ets1,
Firstly, I'm not sure how you're calculating UCS from cube samples. I believe that ASTM generally specifies cylindrical samples (from intact portion of rock cores) with L/D ~ 2, similar to concrete testing. I know that mortar or grout are often cast in cubes, but don't know how the UCS values compare to specimens with the cylindrical geometry.
Secondly, 170 to 720 psi are rather weak for limestone. Intact limestone in northern Ohio, in my experience, generally runs 10,000 to 20,000 psi. Based on your results, I would tend to use an average of about 200 psi for analysis.
If you want to see how close your cubes are, I would recommend that you hire a driller to do some bedrock cores and break the intact samples. They should report RQD values to help guide your analysis.
I imagine that the drilling costs should run you about $40/foot for rock coring and about $10/foot for blind drilling through the overburden soils. If you need a lot of drilling, it might be worth your while to hire the drill by the day. A rig and two-man crew should be available for $1K to $2K per 8-hour day, depending on the location. Preparation and testing of the rock samples should not be that expensive, as testing firms use the same equipment as for breaking concrete specimens.
You could probably have drilling and testing completed within a few days, depending on availability of drills and crews, if you are very hot for the results.
The formula in AASHTO HB-17 is qult(bearing on rock) = Nms * Co
where Co = rock UCS
Nms = f(RQD)
You could also request copies of the original geotechnical investigation report and ask if the original cores (if performed) are available. The original geotech report should include RQD values if cores were performed.
Hope this was helpful.
Jeff
Jeffrey T. Donville, PE
TTL Associates, Inc.