The Art of Grading
The Art of Grading
(OP)
It seems that site grading is one of those things they never teach you in school, but expect you to know on the job. I have had some exposure to grading in the past and have been able to work my way through it, but never felt that I had a firm grasp on the procedure. A big grading job was just presented to me and I want to take the correct approach to it.
Can anyone recommend a book or (better yet) an online resource that lays out the proper steps to take when approaching a grading design? Or can you offer me tips on what the steps are? Where do I begin? I am specifically interested in grading for residential and commercial site development.
Can anyone recommend a book or (better yet) an online resource that lays out the proper steps to take when approaching a grading design? Or can you offer me tips on what the steps are? Where do I begin? I am specifically interested in grading for residential and commercial site development.





RE: The Art of Grading
Secondly, get the geotech to give recommendations before starting the earthwork.
RE: The Art of Grading
is a standard read for civil firm and you won't regret owning it.
2nd the motion that you should be learning drainage at the same time. Drainage drives the grading at my office on most of our projects.
different CE firms have their own style for everything so you shouldn't be expected to pick it up and run with it the whole way. Read the chapters on the stuff you don't feel comfortable with and work on it from there.
Also, grading is more or less a culmination or compromise of dealing with all the issues on the project. (Road, parking, sidewalk, utilities, drainage design, wetlands, and a whole bunch of other permitting and site constraints specific to the job)
RE: The Art of Grading
1) Follow the natural contours wherever possible
a)Put the drainage conveyance along the natural stream bed alignment and also put the main roadway/sanitary sewer parallel and close.
b)Try to not cross into another drainage basin with runoff or sewage.
c) set the road center line about 2.5' lower than adjacent building pads, (ranch style), or 4.0' lower if basements are standard.
d) Drain each lot to the public ROW,(not onto a neighboring lot).
2) DIRT IS CHEAP, no retaining walls or abrupt change in grade. Minimum slope is 0.8%, maximum is 7-8%. Use 25-50' tangent slopes out of intersections, pick up gutter flow upstream of intersections.
3) Follow all zoning rules and setback requirements in the initial layout. Side yard, front yard, back yard set backs and % green space.
RE: The Art of Grading
So read those local zoning codes and regs... pay special attention to the SWM regs for quantity and water quality.
RE: The Art of Grading
Id get into the site details but its a can of worms. I may post later if I have specific questions. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Your tips have been helpful.
RE: The Art of Grading
Then the drainage plan is coordinated with the developer's ideas about layout and related grading . Location and sizing of detention basins is part of pre-design.
RE: The Art of Grading
RE: The Art of Grading
RE: The Art of Grading
RE: The Art of Grading
When I say the site is maxed out, I'm not exaggerating. Its urban infill so there is no room for an open drainage pond and all of the parking is buried, so an underground system also is unfeasible. We have some room in the driveway, so that may be an option. One of the rare cases where a parking lot would actually be desirable.
RE: The Art of Grading
RE: The Art of Grading
I love the title of this thread because grading/earthwork/drainage is an art that is best learned from someone thats already good at it.
On residential subs. your roadways profiles dictate everything. So getting the profiles right are critical. Overland flood routes (and drainage in general) have to be considered when setting these profiles including the amounts of excavation coming from your basin digs (which dictates how much below or above existing grades you need to set the profile at).
The reason this is the most important topic in land development is that Earthwork is the one area of development where you can save your client lots of money if you do it right. A balanced site means no haul-off or double handling of material. Not to mention that if you get it wrong, drainage problems will leave you open to serious liability.
RE: The Art of Grading
Some people just don't get it. At my last job some mid-management decided we were going to standard sheets which would involve separate grading plan sheets and separate drainage plan sheets. Made no sense at all. From the design standpoint or the contractors standpoint.
Oh well, I just do the work. Right now anyway. It is good to have faith in your managements decisions, maybe that is part of the reason why that is my previous job now.
RE: The Art of Grading
Heres the biggest problem in the engineering community:
By the time you get good at something you are pushed to mid-management and no longer do serious ground level engineering, you become a project manager. That leaves the newer kids to do these critical drainage/earthwork routines.
This topic should never be given to the younger engineers without extreme oversight. Sometimes the mid-management role leaves insufficient time to train the young ones in this extremely important topic. I wish it was different.
RE: The Art of Grading
Also, I've always felt that this should be covered in school. 4 years of advanced calculus does little to teach site grading or utility coordination. A colleague from Australia took a 2 year 'college' degree where he learned some of the more practical aspects (survey, grading, how to lay out a road) then went on to 'university' to learn the theory. Seems like a good way to go IMO.