wrote in message
Thanks, Todd. You (or your lovely wife) couldn't point me toward a
chapter and verse description in this regard, could you? My buddy is
new to construction but old to the Army, so would like to be able to
say, "Well, sir, Section 7 Paragraph 3 of the Uniform Building Code
says..."

I'm sorry, we can't. My wife's road-building career ended 15 years ago
after her internship with IDOT and she has exclusively built high-rises and
other commercial buildings since. I guess measuring concrete slump,
checking asphalt truck weight, and testing concrete cylinders had a limited
appeal. Although she did learn how to make "grader chicken". You wrap a
raw chicken up real good with aluminum foil and place it in the engine
compartment of the nearest road grader first thing in the morning. When
lunch time arrives, bon appetit. Sadly, we don't have access to a road
grader, so I've never been able to test the recipe.

todd