Technical Service Center
Embankment Dams and Geotechnical Engineering Groups
Rock Manual
The Rock Manual provides common technical information on properties of rocks, field and laboratory investigations, and testing of rocks used as foundations and materials for dams, tunnels, canals, and many other types of structures built for Reclamation. The Rock Manual consists of two parts:
Part 1, to be completed, will include chapters on the properties of rocks and general principles as well as stages of rock investigations.
Part 2, which is this website, provides the rock testing procedures Reclamation currently recommends. Please download the introduction to Part 2 (pdf) for disclaimers and an explanation of how to use these standards
- Specialized Reclamation standards are presented when no such standard exists in the industry or when Reclamation requirements are such that none of the existing standards are applicable. Some of these are very detailed type standards developed under the original Rock Manual protocol. Reclamation-specific standards tend to be much more detailed than comparable ASTM standards.
- Rock testing resources are available under the ISRM Suggested Methods and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Rock Testing Manual .