Ok, so this is my first post. I work for a road construction company. After our surveyor comes and sets his stakes for cut and fill we review the stakes. Can someone please tell me how to mathematically come up with the cuts or fill to figure out sub grade or top of agg. For example, a cut of 1.28 to Top of Pavement. Say there's 8" of rock and 8" of pavement. It seems like everyone who I work with knows how to do the math in their heads but can't or won't show/explain to me how they are coming up with the numbers. Basically it's just the first guy to spit out a number and everyone else agrees like they don't know either. It's frustrating because I want to truly learn everything I can and contribute as much as I can. We also use a laser level to check the hubs set by the surveyor and then check the blue tops which is very similar to calculating grade stakes.... No one is willing to explain how and what they are doing. I would really appreciate all help I can get! Thanks for your time!
8"=0.66 tenths So 0.66 stone + 0.66 pavement= 1.32 from top of pavement to sub grade add that to your cut #1.28+1.32= 2.60 of cut. when it gets fun is when you have less fill on grade stake than the depth of your stone + pavement so if you had a fill of 1.28 you would still have a cut of 0.04. Just visualize the grade at the top of the pavement and add the thickness to it.
check out you tube their a few videos on their about reading grade stakes and figuring out cut and fill. Also I have a book cant remember what its called or where I put it but it has a blade on the cover and it explains basically how to move dirt efficiently and reading your stakes and calculating them. If you have a cut of 1.28 to T.O.P and 8" of rock 8" of pavement that is 16" to sub grade from T.O.P all you would have to do is add 16" to your cut and that would be sub grade of course you would have to convert your inches to tenths.
Thanks! That makes more sense! I was assuming cuts were like that but fills were throwing me off. I appreciate your help!
Welcome to the Forums Arrowhead! Another trick - If you want to know what inches are in tenths of a foot, divide by 12. Example - 4"/12=.33'