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CO Land Surveyor: Land Development and Construction Surveying

CO Land Surveyor · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Land Development and Construction Surveying

Land Development and Construction Surveying

This domain tests the platting process and the field control that turns an approved plat into stakes, grades, and as-builts.

Platting in Colorado

  • County subdivision regulation: CRS 30-28-101 et seq.; municipal subdivision: CRS 31-23-101 et seq. The 35-acre agricultural exemption is a Colorado planning staple but does not by itself satisfy access, water, or sanitation requirements.
  • Typical sequence: sketch plan, preliminary plat, final plat, subdivision improvements agreement, recording of the plat. The surveyor certifies the plat and monuments the corners; lot sales generally cannot precede monumentation and recording.
  • Common-interest subdivisions use condominium maps under the Condominium Ownership Act (CRS 38-33-101) and CCIOA (CRS 38-33.3-101).
  • Plats dedicate right-of-way, reserve easements, and must tie to PLSS corners and recorded monuments.

Construction layout

  • Establish project control from at least two, preferably three, referenced monuments and hold the control, not individual stakes.
  • Prepare cut sheets, grade stakes, and slope stakes; verify horizontal and vertical datum against the plans before setting anything.
  • Colorado practice adds expansive soils, CDOT Standard Specifications for road and bridge work, MS4 stormwater requirements, and ADA cross-slope limits on pedestrian routes.

Worked example

A benchmark reads 5,500.00 ft. Backsight rod on the benchmark is 4.32 ft, so HI = 5,500.00 + 4.32 = 5,504.32 ft. Foresight rod at the stake is 6.85 ft, giving existing ground = 5,504.32 − 6.85 = 5,497.47 ft. Proposed grade at the stake is 5,496.00 ft.

Cut = 5,497.47 − 5,496.00 = 1.47 ft. The stake reads C 1.47 - cut 1.47 ft to grade. If the existing ground had been lower than the proposed grade, the same subtraction would have produced a fill.

Traps

  • Laying out with ground distances when the design is on state plane, or the reverse.
  • Staking before the control network is checked and adjusted.
  • Missing plat notes, easement widths, and setback lines that change the layout.
  • Mixing assumed elevations with NAVD88, or a local project datum with state plane coordinates.