Survey marks include nails set in concrete, buried rods or tubes, marks under covers, or plaques. They are often just below the surface, so may not be obvious. Marks can be disturbed or destroyed by digging, so it's important to know where they are.
Anyone who is working near marks has a legal duty to protect them. If your works are likely to damage, destroy or move a survey mark, you should hire a licensed cadastral surveyor to make sure marks are replaced with new ones in secure locations.
Planning works
There are hundreds of thousands of survey marks across New Zealand. These are all protected marks under the Cadastral Survey Act 2002 and should be preserved when practicable.
Toitū Te Whenua has identified a subset of these marks which are critical for surveying and geodetic monitoring. These should not be disturbed or destroyed, and if any will be impacted by works they must be relocated by a licensed cadastral surveyor before the works begin. These critical marks are shown in the NZ Protected Survey Marks layer on LINZ Data Service. This layer should be examined before works begin.
The NZ Protected Survey Marks layer is included in:
beforeUdig service
beforeUdig is a free service that identifies assets in or around your work area. When you submit an inquiry to beforeUdig you will receive an automated response that either:
- confirms that there are no marks in your area
- shows the location of any survey marks.
If any marks would be disturbed by your work, you can divert your work to avoid the marks or hire a licensed surveyor to protect the marks or place new ones in a different location.
If you have any questions about survey mark protection and the beforeUdig service, email beforeudig@linz.govt.nz
Destroyed, disturbed or unfound marks
If you find a mark which has been destroyed or disturbed, or cannot find a mark where it should be, please let us know by emailing beforeudig@linz.govt.nz