Ground conditions

I live and work in North Dakota, We cover Central part of the state. I was curious what ground conditions, and utility conditions are in other parts of the country.
In this area we have typically clay soils, some sandy areas. The western part of the state can have some shale areas. Our water mains are typically 9' deep and sewer mains 7'+. Our frost line is at least 4' and can go down 9' plus but not very often. Ground water in our area is not usually to much of an issue, can be in the eastern part of the state.
I was wondering how conditions vary from here to say Florida, Arizona, California, mountain states, basically all over the country. I appreciate any info.

Daren

I live in Central Alabama and we have very diverse ground conditions. Central AL is where the Appalachian Mountains meet the coastal plain. South Central is sand, clay and river rock. North Central has coal, clay and rock.

Excavating here can be a challenge as ground conditions can vary widely 1/2 a mile away. Birmingham was once the "steel city" due to a large US Steel furnace as well as several ductile iron pipe manufacturers. Coal and iron ore was plentiful in the area.

Also have many limestone quarries in the area that produce high grade calcium for all sorts of products in addition to crushed stone.

A typical job for us on an infill restaurant or retail site is mucky, wet soils that require undercutting, drains, etc. to the other end of the site having solid rock that has to be hammered. I've got many pics of the different soil conditions in my picture thread.

We've had a few big out of state contractors come in an underbid a large job only to leave with their tail between their legs when the job is over - there was a reason the local guys were higher.

Here in Ohio it sometimes feels like the whole dang state is one big piece of engineered land.

It's almost impossible to dig anything anywhere without turning up old drain tile and sometime it actually IS tile, not floppy plastic pipe.

The water table is so high in this State that you can damn near SEE it.

And the clay, when you hit it, is the kind that will clog up a small bucket on ONE pull.