You have a crew standing by. The forms are set. The trucks are rolling. Concrete is going in the ground. Then somebody realizes you’re going to be short. You call the plant for a balance load. Now the crew waits. The finishers wait. Equipment sits. The pour gets stretched out. And if the balance calculation is wrong too, you can find yourself waiting again because you’re still short. Being a yard short doesn’t sound like a major problem when you’re looking only at material qu

How to Calculate Pipe Slope & Invert Elevations for Civil Construction This article is Part 1 of the OLH Pipe Grade Series. Pipe grade is more than a calculation. A crew has to understand the slope, build the pipe to the correct elevation, and document what happened during installation. This series follows that progression: Part 1 — Calculate the slope and invert elevations. Part 2 — Set pipe grade in the field. Part 3 — Document the pipe crew’s daily report. Start with the m