This project establishes a new standard in surveying by providing public and private agencies with a uniform survey system. The outcome of this project will be recorded at the Maricopa County Records Office to provide a standard to which survey monuments will be accepted for future surveys. This information will create an unparalleled mans to help locate and reestablish section and quarter corners, when needed. Future GPS surveys will use the network of control generated for this project, including property surveys, data collection surveys for private and GIS projects, subsidence surveys, photogrammetry, and more.

Wood/Patel was chosen to help establish the countywide secondary control network utilizing static GPS methods and a further densification to include section and quarter section corners utilizing Real Time Kinematic GPS methods. The scope of our services encompassed 3,000 square miles. The secondary network involved setting two types of control. The first type of control is a brass cap in bedrock, which is cemented in a 3-inch drilled hole. The second type of control is a stainless steel rod driven to refusal surrounded by a conglomeration of PVC pipe, sand, and concrete and topped off with an access cover. Static GPS is used to survey the secondary control monuments (a minimum of 2 half-hour occupations per monument is required). Coordinates will be “Blue Booked” with NGS for inclusion into the national database system.

Compilation and finalization of this complex land surveying project is expected to take five years. The results will level the playing field for all end users and truly be a benefit to the businesses and citizens in Maricopa County . Wood/Patel is pleased to be a major player in such a historical service that benefits the Arizona survey profession and the general public.