staff shall provide all the services needed to advance TxDOT projects and maintain TxDOT facilities. These services shall be relied upon by all project partners to complete their tasks.

Members of the public are encouraged to obtain the services of a private Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor or a real-estate attorney if they are uncertain about the location of a TxDOT boundary. TxDOT will meet all statutory requirements on provision of records, but the private Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor or real-estate attorney is responsible for all research outside of our records.

TxDOT will defend the true location of our boundary even if we were previously mistaken in our opinion of the location.

The true location of our boundary is best located from the recorded acquisition documents. ROW Maps, Geographic Information Systems, and Engineering Plans only serve as an index to find further evidence for the location of our right of way.

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TxDOT ROW Documents

All TxDOT ROW Documents should match the standards in the ROW Preliminary Procedures for the Authority to Proceed Manual and the form ROW-S-PDCheck Property Description Checklist. ROW Maps are not required, but should be submitted to the ROW Division Surveying Section for inclusion on the Real Property Asset Map if they are created.

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