Staking and Foundation Work
Staking and hold points
Foundation work begins with survey staking: benchmark, hub and tack, offset stakes, cut sheet, and a check shot. The foundation type-drilled shaft or spread footing-comes from the standard drawing. Before excavation, verify utilities, pole orientation, anchor-bolt template, conduit stub-ups, grounding electrode, and rebar cage. Inspection hold points commonly include pre-pour, reinforcing steel, conduit placement, and anchor-bolt setting.
Concrete and anchor bolts
Concrete must meet the specified mix, slump, air content, and placement temperature. Cylinders are tested per the contract. Protect fresh concrete from traffic and weather and cure for the specified period before pole erection. Anchor bolts must match the bolt circle, projection, and orientation; leveling nuts allow plumbing, then grout fills the base.
Worked example: A mast-arm foundation template is set with its orientation mark 90 degrees from the roadway. The pour is ready, but the arm would point across the intersection instead of over the approach. The check is simple: sight from the template mark along the intended arm direction before concrete arrives. Rotating the template after the pour is expensive; correcting it before the pour is a minutes-long fix. Stop and verify orientation, bolt projection, and conduit stubs against the pole shop drawing. The reasoning is that the foundation fixes the pole’s geometry permanently, so orientation is a pre-pour check, not a post-pour adjustment.
Traps: pouring without the inspector’s hold-point release; capping conduit only after concrete enters; short anchor-bolt projection; missing grounding electrode; erecting a pole before cure strength is documented.