Step 1: A safety berm is required along the edge of this bench.

As will be discussed in subsection

4.9.5 the height of the berm should be of the order of the rolling radius. For this truck, the berm
height would be about 4 ft. Assuming that the material has an angle of repose of 45º, the width of
the safety berm is 8 ft. It is assumed that this berm is located with the outer edge at the crest.

Step 2: The distance from the crest to the truck centerline is determined assuming parallel
alignment. A 5-clearance distance between the safety berm and the wheels has been used. Since
the truck is 16 feet wide, the centerline to crest distance is 21 feet.

Step 3: The appropriate shovel dimensions are read from the specification sheet

(a) Shovel centerline to truck centerline. This is assumed to be the dumping radius (b) at maximum
height

(B) The maximum dumping height (A) is more than sufficient to clear the truck

(C) The level floor radius dimension (G) is the maximum distance from the shovel centerline which
the floor can be cleaned

This will be used as the maximum shovel centerline to toe distance.

Step 4: The desired working bench dimension becomes

Step 5: The corresponding width of cut is now calculated. In this case it has been assumed that the
shovel moves along a single path parallel to the crest. Information from the shovel manufacturer
suggests that the maximum cutting width (Wc) may be estimated by

This applies to the width of the pile of broken material. Therefore, to allow for swell and throw of
the material during blasting, the design cut width should be less than this value. Here a value of 60
ft has been assumed.