Vertical Datum

The current vertical datum in use by the City of Bellingham is NAVD88 (North American Vertical Datum of 1988). In 2008, the City started the process of moving to the new vertical datum with a survey that established hundreds of control benchmarks in NAVD88. NAVD88 is the vertical datum that is currently employed by most local and federal agencies and therefore on joint agency projects conversions are not necessary, resulting in a more seamless project.

Information on survey monuments can be found using the Survey Monument Lookup Tool.

Survey Control Network for Waterfront Redevelopment Site

In 2008, the Waterfront Control Record of Survey (420K PDF) was completed. The Survey was conducted in and around the New Whatcom Waterfront Redevelopment site using the NAD83/98 Horizontal Datum and the NAVD88 Vertical Datum. The Survey establishes a common basis for use in all phases of the waterfront redevelopment. The goal was to provide access to convenient and intervisible reference points for use by all surveyors participating in the redevelopment over an extended period of time. The Survey provides an explanation of the relationship between NAVD88, City of Bellingham, NGVD29 and Tidal MLLW Datums.

Resources

Contact

Please email us at landsurveyinfo@cob.org with questions.