Earthworks are

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

works created through the processing of parts of the earth's surface involving quantities of

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...

or unformed rock.

Shoring structures

An incomplete list of possible temporary or permanent geotechnical shoring structures that may be designed and utilised as part of earthworks: *

Mechanically stabilized earth Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE or reinforced soil) is soil constructed with artificial reinforcing. It can be used for retaining walls, bridge abutments, seawalls, and dikes. Although the basic principles of MSE have been used throughout ...

* Earth anchor *

Cliff stabilization Cliff stabilization is a coastal management erosion control technique. This is most suitable for softer or less stable cliffs. Generally speaking, the cliffs are stabilised through dewatering (drainage of excess rainwater to reduce water-logging) or ...

* Grout curtain *

Retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

* Slurry wall * Soil nailing * Tieback (geotechnical) * Trench shoring * Caisson * Dam * Gabion * Ground freezing

Gallery

File:Mechanically stabilized earth diagram.gif,

File:GroutCurtain.gif, Grout curtain File:Retaining Wall Type Function.jpg,

types File:Soil Nail.jpg, Soil nailing File:FEMA - 6044 - Photograph by Larry Lerner taken on 03-15-2002 in New York.jpg, Tieback File:Sbh s600.JPG, Trench shoring File:Caisson Schematic.svg, Caisson File:Vyrnwy dam.JPG, Dam File:Gabion 040.jpg, Gabions File:Cross section of a ground freezing pipe as used in the big dig.gif, Ground freezing

Excavation

Bell telephone magazine (1922) (14569641579)

Construction site near Yass site cleared and bull dozed cleared steam roller in background

Excavation may be classified by type of material:Frederick S. Merritt, M. Kent Loftin, Jonathan T. Ricketts, ''Standard Handbook for Civil Engineers, Fourth Edition'', McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1995. *

Topsoil Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic matte ...

excavation * Earth excavation * Rock excavation * Muck excavation – this usually contains excess water and unsuitable soil * Unclassified excavation – this is any combination of material types Excavation may be classified by the purpose: * Stripping * Roadway excavation *

Drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

or structure excavation *

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

excavation * Channel excavation * Footing excavation * Borrow excavation * Dredge excavation * Underground excavation

Civil engineering use

Typical earthworks include

road construction A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

, railway beds,

causeways A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet ...

dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually earthen and that often runs parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastl ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...

s, and

berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a border/ separation ...

s. Other common earthworks are land grading to reconfigure the topography of a site, or to stabilize slopes. Geofoam bridge overpass

Military use

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics ...

ing, earthworks are, more specifically, types of

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

s constructed from soil. Although soil is not very strong, it is cheap enough that huge quantities can be used, generating formidable structures. Examples of older earthwork fortifications include

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

s, sod walls,

motte-and-bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

castles, and

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post- ...

s. Modern examples include trenches and

Equipment

Heavy construction equipment is usually used due to the amounts of material to be moved — up to millions of cubic metres. Earthwork construction was revolutionized by the development of the (

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

) scraper and other earth-moving machines such as the loader, the dump truck, the grader, the

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous trac ...

, the backhoe, and the dragline excavator.

Mass haul planning

Engineers need to concern themselves with issues of

geotechnical engineering Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics for the solution of its respective engineering problems. It a ...

(such as soil density and strength) and with quantity estimation to ensure that soil volumes in the cuts match those of the fills, while minimizing the distance of movement. In the past, these calculations were done by hand using a

slide rule The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is ...

and with methods such as Simpson's rule. Earthworks cost is a function of hauled amount x hauled distance. The goal of mass haul planning is to determine these amounts and the goal of mass haul optimization is to minimize either or both. Now they can be performed with a computer and specialized

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

, including optimisation on haul cost and not haul distance (as haul cost is not proportional to haul distance).

Calculation software

The table below provides a list of software used in the engineering and construction industries to plan, execute and cost these earthworks. Earthwork software is generally a subset of CAD software, in which case it often an add-on to a more general CAD package such as

AutoCAD AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. Developed and marketed by Autodesk, AutoCAD was first released in December 1982 as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics controllers. ...

. In that case, earthwork software is principally used to calculate cut and fill volumes which are then used for producing material and time estimates. Most products offer additional functionality such as the ability to takeoff terrain elevation from plans (using contour lines and spot heights); produce shaded cut and fill maps; produce cross sections and visualize terrain in 3D. The means by which volumes are calculated in software can differ quite considerably leading to potentially different results with the same input data. Many software products use methods based on triangulated irregular networks (TINS) and triangular prism volume algorithms, however other calculation methods are in use based on rationalizing elevations into high density grids or cross-sections. A few programs are specialised in earthworks transport optimization and planning the construction works.

References

External links

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Finding Volume of Earthwork using Simpson's Rule
{{Geotechnical engineering Fortification (architectural elements) Civil engineering