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Design Scene and Guidance

Design guidance

I-35 looking north towards the Minneapolis skyline

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Pipe bedding revision

There are now standard plan sheets available for Standard Culvert Bedding for Flexible Pipe (5-297.440), Standard Culvert Bedding for Rigid Pipe (5-297.441), and Standard Storm Sewer Bedding for Rigid and Flexible Pipe (5-297.442). These will be required to be used for plan let on or after June 28, 2019. Prior to that date the designer has the option to use the design details or their own details.

The design details will still need to be used for culverts with treatments as these are not covered by the standard plan sheets.

Culvert work clarification

Whenever there is work to be done on a portion of a culvert, such as a lining or a salvage/install aprons, every effort should be made to bring the aprons up to current standards. A safety apron and/or grate may be needed to accomplish this. However the District does have the option of not bringing the aprons up to current standards. When deciding on whether to add safety features or not the District should investigate the risk, run off the road data, grading, right of way, safety concerns, etc. If it is decided that the aprons are not going to have safety features a full explanation should be given and placed in the design file. There are a few locations that would still require safety features to be added. One such location would be a median culvert. If you have questions on a particular situations please contact the Project Design Services office.

Surcharge clarification

There has been some confusion by contractors on when to include or not include surcharge on projects with bridge abutments. This is because on standard plan sheets 5-297.233 and 5-297.234 sheet 1 there is a note 3 which states the following:

"Place abutment approach surcharge material prior to abutment construction. After completion of surcharge waiting period, remove surcharge and existing material or select grading material to the limits shown in 'Rough Grading Section' above, prior to abutment construction. See Bridge Plans and Special Provisions for abutment approach surcharge requirement and payments.

If either of these standard plan sheets are needed in the plan then the designer will need to coordinate with the Bridge office to determine if the surcharge is required.

If the surcharge is NOT required then the standard plan sheets should be modified to cross out note 3.

General

This section contains a few of the presentations that have been given in the past. They contain some useful information and are another format for explaining some of the information for plan preparation and information as presented in the Design Scene. Please note the disclaimer before downloading files.

Common Errors (PDF)
SEQ Guidance (PDF)
Earthwork Guidance (PDF)
Tabulation Guidance (PDF)
Drainage Guidance (PDF)
Guardrail Guidance (PDF)
Review Checklist (PDF)
ADA Design Checklists and Guidance (PDF)
Design Engineers Workshop (PDF)

Design Scene

Design Scene is a guidance document for designers, technicians and engineers to help them in their everyday work. Feel free to share ideas with us that you've developed to help improve the quality and reduce cost and time of plan preparation. Please note the disclaimer before downloading files.

Index (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
Chapters 1-18 — Entire Design Scene Document (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 1 — Title Sheet and General Layout (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 2 — Quantities and Tabulations (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 3 — Details and ADA (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 4 — Earthwork (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 5 — Utilities (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 6 — Staging and Bypass (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 7 — Alignment (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 8 — Inplace Topography and Removals (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 9 — Plan and Profiles (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 10 — Paving (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 11 — Walls (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 12 — Drainage (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 13 — Turf Establishment (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 14 — Guard Rail and Barriers (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 15 — Fencing (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 16 — Traffic (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 17 — Cross Section (PDF) Updated 9/12/18
- Chapter 18 — General Notes and Miscellaneous (PDF) Updated 9/12/18

Design Scene newsletter

Project rating

Bidability and Other Critical Plan Issues Checklist (Word)
Plan Review - Data Collection (Excel)
Plan Review - Rating Criteria (Word)

Plan presentation basics

The plan presentation basics are guidance on how the various sections of a MnDOT let plan should be shown. The goal is to make MnDOT let plan appearances consistent state wide. This section does not go into details on how to put a plan together but rather how it should look, be laid out, the order of sections in a plan, in other words, the presentation.

Section 1 – Title Sheet Basics (PowerPoint)
Section 2 – General Layout Basics (PowerPoint)
Section 3 – Statement of Estimated Quantities (SEQ) Basics (PowerPoint)

Related resources