HIGHWAY COST KEEPING. 39 
DEFINITIONS OF OPERATION TERMS. 
In road work it is not uncommon to find that the same operations 
are designated by different terms in different sections of the country. 
It has been thought advisable, therefore, to define briefly the processes 
which should be included by the cost keeper under each operation. 
Some of these operations will be found to overlap somewhat under cer- 
tain conditions. This slight overlapping, however, seems preferable to 
the present ambiguity in the meaning of many of our road terms. 
Adherence to the following definitions will serve, therefore, to make 
such cost data as are collected more nearly comparable, regardless 
of locality. The several operations are defined in terms of the 
processes which they include. 
Assembling.— Shall include all bringing together or collecting of tools and equipment, 
setting up of machinery, portable shacks, and all other structures where the parts 
are delivered ''knocked down" and require only bolting or riveting together. 
Back filling. — Shall include all processes of refilling excavations or filling against the 
back of abutments, walls, etc. 
Blacksmi thing. — Shall include all processes of working or shaping metals, except 
riveting, and shall include also such work in repairing the metal parts of machinery 
and equipment. 
Blasting.— Shall include all methods of rending or loosening of rock, earth, or other 
material with an explosive. 
Building. — Shall include the making, erecting, and establishing of buildings, struc- 
tures, or parts, except bridges or portable structures delivered cut to fit. 
Building false work. — Shall include the building or erecting of all temporary sup- 
ports and bracing necessary for the erection of structures. 
Cleaning. — Shall include all removal of dirt or debris by any means from the surfaces 
of roadways or from ditches, drains, culverts, etc., and shall include the sweeping 
of all road surfaces. It shall be applied also to the operations necessary to remove 
deleterious matter or coatings from the surfaces of such structures as bridges, build- 
ings, guard rails, etc. 
Clearing. — Shall include the freeing of the roadway and roadside of all vegetation 
or incumbrances. 
Clearing and grubbing. — Shall include in addition to clearing, as defined above, 
the removal and disposal of stumps. 
Cofferdamrning. — Shall include only the building of cofferdams. 
Cribbing. — Shall include the building of all kinds of timber cribs to retain or sustain 
earthwork. 
Curing concrete. — Shall include the careful protection and slow drying of concrete, 
to prevent cracking or injury of any kind until the concrete has hardened. 
Crushing. — Shall include all reducing of stone or other material to small particles 
by pounding or squeezing, whether the work be done by machine or hand. 
Dragging. — Shall include the smoothing of a roadway surface or the shaping and partial 
compacting of road courses with a road drag. 
Drilling. — Shall include the piercing or boring of any material, as iron or rock, with 
drills operated by hand or driven by power. 
Drilling and blasting. — Shall include, in addition to the drilling, the loading of 
the holes with an explosive and the detonation of the explosive charge. 
Excavating. — Shall include the grading of the roadway, ditches, and slopes, and also 
the hollowing out by cutting or digging of all excavations for drainage structures. 
