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Engineering in a tail-spin....

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(@mapman)
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I just received a new project on my desk to start the process to request the electronic data from the engineer. Did a quick review of the plans and here is a partial view of one of the profile sheets. Comments.....

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 8:57 am
(@mike-marks)
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> I just received a new project on my desk to start the process to request the electronic data from the engineer. Did a quick review of the plans and here is a partial view of one of the profile sheets. Comments.....
>
>

Looks like a CalTrans profile sheet. What's going on here is the engineer wants to match existing pavement, but rather than simply so stating, he/she commissions a time consuming and expensive edge of pavement survey and generates the ridiculous profile you see. CalTrans primary goal (according to what one of their engineers told me) is full employment for Department employees. It's a Union thing . . .

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 9:12 am
(@clearcut)
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> ... Comments.....

Depends,

Are you analyzing this solely from a surveyor's perspective? If so, then obviously you'll need the varying offset values along with the horizontal alignment.

If you're qualified to analyze the engineering aspect, then a couple of things. One would be that several grade breaks exceed 0.5% and should have a vertical curve instead. Also grade breaks shouldn't be spaced less than 50' apart. Assuming of course that this is a roadway profile.

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 9:26 am
(@perry-williams)
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I like the little downhill stretch at 352+25

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 10:09 am
(@dallas-morlan)
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Looks like a right edge of pavement profile showing pavement tapering. Two fixed width locations and enough elevation & percent of grade to compute distance between shots. Given those distances and ASSUMING (BAD THING TO DO) constant taper pavement width at each station could be estimated.

EDIT: Would need to look at more of plans to determine if this is edge of pavement or other location.

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 10:10 am
(@surveyor-nw)
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Looks good to me at the moment....

I've got one plan set on my desk with a vertical curve drawn in on the profile
(no data for the curve).... same plan set, no horizontal curve information.

Next plan set in the pile, a pipe job with a half street improvement, has pipe
stationing (YAY) but it's 0+00 at the UPSTREAM cleanout. Oh, and no street
stations and grades for the road improvements.

That's just the start, I've got more plans to work on after these two..
I'm sure they're just as good!

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 10:44 am
(@mapman)
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Everyone gets a score of A+ 🙂

These are a set of plans from a consultant for Caltrans.
The profile is for the Edge of Traveled Way.
It is Hyper-engineered for a join line.
I will eventually have to somehow translate it into the TSC3 as a corridor using TBC.
Sometimes I want to weep.
Just kidding...mostly.

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 12:33 pm
(@sir-veysalot)
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Grade breaks every 2'?

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 2:33 pm
(@mapman)
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Actually its 25'. The horizontal grid is pretty compressed. See bottom of graph. It is the start of a cross slope that is shown in another section of the profile.

My intent was to indicate how over-engineered this was. A simple join/sawcut line with a matching cross-slope note would probably have been enough. As long as it isn't in a changing superelevation. Even so, it could be handled more simply.

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 5:05 pm
(@beer-legs)
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I have seen that or something similar to that before. The Firemen were complaining about a too big of a "bump" when they sped over it at 50 mph at a certain intersection that had been reconstructed from a recent san sewer replacement job. The City Engineer painted a bunch of dots at 2' stations at about 7 different offsets and had us locate all of them. He then redesigned it with new grades. They tore out the new ac and subgrade and redid the intersection using his grades.

It did come out better and the Firemen approved it.

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 5:40 pm
(@dave-karoly)
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Me too.

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 5:55 pm
(@bobkrohn)
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I did the same thing.
On my screen all I saw was the +60 & +68.50

 
Posted : June 14, 2013 9:20 pm