As used in this chapter:
City specifications or specificationsmeans the current specifications and their amendments adopted by the council or in general use by city departments having jurisdiction over earthwork, roads, buildings, drainage and similar construction.
Compactionmeans the act of compacting or consolidating soil and rock material to a specified density, and the resulting compacted state of the material.
Directormeans the director of public works and community development.
Gradingthe act or result of digging, excavating, transporting, spreading, depositing in an embankment or fill, compacting or settling, or shaping of surfaces and slopes in excavations and on embankments, backfilling of trenches, pits, ditches and other excavations or natural depressions, and all other operations performed by or controlled by human agency involving the physical movement of rock or soil.
Quarrymeans premises or site from which rock, sand, gravel, stone, earth, soil, or mineral is removed or excavated for disposition away from the immediate premises, whether the disposition is immediate or delayed, except:
1. Excavation necessary for the construction of a building on the site of the excavation if permits for grading and construction have been issued; and
2. Excavation necessary to bring the contour of the land, within a subdivision for which a map has been recorded in the office of the county recorder, to the grades shown on a land development plan for the subdivision and which has been approved as a part of the grading permit authorizing the excavation.
Relative compactionmeans the ratio of the density of the embankment or foundation material in place after compaction to the maximum density of the same soil compacted under the standard test procedure.
Rockmeans massive layers or fragments of bedrock or cemented earthen materials in the earth's crust, which are of considerable hardness and structural strength, are highly resistant to erosion or disintegration by water or other natural geological weathering processes, and cannot be excavated by ordinary hand methods.
Soil (earth)means earthen materials other than rock, formed by the physical disintegration of rock by water, heat, chemical, mechanical or other weathering processes, and generally occurring in nature as sedimentary deposits and as surface layers of unconsolidated granular materials, which may include boulders, gravel, stone ships, sand, clay and organic material.
Soils engineermeans a registered civil engineer, licensed by the state, responsible for the soils engineering work outlined in this chapter, including the supervision, analysis and interpretation of field investigations and laboratory tests for a specific project, the preparation of soils engineering recommendations and specifications, and the supervision of grading construction work.
Test proceduresmeans testing and control procedures, as modified from time to time, in use by the State of California, Department of Public Works, Division of Highways. (Amended during 2005 recodification; 1991 code § 15-2.2)