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Earthworks are
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
works created through the processing of parts of the earth's surface involving quantities of
soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...
or unformed rock.


Shoring structures

An incomplete list of possible temporary or permanent
geotechnical Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...
shoring Shoring is the process of temporarily supporting a building, vessel, structure, or trench with shores (Jack post, props) when in danger of collapse or during repairs or alterations. ''Shoring'' comes from ''shore'', a timber or metal prop. Shoring ...
structures that may be designed and utilised as part of earthworks: * Mechanically stabilized earth * Earth anchor * Cliff stabilization * 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 A slurry wall is a civil engineering technique used to build reinforced concrete walls in areas of soft earth close to open water, or with a high groundwater table. This technique is typically used to build diaphragm (water-blocking) walls surro ...
* Soil nailing * Tieback (geotechnical) * Trench shoring * Caisson *
Dam 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, aqua ...
* Gabion *
Ground freezing Ground freezing is a construction technique used in circumstances where soil needs to be stabilized so it will not collapse next to excavations, or to prevent contaminants spilled into soil from being leached away. Ground freezing has been used f ...


Gallery

File:Mechanically stabilized earth diagram.gif, Mechanically stabilized earth File:GroutCurtain.gif, Grout curtain File:Retaining Wall Type Function.jpg,
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 ...
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 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, aqua ...
File:Gabion 040.jpg, Gabions File:Cross section of a ground freezing pipe as used in the big dig.gif,
Ground freezing Ground freezing is a construction technique used in circumstances where soil needs to be stabilized so it will not collapse next to excavations, or to prevent contaminants spilled into soil from being leached away. Ground freezing has been used f ...


Excavation

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 mat ...
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 A carriageway (British English) or roadway (North American English) is a width of road on which a vehicle is not restricted by any physical barriers or separation to move laterally. A carriageway generally consists of a number of traffic lane ...
excavation *
Drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...
or structure excavation *
Bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
excavation * Channel excavation * Footing excavation * Borrow excavation *
Dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing ...
excavation * Underground excavation


Civil engineering use

Typical earthworks include road construction,
railway bed In transport engineering, subgrade is the native material underneath a constructed road,http://www.highwaysmaintenance.com/drainage.htm The Idiots' Guide to Highways Maintenance ''highwaysmaintenence.com'' pavement or railway track (US: railroad ...
s,
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 Tr ...
, dams,
levee A levee ( or ), dike (American English), dyke (British English; see American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, spelling differences), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is an elevated ridge, natural ...
s,
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 ...
s, and
berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of Soil compaction, 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 b ...
s. Other common earthworks are
land grading Grading in civil engineering and landscape architectural construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and ...
to reconfigure the topography of a site, or to stabilize slopes.


Military use

In military engineering, earthworks are, more specifically, types of
fortification A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...
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 dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...
s, sod walls, motte-and-bailey castles, and
hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...
s. Modern examples include trenches and
berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of Soil compaction, 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 b ...
s.


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) scraper and other earth-moving machines such as the loader, the
dump truck A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials (such as dirt, gravel, or demolition waste) for construction as well as coal. A typical dump truck is equipped ...
, the
grader A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, motor grader, or simply blade, is a form of heavy equipment with a long blade used to create a flat surface during Grading (engineering), grading. Although the earliest models were towed b ...
, the
bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal #Blade, blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, ...
, the backhoe, and the dragline excavator.


Mass haul planning

Engineers need to concern themselves with issues of
geotechnical engineering Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...
(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 A slide rule is a hand-operated mechanical calculator consisting of slidable rulers for conducting mathematical operations such as multiplication, division, exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is one of the simplest analog ...
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 A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...
and specialized software, including optimisation on haul cost and not haul distance (as haul cost is not proportional to haul distance).


See also

* * *, construction/engineering vehicles used for earthworks civil engineering * * * * * * * *


Calculation software

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 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD) software application developed by Autodesk. It was first released in December 1982 for the CP/M and IBM PC platforms as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics control ...
. 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 line A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, isoquant or isarithm) of a Function of several real variables, function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a ...
s and
spot height A spot height is an exact point on a map with an elevation recorded beside it that represents its height above a given datum.Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, p. 506. . In the UK this is the Ordnan ...
s); 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 Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...
the construction works.


References


External links

*
Saving Old Dirt: The Preservation of Earthworks
at the American Battlefield Trust {{Authority control Civil engineering Fortification (architectural elements)