Joe Bax's position as land survey manager for the Missouri Department of Transportation's (MoDOT) Central District involves a lot of mapping.
The agency's survey department sets boundaries for road projects and maps property boundaries.
"It's so we can tell how much we're taking from each property owner," Bax said.
Bax has worked for MoDOT for nearly 15 years, and has been district land survey manager for five years. There are seven people in his department - surveyors, land surveyors-in-training and technicians.
"We function as a team here," Bax said. "We try to plan ahead a couple of days or more because there's a range of projects given to us."
He said it's his job to assign workers to particular jobs.
To be a land surveyor, Bax said someone must have a college degree in the field or have a specified amount of credit hours in trigonometry and related courses.
"Experience is also a trade off," he said.
He said surveyors also map utility lines and anything else MoDOT designers might need.
"We're involved from the beginning throughout a project," Bax said. "Once (a project is) built, we will develop a map of the corridor we took."
Bax's team also takes other surveys, such as ones related to bridges and even high water.
"Nothing is good until you check it," he said. "That's what we do as surveyors, check all records to make sure they're correct."
In the winter, some of his staff also plows snow on state roads.
Bax said he loves his job because he gets to act like a crime scene investigator.
"It's all about gathering evidence to find something set back when," he said.