Civil Engineering Plans Standards 2

[mwruf]

Hi,

I am in charge of setting up new standards for our Civil Engineering projects. We mainly focus on small sites and provide construction plans for grading, stormwater management, and utilities. I was wondering if anyone could steer me in the right direction as I begin to set up the standards.

Thank-you

Mark

 

[PEinc]

Try setting your CAD plan standards to meet those of the local state DOT.

 

[LHA]

You have a very uneviable task. Good luck, but I have found very little in the way of universal engineering Standards. My advise is to consult coworkers from all levels of your company before issuing "The Standard". If you do not, noone will use it, and you will be back where you started. Please DONT just consult the PEs, RLAs and PLSs. More often than not, the lion's share of the actual CAD and calculations are done by lower ranking people. As a PE, I can tell you from experience that you need the lower ranking people on board for a Standard to become The Standard.

If you are in PA, USA, using PennDOT's standards as a template will be OK...with the following exceptions:

PennDOT uses 1" = 25' as their standard plan and profile viewport scale. Noone else does, and I have only ever seen one scale with those increments on it, and it was very old.

PennDOT uses Microstation. So make sure your standard hatches, linetypes, fonts and symbols jive with the software you, your consultants and the review agencies use. If that software is AutoCAD, I will tell you from experience that they often do not.

PennDOT has their own E&S details and symbols, as well as their own E&S specs. All projects (including PennDOT projects) will have to (by law) follow the E&S standards of PaDEP.

PennDOT has much more stringent specs for paving, drainage faciliteis and curbing than most municipalities and counties require in their Ordinances. If you don't need SuperPave, for example, don't spec it.

Remember: The Chinese ideogram for “crisis” is comprised of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.”
-Steve

 

[PEinc]

Well said, lha. I'm in PA also. Hopefully, most other DOT's are not as fussy as PADOT and NJDOT. The level of plan quality and detail required by DOT's is usually more than most other clients will require.

 

[HgTX]

"Hopefully, most other DOT's are not as fussy as PADOT and NJDOT"

Don't bank on it. NY and CA are known for fussiness, DE follows PA's example, and TX likes to have its way as well.

I was about to suggest a local city's standards if you're not expecting DOT clients, but cities often standardize off the state DOT as well.

Hg

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