The rainy season is rapidly approaching, which means it’s time to think about whether you will be doing any grading between November 1 and March 31. If your project includes Geotechnical Special Inspections AND if your project is in an environmentally critical area or involves a large quantity of earth-moving, check your special inspection permit record for an item called “Monitor Grading Season Restriction.”
If you see “Monitor Grading Season Restriction” on your record, this means that grading between November 1 and March 31 is prohibited unless you apply for and receive a Grading Season Extension. For smaller projects in environmentally critical areas, there may be a note in the record allowing you to follow the additional measures for wet weather work shown on the approved plan set in lieu of a formal grading season extension application.
To find out if your record has “Monitor Grading Season Restriction” on it, follow these steps:
- Go to the Seattle Services Portal
- Enter your record number into the Search All Records box and click the magnifying glass icon
- In the search results, find the special inspections record and click on the hyperlinked record number
- On the Record Detail page, scroll down to the Application Information and confirm that the Special Inspection Category is Geotechnical
- In the Other Information section, see if the Monitor Grading Season Restriction is required
- If there are comments below the Monitor Grading Season Restriction, follow those directions
- If there are not comments, apply for a grading season extension
For information on how to apply for a Grading Season Extension, see Director’s Rule 26-2015. You must submit an application online through your Seattle Services Portal. We will not accept paper applications. We may take up to two weeks to review your application. Please note that your permit must be issued before we can process a grading season extension application.
If you do not plan to do any grading between the dates of November 1st and March 31, please have your geotechnical special inspector upload a field report to the geotechnical special inspection record stating that the site has been stabilized for the rainy season in accordance with Director’s Rule 26-2015. For more detailed instructions on how to submit this letter, read the How to Upload Special Inspection Field Reports article.