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| Sr. | Term | Definition |
| 1 | Abrasion | The process of wearing away by friction. |
| 2 | Abutment | A concrete support wall constructed at both ends of a bridge or an arch, in order to resist the horizontal force from the bridge or the arch, support the ends of the bridge span and to prevent the bank from sliding under. |
| 3 | Accelerator | A substance such as calcium chloride (CaCl2), added in small quantities (max. 0.03% of the cement) to plain concrete to hasten its hardening rate, its set or both. |
| 4 | Acquisition | The process of obtaining Right-of-Way. |
| 5 | Active Earth Pressure | The horizontal push from earth onto a wall. The active earth force from sand on to a free retaining wall is equivalent to that from a fluid of density 0.25 to 0.30 times that of the sand. The force from sand on to a fixed retaining wall is very much more. |
| 6 | Addendum Or Addenda | Written instruments or documents issued prior to the execution of a contract to modify or revise the bidding documents. |
| 7 | Adhesion Or Bond | The sticking together of structural parts by mechanical or chemical bonding using a cement or glue. |
| 8 | Admixture Or Additive | A substance other than aggregate, cement or water, added in small quantities to the concrete mix to alter its properties or those of the hard concrete. The most important admixtures for concrete are accelerators, air-entraining agents, plasticizers and retarders. |
| 9 | Affidavit Of Non-Collusion | A sworn statement, by bidders for the same work, that their proposal prices were arrived at independently without consultation or a secret agreement or cooperation for a fraudulent or deceitful purpose between or among them. |
| 10 | Agent | The person who legally represents the contractor and acts for him on all occasions. He is often a Civil Engineer |
| 11 | Air-Entrained Concrete | A concrete used for constructing roads. It has about 5% air and is therefore less dense than ordinary good concrete, but it has excellent freeze-thaw resistance. The strength loss is roughly 5% for each 1% air entrained. Air entrained concrete produced by adding an admixture to concrete or cement, which drags small bubbles of air (Smaller than 1 mm in diameter) into the concrete mix. The bubbles increase the workability and allowing both sand and water contents to be reduced. |
| 12 | Alignment | (1) The fixing of points on the ground in the correct lines for setting out a road, railway, wall, transmission line, canal, etc. (2) A ground plan showing a route, as opposed to a profile or section, which shows levels and elevations. |
| 13 | Appurtenance | An item which belong with, or is designed to complement something else (For example, a manhole is a sewer appurtenance.) |
| 14 | Apron | A floor constructed along the channel bottom to prevent scour. Aprons are almost always extension of culverts. |
| 15 | Aquifer | An underground source of water capable of supplying a well. |
| 16 | Arithmetic Mean | The average value which is defined as the sum of all of the observations divided by the number of observations. |
| 17 | Artesion Well | A spring which water flows naturally out of the earth’s surface due to pressure placed on the water by an impervious overburden and hydro-static head. |
| 18 | Arterial Highway | A general term denoting a highway primarily for through traffic usually on a continuous route. |
| 19 | As-Built Drawings Or Record Drawings | Construction drawings revised to show significant changes made during the construction process, usually based on marked-up prints, drawings and other data furnished by the contractor or the Engineer. |
| 20 | Asphaltic Concrete Friction Course (Acfc) | A hot mixture of asphalt cement with an open-graded aggregate (20% to 25% air voids) of a maximum size of 3/8 inch used as a surface (Wearing) course. |
| 21 | Asphalt Rubber (Ar) | A mixture of asphalt cement and rubber used as a crack sealent, binder, or membrane. |
| 22 | Asphaltic Concrete (Asphalt Rubber) | A hot mixture of asphalt cement, rubber, fine and coarse aggregate and mineral admixture mixed together and placed as an asphaltic concrete pavement surface layer. The advantages of this mix are: It stops cracks from reflecting through pavement layers, reduce the riding tires noise and is a useful way to dispose of the used rubber tires. |
| 23 | Auxiliary Lane | The portion of a roadway adjoining the traveled way for truck climbing, speed change or for other purposes supplementary to through traffic movement. |
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