Proceedings of the 17th Association of Public Authority Surveyors Conference (APAS2012) Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, 19-21 March 2012 Cadastral Survey for the Sea Cliff Bridge on Lawrence Hargrave Drive by the Roads and Maritime Services Stephen Bennett Registered Land Surveyor, Roads and Maritime Services (RMS)
[email protected] Jim Ollis Registered Land Surveyor, Roads and Maritime Services (retired)
[email protected] ABSTRACT This paper describes the cadastral survey carried out by the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) to define the new road boundaries to accommodate the Sea Cliff Bridge on Lawrence Hargrave Drive near Clifton, NSW. The survey had to contend with inhospitable terrain and the instability of the geological structure of the Illawarra Escarpment. It is shown how the application of traditional survey techniques, coupled with modern technology, under these difficult conditions, has produced a very comprehensive and rigorous cadastral survey. The paper describes how marks that were over 100 years old were located along the ocean rock shelf, as well as locating rare stone cubes placed as monuments along the old road alignment. The political urgency of reopening the road as quickly as possible meant that design of the property boundaries was left until after completion of the bridge. This required the survey team to liaise with land owners and other stakeholders to determine the optimal final boundaries and extent of the survey. Complicating this was the need to accommodate a bridge suspended over the sea bed, reclamation of the sea bed off the NSW coast and survey requirements to protect sensitive heritage items.