Grading Practice Advice/Input

[xtopherus12]

I'm trying to get the hang of grading in my spare time. I have an existing lot with topo data and I'm looking at adding a new residential building. I imported everything to Civil3d and I'm having trouble grading and imagining what the grade would look like. I started by setting the FFE and adding arrows of slope then drew the contours from that. Not sure if this is the most appropriate way to tackle to problem but figured I needed to start somewhere. Can anyone review what I put together and provide input?

 

[swazimatt]

I am not a civil3d designer anymore but probably the main aspects you need to try and acheive are, cut/fill balance (or there about, don't want to have to pay to import or remove material if you don't have to), site drainage (no impounding of current overland flow paths, have enough cover for gravity pipes to connect into street services if available), and depending on terrain sometimes vehicle access is a key issue, have had to lift whole sites to achieve acceptable driveway grade

 

[xtopherus12]

That makes sense and appreciate the response. Definitely didn't take into account balancing the cut/fill and was more looking at where to set FFE based on the existing topo and raising the grade for the building footprint then grading back to existing ground. To keep the building in the same location (min setbacks) and trying to balance cut/fill I'm envisioning needing to do a lot more grading of the property. Wonder what a cost benefit would be for more time grading vs importing fill.

 

[TigerGuy]

On site cut and fill is always less expensive than importing or exporting material, unless you are fighting bedrock.

 

[swazimatt]

This site looks fairly flat, but on steeper sites i have had the fill batter run outside the lot boundary, in those situations you need to decide if you can reduce the platform, split the platform or if you need maximum platform include retaining walls.

 

[swazimatt]

depending on the software it could be a bit of trial and error. with the software i used to use i would select a contour that looked like it split the platform area in half as the starting platform elevation.
and once you think you have it sorted you need to remember to strip the topsoil, include a bulking factor to your cut-to-fill