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Module 2 · Surveying & Site Development

Surveying & Site Development

Boundary and topographic surveying, benchmarks, datums, and control points, how a site plan is developed from survey data, site grading fundamentals, cut/fill earthwork balance, and utility coordination during site development.

Every civil and structural drawing is ultimately a claim about where something sits in space, and none of those claims mean anything without the measured survey reference this module covers — boundary and topographic surveys, the benchmarks and control points that tie every elevation and coordinate on a project to a shared reality, and how a site plan actually gets developed by overlaying a proposed design onto that survey data. From there this module works through site grading (achieving positive drainage while balancing accessibility, parking, and driveway geometry), the cut/fill earthwork calculations that keep a project's soil-moving costs under control, and the utility coordination work that has to happen before any excavation begins.

By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a cut/fill balance matters financially, and why verifying existing utility locations in the field is treated as mandatory rather than something an excavation contractor is expected to simply discover while digging.

Free related reading in this studio
→ How to Read a Survey Plat→ Earthwork Balance Simulator→ Underground Utility Design for Civil Site Projects

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