#57, #8, #411 and Crusher Run: Which Are Size Numbers and Which Are Something Else
Which gravel names are size numbers with a published sieve band, which is an Ohio contract item, and which is a material name that Virginia grades under its own size numbers.
Use the Gravel Calculator — once you know which material you want, it turns area and depth into cubic yards and tons.
Where a gravel size number comes from
ASTM's size classification is D448, Standard Classification for Sizes of Aggregate for Road and Bridge Construction. ASTM's catalogue lists D448-12(2022) as the active version, last updated on 7 November 2022. Under ASTM's numbering convention, that is the 2012 revision, reapproved in 2022.
D448's scope is narrow: it defines size number designations and the sieve ranges that go with them, for coarse aggregate and screenings used on highways and bridges. Its section on significance and use notes that contract documents may name some of these sizes for particular uses.
Ohio's specification book shows how a state specifies sizes. In the Ohio Department of Transportation's Construction and Material Specifications, 1 January 2023 edition (online version dated 17 July 2026), Article 703.01 C requires aggregate in the size that the material specification or the construction item calls for, or the size shown in AASHTO M 43. The book then prints its own size table, headed with M 43's name, as Table 703.01-1: nineteen size numbers, from 1 (3 1/2 to 1 1/2 in.) down to 10 (No. 4 sieve to zero, footnoted as screenings).
What #57 controls, and the sieves it leaves alone
Each size number carries a nominal range and a band of percent passing, by weight, at a few named sieves. In this section's table, columns are size numbers, rows are sieves and the last row gives the nominal size. The figures are from Ohio's Table 703.01-1. North Carolina DOT's Standard Specifications for Roads and Structures, January 2024 edition, print the same figures at these sieves for sizes 4, 5, 57 and 67 in Table 1005-1. A dash means the table sets no limit at that sieve for that size.
In Ohio's table, #57 is limited at five sieves: 1 1/2 in., 1 in., 1/2 in., No. 4 and No. 8. Nothing is set at 3/4 in. or 3/8 in.
The nominal ranges show how the two-digit numbers are put together. #5 is nominally 1 in. to 1/2 in. and #7 is 1/2 in. to the No. 4; #57 runs 1 in. to the No. 4, covering both. #67 joins #6 (3/4 in. to 3/8 in.) and #7 the same way.
| Sieve | #4 | #5 | #57 | #67 | #8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 in. | 100 | — | — | — | — |
| 1 1/2 in. | 90–100 | 100 | 100 | — | — |
| 1 in. | 20–55 | 90–100 | 95–100 | 100 | — |
| 3/4 in. | 0–15 | 20–55 | — | 90–100 | — |
| 1/2 in. | — | 0–10 | 25–60 | — | 100 |
| 3/8 in. | 0–5 | 0–5 | — | 20–55 | 85–100 |
| No. 4 | — | — | 0–10 | 0–10 | 10–30 |
| No. 8 | — | — | 0–5 | 0–5 | 0–10 |
| No. 16 | — | — | — | — | 0–5 |
| Nominal size | 1 1/2 to 3/4 in. | 1 to 1/2 in. | 1 in. to No. 4 | 3/4 in. to No. 4 | 3/8 in. to No. 8 |
A size number is not a quality grade
For concrete, ASTM has a separate document, C33/C33M-24a. Its scope covers the quality as well as the grading of fine and coarse aggregate for concrete; D448's scope statement mentions sizes alone.
North Carolina's Subarticle 1014-2(E)(1) names #57, #67 or #78M as the default concrete sizes. The same article caps soundness loss at 15% after five cycles and wear at 55%, tightening to 8% and 40% where the 28-day design strength is above 6,000 psi, and allows no more than 3% by weight of clay lumps and friable particles. Ohio's Article 703.02 B, for the same use, caps Los Angeles wear at 40% for crushed carbonate stone or washed gravel and sodium sulfate soundness loss at 12%.
So a label reading "#57" names a sieve band; it does not say whether the stone meets either state's durability limits. For the volume side of a pour, use the concrete calculator.
#411 is an Ohio item number, not a size
None of the nineteen rows in Ohio's Table 703.01-1 is numbered 411. In Ohio's book, 411 is a construction item: Item 411, Stabilized Crushed Aggregate. Article 411.01 describes the work as placing one or more compacted courses of crushed aggregate, and 411.02 sends you to Article 703.18 for the material.
Article 703.18 A gives Item 411 its own gradation for every permitted material except granulated slag and reclaimed asphalt pavement, which are handled separately. Article 703.18 B adds quality limits, among them a plasticity index no higher than 6 on the material passing the No. 40 sieve, and sodium sulfate soundness loss no higher than 15%.
Crusher run: not one of the nineteen
Crusher run is not among the nineteen size numbers in Ohio's Table 703.01-1. Ohio's book does use the phrase, in two rows of Table 410.06-1, but that table only gives weight-to-volume conversion factors for measurement under Article 410.06. It attaches no gradation.
Virginia's book is different. The Virginia Department of Transportation's Road and Bridge Specifications, 2020 edition, has a Section 205 titled Crusher Run Aggregate. Article 205.02 makes it mainly crushed stone, slag or gravel that keeps all the sizes the crushing produces, up to the specified maximum, and 205.01 lists its uses, among them bedding and backfill for pipe and box culverts and all-weather paving for private access. Article 205.03(a) numbers three gradings. Size 25 must all pass 1 1/2 in., with 95 ± 5% through 1 in. and 32 ± 18% through the No. 4. Size 24 sets its top two limits at 2 1/2 in. and 2 in., with the same No. 4 band; size 26 sets them at 1 in. and 3/4 in., with 38 ± 22% through the No. 4.
This section's table sets Virginia's No. 25 beside three other gradings from the Ohio and North Carolina books, none of them titled crusher run where its gradation is printed: Ohio's Item 304 Aggregate Base (Article 304.02 points to 703.17; the gradation is in 703.17 A), Ohio's Item 411 (703.18 A), and North Carolina's ABC, the grading whose Remarks column in Table 1005-1 lists Aggregate Base Course. A dash again means no limit at that sieve, and the table stops at the No. 40 sieve; limits on finer material are not shown.
"Crusher run" with no state and no size number attached does not say which of these envelopes you are getting. Once the material is settled, the gravel calculator handles how much to order.
| Sieve | Ohio Item 411, other than granulated slag or reclaimed asphalt pavement (703.18 A) | Ohio Item 304 (703.17 A) | NC ABC (Table 1005-1) | VDOT crusher run No. 25 (205.03(a)) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 in. | — | 100 | — | — |
| 1 1/2 in. | 100 | — | 100 | Min. 100 |
| 1 in. | 75–100 | 70–100 | 75–97 | 95 ± 5 |
| 3/4 in. | 60–100 | 50–90 | — | — |
| 1/2 in. | — | — | 55–80 | — |
| 3/8 in. | 35–75 | — | — | — |
| No. 4 | 30–60 | 30–60 | 35–55 | 32 ± 18 |
| No. 10 | — | — | 25–45 | — |
| No. 30 | 7–30 | 9–33 | — | — |
| No. 40 | — | — | 14–30 | — |
What to ask for at the counter
If the size matters, as it does in a concrete mix or pipe bedding, ask which document the yard produces to. "#57 to the state standard specifications" is an answer you can check. For crusher run, 411 or any other graded stone, ask for the gradation sheet, or for the state specification section and size number the pit produces to.
One trap: states reuse numbers. In Ohio's Table 703.01-1, size 24 allows no more than 5% through the 1/2 in. sieve. Virginia's crusher run No. 24 needs at least 14% (32 ± 18) through the No. 4, and anything through the No. 4 also passes 1/2 in., so no load can meet both.
Sources
- ASTM D448, Standard Classification for Sizes of Aggregate for Road and Bridge Construction: catalogue page for D448-12(2022) on store.astm.org, read 26 September 2026 (status Active, last updated 7 November 2022; Scope 1.1; Significance and Use 4.1). The numbering convention is from the front-matter note of the D448-98 text. No sieve band in this article is taken from D448.
- AASHTO M 43: named only as it appears in the heading of Ohio Table 703.01-1 and in Ohio Article 703.01 C. No figure in this article is attributed to it.
- ASTM C33/C33M-24a, Standard Specification for Concrete Aggregates: catalogue page on store.astm.org, read 26 September 2026 (status Active, last updated 18 November 2024; Scope 1.1).
- Ohio Department of Transportation, Construction and Material Specifications, 1 January 2023 edition, online version 07/17/2026 (dot.state.oh.us PDF, the latest online version listed on ODOT's 2023 Online Spec Book page): Article 703.01 (abbreviations, C Size); Table 703.01-1, Size of Coarse Aggregate (AASHTO M 43), with its footnotes (sizes 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 24, 57 and 67; count of size numbers); Article 703.02 B; Item 304, Article 304.02; Article 703.17 A; Item 411, Articles 411.01 and 411.02; Article 703.18 A and B; Article 410.06 and Table 410.06-1.
- North Carolina Department of Transportation, Standard Specifications for Roads and Structures, January 2024 (connect.ncdot.gov PDF): Table 1005-1, Aggregate Gradation – Coarse Aggregate (sizes 4, 5, 57, 67 and ABC, and the Remarks column); Subarticles 1014-2(B), (C), (D) and (E)(1).
- Virginia Department of Transportation, Road and Bridge Specifications, 2020 edition (vdot.virginia.gov PDF, listed as the current book on VDOT's Road and Bridge Specifications page, read 26 September 2026), Section 205, Crusher Run Aggregate: 205.01, 205.02 and 205.03(a). Also read: the July 2022 Supplement to the 2020 book, which amends several sections, not including 205, and file BK205-002020-00 in the September 2026 Latest Specs zip on the same page, whose 205.03 grading table matches the 2020 book.
Guides
- How Long a Ready-Mix Truck Can Sit Before It Has to Discharge
- #57, #8, #411 and Crusher Run: Which Are Size Numbers and Which Are Something Else
- Checking Topsoil and Compost Before the Truck Tips It
- Reading the Delivery Ticket: Did You Get the Quantity You Paid For?
- What Strength Concrete to Order, and What Else to Tell the Plant
- Why the Yard Split Your Order Into Two Loads