ROAD EXCAVATION & PLAN READING

Earthwork is one of the major activities involved in road construction. This process includes excavation, material removal, filling and compaction to provide a stable surface suitable for serving as a road or highway foundation. Plans describe the specific details of how earthwork activity will be executed to accomplish the goals of constructing a road or highway or any heavy civil project.

Plans are similar to blueprints in that a plan describes the details of a heavy civil project whereas a blueprint applies to the interior, exterior and foundation of a building. Plan reading instructs the apprentice in the reading and interpretation of a typical highway plan.

COURSE

ROAD EXCAVATION & PLAN READING – 40 HOURS / 5 DAYS

This is an advanced course for heavy and highway work. It covers project layout, elevations, underground utility work, and scheduling (using actual projects from DOT projects). The course outline consists of the following:

A review of other types of plan sheets commonly found on most contracts.

Introduction to the basic organization of contract provisions including information contained in the Contract Provisions and Standard Specifications. Standard Specifications is a legal document for the construction of a highway project.

A printed set of Contract Plans that provide a graphic representation of the overall project and
also provides an understanding of how the information in the other contract documents fits
together to describe the construction of a project. In general, plans show the location and dimensions of the materials and components included in the contract.

The alignment of a road or highway is comprised of a variety of elements joined together to create a facility that serves the traffic in a safe and efficient manner. Alignment plans provide the contractor information regarding the horizontal and vertical alignments. Horizontal and vertical alignments are the primary controlling elements to compute stationing, interpret equations, calculate bearings and changes of direction and compute elevations along a profile.

Grading and Earthwork. Interpret the plans anddetermine where material must be removed and where it will be built up to support the roadway and interpret contour plans.

Interpreting drainage plans, drainage profiles, interpret various drainage details and identify structure notes.

Bridge structures. Identify terms used in bridge construction, identify components of a bridge and identify the construction sequence of a bridge.