ONTARIO
PROVINCIAL METRIC
STANDARD OPSS.PROV 212
SPECIFICATION NOVEMBER 2013
CONSTRUCTION SPECIFICATION FOR
EARTH BORROW
TABLE OF CONTENTS
212.01 SCOPE
212.02 REFERENCES
212.03 DEFINITIONS
212.04 DESIGN AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
212.05 MATERIALS
212.06 EQUIPMENT - Not Used
212.07 CONSTRUCTION
212.08 QUALITY ASSURANCE
212.09 MEASUREMENT FOR PAYMENT
212.10 BASIS OF PAYMENT
APPENDICES
212-A Commentary
212.01 SCOPE
This specification covers the requirements for earth borrow.
212.01.01 Specification Significance and Use
This specification is written as a provincial-oriented specification. Provincial-oriented specifications are
developed to reflect the administration, testing, and payment policies, procedures, and practices of the
Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
Use of this specification or any other specification shall be according to the Contract Documents.
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212.01.02 Appendices Significance and Use
Appendices are not for use in provincial contracts as they are developed for municipal use, and then, only
when invoked by the Owner.
Appendices are developed for the Owner’s use only.
Inclusion of an appendix as part of the Contract Documents is solely at the discretion of the Owner.
Appendices are not a mandatory part of this specification and only become part of the Contract
Documents as the Owner invokes them.
Invoking a particular appendix does not obligate an Owner to use all available appendices. Only invoked
appendices form part of the Contract Documents.
The decision to use any appendix is determined by an Owner after considering their contract
requirements and their administrative, payment, and testing procedures, policies, and practices.
Depending on these considerations, an Owner may not wish to invoke some or any of the available
appendices.
212.02 REFERENCES
When the Contract Documents indicate that provincial-oriented specifications are to be used and there is
a provincial-oriented specification of the same number as those listed below, references within this
specification to an OPSS shall be deemed to mean OPSS.PROV, unless use of a municipal-oriented
specification is specified in the Contract Documents. When there is not a corresponding provincial-
oriented specification, the references below shall be considered to be to the OPSS listed, unless use of a
municipal-oriented specification is specified in the Contract Documents.
This specification refers to the following standards, specifications, or publications:
Ontario Provincial Standard Specifications, Construction
OPSS 201 Clearing, Close Cut Clearing, Grubbing, and Removal of Surface and Piled Boulders
OPSS 206 Grading
OPSS 401 Trenching, Backfilling, and Compacting
Ontario Ministry of Transportation Publications
MTO Laboratory Testing Manual:
LS-702 Determination of Particle Size Analysis of Soils
MTO Form:
PH-D-10 Aggregate Sample Data Sheet
212.03 DEFINITIONS
For the purpose of this specification, the following definitions apply:
Access Road means a private road built or an existing road used by the Contractor to gain access to the
Work or to a source of material.
Borrow means earth material acquired from outside the right-of-way to complete the Work.
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Haul Road means any public road, excluding the road under Contract, that forms part of a material haul
route.
Quality Assurance (QA) means a system or series of activities carried out by the Owner to ensure that
materials received from the Contractor meet the specified requirements.
Referee Testing means testing of a material attribute for the purpose of resolving acceptance issues at
the request of the Contractor or the Owner.
212.04 DESIGN AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
212.04.01 Submission Requirements
A minimum of 14 Days prior to borrow material being used in the Work, the Contractor shall provide a list
of intended borrow sources and the tonnage that is expected to be used from each source to the Contract
Administrator.
A minimum of 48 hours prior to the placement of borrow in the Work, the following shall be submitted to
the Contract Administrator:
a) Written proof for the right to occupy and operate each borrow source, including all appropriate
permits.
b) Identification and description of any frost-susceptible materials that the Contractor intends to use as
borrow and a detailed plan describing where the Contractor intends to use it.
212.05 MATERIALS
212.05.01 Earth Borrow
Earth borrow shall consist of earth as defined in OPSS 206 and shall be free from organic and foreign
material.
Earth borrow with at least 50% of its particles by mass between 5 and 75 μm in size, as determined using
LS-702, shall be considered frost-susceptible.
212.07 CONSTRUCTION
212.07.01 General
The work required for borrow shall include clearing, grubbing, and stripping of a borrow source according
to OPSS 201 and 206; construction and maintenance of access roads; maintenance and restoration of
haul roads; excavating, hauling, placing, and compacting borrow; and borrow source rehabilitation.
The construction of embankments and backfill areas with borrow shall be according to OPSS 206 and
OPSS 401, respectively.
Frost-susceptible material shall not be placed in the following areas:
a) Within the zone between the frost penetration depth specified elsewhere in the Contract Documents
and the final grade that will be established within the roadway upon completion of construction.
b) In any other areas, specified elsewhere in the Contract Documents.
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When borrow is stockpiled prior to use, material from different sources shall be stockpiled separately from
each other.
212.07.02 Owner's Properties
Unless otherwise specified, material shall not be supplied from the Owner's properties.
212.07.03 Clearing, Grubbing, and Stripping
Borrow sources shall be cleared, grubbed, and stripped of any unsuitable materials. These operations
shall be completed a minimum of 3 Working Days in advance of any excavation where cross-sections are
required.
Stripped material shall be piled sufficiently back from the face of the pit or quarry to prevent the
contamination of the face material. The stripped material shall be piled such that the distance from the
face being worked to the stripped material shall be:
a) For pits, at least equal to the depth of the face or 5 m, whichever is the greater distance.
b) For quarries, at least 5 m.
212.07.04 Haul Roads
Inspection of all haul roads prior to construction use shall be undertaken jointly by the Contract
Administrator, the Contractor, and the owner of the haul road.
All required restoration work shall be performed when haul roads are damaged due to hauling operations.
Acceptable material shall be chosen and properly placed on the haul road to:
a) Provide safe passage and control of traffic at all times; and
b) Repair that road to the pre-contract condition upon completion of the hauling operations both to the
satisfaction of the Contract Administrator and the owner of the road.
212.07.05 Borrow Source Rehabilitation
The borrow source shall be rehabilitated to comply with all applicable federal, provincial, and municipal
requirements.
212.07.06 Management of Excess Material
Management of excess material shall be according to the Contract Documents.
212.08 QUALITY ASSURANCE
212.08.01 General
The Contract Administrator reserves the right to visually inspect borrow and reject any borrow material
that does not meet the requirements specified herein and elsewhere in the Contract Documents.
All samples shall be obtained and delivered to the QA laboratory according to the Contract Documents.
The data to be included with all samples shall be according to the requirements of the MTO form
PH-D-10.
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212.08.02 Acceptance of Earth Borrow
At the discretion of the Owner, the Quality Assurance (QA) laboratory designated by the Owner may carry
out QA testing for the purposes of ensuring that earth borrow being placed above the frost penetration
depth in the areas listed in the General subsection of the Construction section is not frost-susceptible.
For earth borrow material being placed within the frost penetration depth in the areas specified above,
lots may be established at the discretion of the Contract Administrator, in accordance with the schedule
shown in Table 1. In addition, any single lot or series of lots may be terminated and a new lot or series of
lots re-established, at the discretion of the Contract Administrator.
A minimum of one randomly-obtained duplicate sample shall be obtained from each lot. Additional
samples may also be taken at the discretion of the Contract Administrator. In the event that the
Contractor is unavailable to take a designated sample for a lot, then no further earth materials from that
lot shall be placed above the frost penetration depth until the designated sample is taken.
The Contract Administrator shall document and seal each sample container according to the Contract
Documents.
For each duplicate sample, one sample shall be tested for QA purposes and the remaining sample shall
be retained for referee testing, if necessary.
If a sample is found to contain more than 50% of its particles by mass between 5 and 75 μm when tested
in accordance with LS-702, the Contract Administrator shall then notify the Contractor, in writing, within
2 Business Days of receiving the results, that any material within that lot represented by that sample
including any material already within the Work or in stockpiles is frost susceptible and not acceptable for
use above the frost penetration depth, wherever specified in the Contract Documents.
In addition, any of the material within that lot which has already been placed within the areas listed in the
General subsection of the Construction section shall be removed at no additional cost to the Owner.
212.08.02.01 Referee Testing
The Contractor may invoke referee testing for any lot by submitting a written request to the Contract
Administrator within 2 Business Days following notification from the Contract Administrator that the
sampled material has been determined to be frost-susceptible.
The retained duplicate QA sample shall be used for referee testing. However, if a referee sample is not
available, the Contractor shall then be responsible for obtaining a new sample from a location to be
decided on by the Contract Administrator, at no additional cost to the Owner.
Referee testing shall be carried out, as specified herein and elsewhere in the Contract Documents.
All referee test results for a lot shall replace the respective QA tests for acceptance of the applicable lot
and the referee results shall be binding on both the Owner and the Contractor.
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212.09 MEASUREMENT FOR PAYMENT
212.09.01 Actual Measurement
212.09.01.01 Earth Borrow
Measurement of earth borrow shall be by volume in compacted cubic metres, excluding the volume of
any boulders that cannot be accommodated in the Work.
Earth borrow shall be measured at the Contract site using the method of average end areas and
surveyed cross-sections taken both prior to and after the placement of the material in the Work.
3
However, for borrow quantities that are less than 1,000 m , in areas where surveying may be impractical
such as where borrow is being placed in areas of standing water, or where materials that are not
designated as borrow are being placed and compacted in the same area and at the same time as borrow,
then the truck box method may be used, at the discretion of the Contract Administrator.
In this case, each truck carrying borrow shall be readily-identifiable and the loose volume that it contains
shall be calculated based on an estimated percentage of the truck box capacity which has been pre-
determined from measurements taken by the Contract Administrator. The Contract Administrator shall
then determine the compacted in-place volume of the borrow by dividing the estimated volume of the
material within the truck box by an appropriate bulking factor determined by the Owner.
212.10 BASIS OF PAYMENT
212.10.01 Earth Borrow - Item
Payment at the Contract price for the above tender item shall be full compensation for all labour,
Equipment, and Material to do the work.
Removal and replacement of localized soft spots identified by the Contract Administrator or removal of
unacceptable material or both shall be at no additional cost to the Owner.
The Owner shall be responsible for the cost of referee testing, provided that the referee test results show
that the material meets the applicable specifications. Otherwise, the Contractor shall be responsible for
the costs.
212.10.02 Haul Roads
Payment at the Contract price for the appropriate tender items used to perform maintenance and
restoration of haul roads shall be full compensation for all labour, Equipment, and Material to maintain
and restore haul roads.
When the Contract does not include the appropriate tender items, prices shall be negotiated.
212.10.03 Access Roads
No separate or additional payment shall be made for the cost of construction and maintenance of access
roads.
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TABLE 1
Lot Schedule for Sampling and Testing Earth Borrow
Placed Above the Frost Penetration Depth
Expected Quantity
from Each Source Lot Size
m3
< 10,000 One lot
> 10,000
10,000 m3 lots up to 50,000 m3 and 50,000 m3 lots thereafter
(Note 1)
Notes:
1. When the quantity of borrow is insufficient for a complete lot and is:
a) less than one-half the quantity of a complete lot, then that quantity shall be added to the previous
lot; or
b) greater than or equal to one-half the quantity of a complete lot, then that quantity shall form its own
lot.
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Appendix 212-A, November 2013
FOR USE WHILE DESIGNING MUNICIPAL CONTRACTS
Note: This is a non-mandatory Commentary Appendix intended to provide information to a designer,
during the design stage of a contract, on the use of the OPS specification in a municipal contract.
This appendix does not form part of the standard specification. Actions and considerations
discussed in this appendix are for information purposes only and do not supersede an Owner’s
design decisions and methodology.
Designer Action/Considerations
No information provided here.
Related Ontario Provincial Standard Drawings
No information provided here.
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