Site Assessment and Planning
What this domain tests
Domain 2 tests whether you can establish verified site facts before design: legal boundaries, easements, utilities, topography, drainage, geotechnical conditions, access, and environmental constraints. The exam favors measured and documented data over assumptions from drawings.
Core rules
- Records review. Check deed, survey, title, easements, zoning, floodplain, wetlands, prior permits, and as-builts.
- Field verification. Confirm benchmark and datum, dimensions, elevations, slope, utility locate ticket, test pits, and photo log.
- Geotechnical conditions. Bearing capacity, groundwater, fill, and compaction require investigation; a visual surface check is not a geotechnical report.
- Logistics. Plan staging, crane or delivery access, traffic control, work hours, noise limits, and erosion and sediment controls.
- Planning. Track permit lead times, long-lead equipment, sequence, and a risk register with assigned owners.
Worked example
A proposed equipment pad sits on existing fill. The as-built shows the right elevation, but no compaction records exist. Reasoning: elevation is not bearing capacity. Require a geotechnical evaluation or proof rolling and compaction testing before finalizing the foundation design; otherwise settlement can invalidate the design.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating an as-built as a current survey.
- Assuming utility depths from a plan.
- Missing an easement, setback, or floodplain limit.
- Ignoring off-site drainage and discharge points.
- Mixing datum references between drawings and field measurements.