Sec. 7-3.17. General excavating and grading requirements.
   (a)   Supervision. The permittee shall provide sufficient supervisory control during the grading operations to insure compliance with the approved plans and with the provisions of this Code. The permittee shall avail himself of geological and/or soils engineering services to implement the supervisory control of the permittee’s registered civil engineer. The engineering geologist and/or soils engineer shall be properly qualified, in accordance with the provisions of Section 7-3.06 of this chapter, and qualified to perform such services within the City. Periodic reports as required by the City Engineer shall be submitted by the soils engineer and/or engineering geologist.
   (b)   Safety precautions during grading. If, at any stage of work on an excavation or fill, the City Engineer determines by inspection that further work as authorized by an existing permit is likely to endanger any property or public way, the City Engineer may require that plans for such affected area be amended to include adequate safety precautions as a condition to allow the work to continue. The City Engineer may cause the work on the affected area to be halted and may require that plans be amended to include adequate safety precautions as a condition to allow the work to continue.
   Safety precautions may include, but shall not be limited to, specifying a flatter exposed slope or construction of additional drainage facilities, berms, terracing, compaction, cribbing, retaining walls or buttress fills, slough walls, desilting basins, check dams, benching, wire mesh and guniting, rock fences, revetments, or diversion walls.
   (c)   Supervised grading. Where necessary, the City Engineer shall require the permittee to employ:
   (1)   A registered civil engineer to supervise all grading;
   (2)   A soils engineer to provide either constant or continuous soils inspections: and
   (3)   An engineering geologist to provide either constant or continuous geological inspections as suit the job.
   The employment of such persons shall not be deemed to render unnecessary inspections described in this chapter, except that on any work requiring the continuous supervision and inspection of a registered civil engineer, the inspections required by this section may be delegated to the registered civil engineer by the City Engineer.
   If the registered civil engineer, soils engineer, or engineering geologist, fulfilling his responsibility pursuant to the provisions of this section, finds that work is not being done in conformance with the provisions of this chapter or the plans and specifications approved by the City Engineer, the registered civil engineer, soils engineer, or engineering geologist shall immediately notify the person in charge of the grading work, and if the nonconformity is not corrected, the City Engineer shall be notified in writing of the nonconformity and of the corrective measures to be taken. Such notice shall be delivered to the office of the City Engineer within twenty-four (24) hours except in the case of mass grading, which is more than 10,000 cubic yards per day, when the time limit shall be eight (8) hours.
   If, for any reason, the services of any of the three (3) professional persons are terminated during the progress of the grading work, such professional person and the permittee shall immediately notify the City Engineer in writing. Such termination may result in temporary delays in the grading operations until satisfactory arrangements are made to assure the City Engineer that competent professional supervision is provided. When the services of one or all three (3) of the professionals of record are terminated, the professional whose services have been terminated shall submit to the City Engineer certification of work performed under his supervision, along with deficiencies to be corrected. The new professional shall submit to the City Engineer a letter of certification that the previous professional’s design, reports, and recommendations have been reviewed, that all provisions the City Engineer required as conditions of the grading permit will be complied with during the course of the work, and that he shall review the detailed grading plans and thus assume his responsibility as set forth in this chapter for all future grading on the project. The letters shall be referenced to the approved grading plans prepared by the design civil engineer.
   The certification shall state that the job was constructed as indicated by the “as built” plant, that the soils engineer and engineering geologist’s reports and certifications have been submitted, that they have provided their services in accordance with good practices, and that all drainage provisions and safety features have been incorporated in the grading of the site.
   (d)   Hillside grading. The rules and regulations set forth in this subsection shall apply to all hillside grading in the City which shall be considered supervised grading.
   The permittee shall employ a registered civil engineer to prepare the design of grading plans for all hillside grading. The design civil engineer shall prepare his design in accordance with good planning practices and applicable codes and to the restrictions imposed as determined by detailed studies of the site and materials to be graded. Such studies shall be performed by a soils engineer and an engineering geologist approved by the City Engineer and shall be submitted prior to the issuance of permits. The civil engineer shall furnish sufficient supervision during construction to obtain compliance with the plans as approved.
   The permittee shall employ a soils engineer and an engineering geologist whose duties shall be to work closely with the civil engineer, to examine surface and subsurface conditions in accordance with the provisions of subsection (f) of Section 7-3.08 of this chapter, and to submit reports thereon. Such reports, in conjunction with the provisions of this chapter, shall form the basis for the design of the grading project. Such reports shall be based upon a detailed topographic base map of the area to be graded and shall include specific conclusions and recommendations for avoidance or correction of all known existing or anticipated geologic hazards and any adverse soil conditions on or affecting the site or contiguous property.
   The soils engineer, in addition to his pregrading exploratory work, shall provide inspections during the placement of all compacted fill in accordance with the requirements of this chapter, the approved plans, and good engineering practices. In addition, he shall follow the progress of the job sufficiently close to determine that the recommendations of his pregrading report are followed. If conditions which require the modification of plans are encountered during grading, he shall submit a report of his findings and recommendations for a change of plans to the permittee and the civil engineer, the engineering geologist, and the City Engineer. Periodic reports may be required as set forth in subsection (a) of this section.
   The engineering geologist, in addition to his pre-grading exploratory work, shall provide inspections during the actual grading process at least as often as determined to be appropriate by the City Engineer. Such grading inspections by the engineering geologist are to determine that the conditions of his pregrading reports are as anticipated. If conditions which require the modification of plans are encountered during grading, he shall submit a report of his findings and recommendations to the permittee, the civil engineer, the soils engineer, and the City Engineer. Periodic reports may be required as set forth in subsection (a) of this section.
   The soils engineer, at the completion of the grading, shall submit a certified report of compaction tests for all fill located within the limits of the tract and/or off-site grading areas. The soils engineer’s final report shall also include a statement that all subdrains were installed, his professional opinion of the suitability of the fill placement area and the ability of the natural materials to support the compacted fill without excessive settlement of the fill or potential damage to structures erected thereon, and a statement to the effect that he has inspected all cuts and fills and that, in his opinion, they meet the design requirements. The report shall be referenced to a dated “as built” plan prepared by the design civil engineer.
   The engineering geologist, at the completion of grading, shall submit a final geologic report stating that he has maintained the required in-grading inspection, that the recommendations of his pregrading report have been followed, that in his professional opinion all known adverse geologic conditions have been corrected or provided for, that future adverse geologic conditions are not anticipated, and that all lots or sites are geologically suitable and safe for construction. The report shall include the geologist’s certification that he has inspected all cut slopes and sidehill fill placement areas prior to the placement of fill. He shall also certify that all subdrain placement areas were inspected prior to the installation of the subdrains. The report shall be referenced to a dated “as built” plan prepared by the design civil engineer.
   Upon completion of the grading, the civil engineer responsible for the design shall submit an “as built” plan to the City Engineer for the approval of all work covered by the grading permit and shall include the following:
   (1)   The plan shall be one inch equals forty (40’) feet scale, unless otherwise approved by the City Engineer, and shall show the locations of streets, pads, slopes, structures, pertinent elevations, original contours and finished elevations, and other pertinent information required to show the as-built condition, and shall be dated.
   (2)   The plan shall bear the signature of the design civil engineer who shall certify that he has inspected the site, reviewed the plans, and that the work shown and completed is substantially in accordance with his design.
   (3)   The plan shall also bear the signatures of the soils engineer and the engineering geologist who shall certify that they have reviewed the plans and that the work shown and completed is in accordance with their recommendations.
(§ 2, Ord. 156-NS, eff. August 27, 1970, as amended by § I, Ord. 534-NS, eff. June 19, 1975)