Grading (earthworks)

This article is about earthwork. For lumber grading, see Lumber ยง Grades and standards. For the photography term, see Color grading.
Section through railway track and foundation showing the sub-grade

Grading in civil engineering and landscape architectural construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope,[1] for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage. The earthworks created for such a purpose are often called the sub-grade or finished contouring (see diagram).

  1. ^ "Grade.1.". def. 2. Whitney, William Dwight, and Benjamin E. Smith. The Century dictionary and cyclopedia vol.3. New York: Century Co., 1901. 2589. Print.