Earth Moving

Civil Engineering Practice (CE-203)

Department of Civil Engineering

University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila, Pakistan
Earth Moving Operations
 The first basic operation in any construction project is of earth-
moving. Land has to be cleared from jungle or vegetation before
any building activity can be started, which may be of making
roads, buildings, embankments or drainage works.
 The excavation involves digging large quantity of earth and
moving them to distance often fairly long. The operations of
ripping, leveling, grading, and compacting earth are called earth-
moving operations, which are necessary on large works.
Excavation of Earth
Scope of Work
 After obtaining some idea of the quality of materials to be
excavated, by means of boring and subsequent classification, we
must determine the quantity of material to be moved and the
scope of operations.
Excavation of Earth
Scope of Work
The scope of earthwork operations depends upon the following
factors:
1. The total quantity of earth to be moved;
2. The location of the excavation site;
3. Its relative width, breadth and depth;
4. The type of soil to be moved;
5. The final decomposition (dumping) to be made of the
excavated material.
Types of Excavation

Excavation falls into the following types, depending on the

factors noted above:
a. Bulk-pit excavation
b. Bulkwide-area excavation
c. Loose bulk excavation
d. Limited-area, vertical excavation
e. Trench excavation
f. Tunnel excavation
g. Dredging
Types of Excavation
a. Bulk-pit Excavation
Types of Excavation
a. Bulk-pit Excavation
 It is primarily excavation of considerable depth, as well as
substantial volume or bulk that must be hauled from the site of
the operations.
 In this kind of excavation, the equipment used is operated
against the face of the bank from its lower level, and the
excavated material is loaded into the vehicles at the bottom of
the pit to be hauled away from the site.
 The resulting pit has vertical or nearly vertical walls because of
site limitation, such as adjoining streets or buildings.
Types of Excavation
b. Bulk Wide-area Excavation
Types of Excavation
b. Bulk Wide-area Excavation
 It may also have considerable depth and total volume and may
also require that the material be hauled away.
 In this kind of excavation, however, there is complete access to
the site from many directions, and the excavation banks can be
sloped flatly on two or more sides.
 It is usually shallower in depth, but larger in area. The excavated
material is hauled a shorter distance and deposited over an area
similar to that from which it is dug, e.g.; in the construction of an
embankment for highway or airport runway.
Types of Excavation
c. Loose Bulk Excavation
Types of Excavation
c. Loose Bulk Excavation
 It differs from the previous two types in the character of the
materials to be excavated; wet clays and silts in unconsolidated
formations, the bulk of which is not hauled away but simply cast
into a new position. Excavations for canals and embankments
are the general type.
Types of Excavation
d. Limited Area, Vertical Excavation
Types of Excavation
d. Limited Area, Vertical Excavation
 This method of excavation is used in loose or wet soils,
unconsolidated formations; where the banks must be supported
by shoring or sheeting (timbering).The material must be lifted
out vertically.
Types of Excavation
e. Trench Excavation
Types of Excavation
e. Trench Excavation
 In this type, the width of operations and generally, the depth is
limited. Trenching may be performed in any soil, and will
sometimes fall into the category of limited-area, vertical
excavation.
Types of Excavation
f. Tunnel Excavation
Types of Excavation
f. Tunnel Excavation
 It is limited in width, as in trenching, and in depth or height, it is
carried out completely underground.
Types of Excavation
g. Dredging
Types of Excavation
g. Dredging
 It is the removal of soil from underwater, using the water as
means of transportation to convey the soil to final positions.
Remodeling of canals and surface drains falls under this
category. Draglines are more suited for such works.
Earth Moving Equipments

Excavation is the process through which earth is dug from one

place and deposited to another. It, thus, includes the two
operations of digging and shifting of earth.
 There are machines, which perform both of these two
operations, unaided by any other agency. Such machines may be
called as ‘Excavating and Carrying machines’.
 However, in several other cases, these two operations are
accomplished through a combination of two or more machines.
Digging being done by machines, which are called purely
‘Excavating’ and shifting by units called ‘Carriers’.
Earth Moving Equipments

Some examples of these machines are:

 Excavating and Carrying
(Clamshells, Bulldozers, Tractor pulled Scrapers, etc.)
 Purely Excavating
(Draglines, Front Shovels, Backhoe, Elevating graders, etc.)
 Carrier Units
(Dump Trucks, Trailers, Wagons, etc.)
Excavating and Carrying
1. Clamshells
Excavating and Carrying
1. Clamshells
Excavating and Carrying
1. Clamshells
 Clamshells are used primarily to handle loose materials, such as
sand, gravel, crushed stone, coal, etc. and for removing materials
from cofferdams, pier foundations, sewer manholes, sheet-lined
trenches etc.
 They are specially suited for lifting materials vertically from one
location to another, as discharging in hoppers and over head
bins.
 Vertical movement capability may be relatively large when
Clamshells are used with long crane booms.
Excavating and Carrying
1. Clamshells
 Clamshell buckets are available in various sizes and weights e.g.
heavy-duty types for digging, medium-weight types for general-
purpose works, and light weight types for re-handling light
materials.
 Manufacturers supply buckets either with removable teeth or
without teeth.
 Teeth are used in digging the harder types of materials but are
not required when a bucket is used for re-handling purposes.
 The capacity of a clamshell buckets is usually expressed in cubic
yards or cubic feet given in terms of heaped-measure.
Excavating and Carrying
2. Bull Dozers
Excavating and Carrying
2. Bull Dozers (Backhoe)
Excavating and Carrying
2. Bull Dozers
 The term Bull dozer may be used in a broad sense to include
both a Bull dozer and an Angle dozer.
 Bull dozers are mounted with the blades perpendicular to the
direction of travel, while Angle dozers are mounted with the
blades set an angle with the direction of travel.
 The former push the earth forward, while the latter push it
forward and to one side.
 The length and height of the blade indicate the size of a
bulldozer.
Excavating and Carrying
2. Bull Dozers
 These machines may be further divided on the basis of their
mountings, into crawler-tractor or wheel-tractor mounted.
 Based on the method of lowering and raising their blade,
Bulldozer may be classified as cable or hydraulic controlled.
 Each type of equipment has a place in the construction industry.
Excavating and Carrying
2. Bull Dozers
Bull dozers are versatile machines on many construction projects
and may be used for the following purposes:
 Clearing land from timber and stumps.
 Opening up pilot roads through mountains and rocky terrain.
 Moving earth for haul distances upto approximately 300 feet.
 Spreading earth fills.
 Back filling trenches.
 Clearing construction sites off debris.
 Maintaining haul roads.
 Clearing the floors of borrow and quarry pits.
Excavating and Carrying
2. Bull Dozers
Moving Earth with Bull dozers
 Under certain conditions, Bulldozers are satisfactory machines
for moving earth for such jobs as excavating ponds for stock
water, trench silo sand highway cuts, stripping the top soil from
land or ore deposits, back filling trenches, spreading materials
on fills, etc.
 In general, haul distances should be less than 300 feet. Either a
crawler-mounted or wheel-mounted tractor may be used to
move the Bulldozer; a crawler-mounted machine having an
advantage on short hauls with soft or muddy ground, and a
wheel-mounted machine having an advantage on longer hauls
and firm ground.
Excavating and Carrying
3. Tractor - Pulled Scrapers
Excavating and Carrying
3. Tractor - Pulled Scrapers
Excavating and Carrying
3. Tractor - Pulled Scrapers
Tractor-pulled Scrapers have established an important position
in the earth-moving field. As these are self-operating, to the
extent that they can load, haul or discharge material, they are
not dependent on other equipment.
The self-operating Scrapers are available with capacity upto 30
cubic yards or more.
These machines are the result of a compromise between the best
loading and the best hauling machines, but they are not superior
to other equipment in both loading and hauling.
Power Shovels, Draglines usually will surpass them in loading
only, while Truck may surpass them in hauling only, especially
when long, well maintained haul roads are used.
Excavating and Carrying
3. Tractor - Pulled Scrapers
 However, their ability to load and haul earth gives them a
definite advantage on many projects.
 The development of high-speed, wheel type Tractors has
increased the economic haul distance for this type of equipment
upto a mile or more on many projects.
 The ability of these machines to deposit their loads in uniformly
thick layers will facilitate the succeeding spreading operations.
 On the return trips to borrow pits, the cutting blades of Scrapers
may be lowered enough to remove the high spots, there by
assisting in maintaining the haul roads.
Excavating and Carrying
3. Tractor - Pulled Scrapers
Cycle Time
 The cycle time for a Scraper is the time to load, haul, dump, turn,
return, and turn back in to position to pick up another load.
Tc= loadt+ hault+ dumpt+ turnt+ returnt+ turnt
 Loading time fairly remains in the same range regardless of the
scraper size. Also, large sized scrapers which carry larger load can
load as fast as small machines.
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines (Uses)
 Draglines are used to excavate earth and load it in to hauling
units, such as Trucks or Wagons, or to deposit it in levees, dams
and spoil banks near the pits from which it is excavated.
 For some projects, either a Power Shovel or a Drag line may be
used to excavate the materials, but for others, the Drag line will
have a distinct advantage as compared with a Shovel.
 A Drag line usually doesn’t have to go in to a pit or hole in order
to excavate. It may operate on natural ground while excavating
material from a pit with its bucket.
 This will be very advantageous when earth is removed from a
ditch, canal or pit containing water.
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines (Uses)
 If the earth is hauled with trucks, they don’t have to go into the
pit. If the earth can be deposited along a canal or a ditch or near
a pit, It is possible to use a Drag line with a boom long enough to
dispose of the earth in one operation, eliminating the need for
hauling units, which will reduce the cost of handling of the
earth.
 When the soil is very loose or when water occurs at some
distance below the surface, the Drag line is widely used in bulk-
pit excavation in lieu of the Power Shovel.
 It is ideal for handling loose, dry sands and gravel, for this
purpose Drag line is more efficient than a Shovel or Scraper.
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines (Uses)
 The Drag line can be used for loading haul units but is less
efficient in this operation than the Shovel. It is only where
casting is involved that the Dragline is definitely superior.
 One disadvantage in using the Dragline compared with a Power
Shovel is the reduced output of the Dragline.
 A comparison of the ideal output of various sizes of Draglines
with the output of Power Shovels shows that a Dragline will
excavate approximately 75 % to 80 % of the earth as that of a
Power Shovel of the same size.
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines
Excavating Unit
1. Drag–Lines (Size)
 The size of Dragline is indicated by the size of bucket, expressed
in cubic yards, which, in general, is the same size as the dipper of
the power shovel in to which it may be converted.
 However, most Drag lines may handle more than one size
bucket, depending on the length of the boom and the class of
material excavated.
Excavating Unit
2. Power Shovels
Excavating Unit
2. Power Shovels
 Power Shovels are used primarily to excavate earth and load it
into trucks or tractor-pulled wagons or on the conveyer belts.
 They are capable of excavating all classes of earth, except solid
rock, without prior loosening.
 Shovels may vary in sizes from ¾ cu-yd to 4.0 cu-yd, weighing
from 6, 7 tons to hundred of tons and boom lengths capable of
dumping on roof of a seven storied building.
 They may have gasoline, diesel or electric drive.
Excavating Unit
2. Power Shovels (Size)
 The size of a Power Shovel is indicated by the size of the bucket,
expressed in cubic yards.
 Power Shovels are commonly available in the following sizes: 3/8,
0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 cu-yd. Larger sizes may be
available, or they can be manufactured on special orders.
Excavating Unit
2. Power Shovels (Applications)
1. Embankment Digging
It is the necessary purpose for which the Power Shovel was
designed, and, at this job, there is no other piece of excavating
equipment that can produce equal productions in any type of
soil or shattered rock.
2. Loading into Haul Units
It is a necessary consequence of embankment digging. There is
no more efficient method of loading trucks than with the
Power Shovel, although virtually every piece of excavating
equipment can be used for loading, if it is not self-loading.
Excavating Unit
2. Power Shovels (Applications)
3. Side Casting
It is the special case of embankment digging without loading.
However, its effectiveness is limited by boom length and by the
fact that the casting side must remain lower than the level on
which the Shovel rests.
4. Dressing Slopes
It is a useful function if the slope results from the embankment
digging and the dressing is performed as a part of the
excavating process. For general slope grading other equipment
should be used.
Excavating Unit
2. Power Shovels (Applications)
5. Dumping on Soil Banks
Like side casting, it is the function of the Shovel that is limited
to special situations.
6. Digging Shallow Trenches
It is not a desirable use for a Power Shovel. Since the shovel
must dig for ward into the bank of earth, it must span that
portion of the trench, which is already dug. This requires a
stable, cohesive soil whose bank edges will not crumble. Soils
that will support the weight of the Shovel and can still be cut
with neat vertical walls are rarely encountered.
Hauling Units
1. Trucks and Wagons
Hauling Units
1. Trucks and Wagons
 In handling earth, aggregate and other rock materials, Trucks
serve one purpose.
 They are hauling units, which because of their high speeds, when
operating on suitable roads, have high capacities and provide
relatively low hauling costs.
 These trucks are used for hauling materials on large projects,
where sizes and costs are justified.
Hauling Units
1. Trucks and Wagons
Trucks may be classified according to many factors, including
the following:
 Size and type of engine, gasoline, diesel, butane, propane etc.
 Number of gears.
 Kind of drive, two wheels, four wheel, six wheels etc.
 Number of wheels and axles and arrangement of driving wheels.
 Method of dumping the load, rear dump, side dump.
 Class of material hauled, earth, rock etc.
 Capacity in tons or cubic yards.
Hauling Units
1. Trucks and Wagons (Capacity)
 There are at least three methods of expressing the capacities of
trucks and wagons; by the load, which it will carry, expressed in
tons; by its struck volume; and by its heaped volume, the later
two expressed in cubic yards.
 The struck capacity of a truck is the volume of the material,
which it will haul, when it is filled to the top of the sides, with no
material above the sides. The heaped capacity is the volume of
material, which it will haul, when the load is heaped above the
sides. The capacity should be expressed in cubic yards.
Hauling Units
1. Trucks and Wagons (Balancing the Capacities)
Following steps should be noted in order to balance the
capacities of hauling units with the size of excavators:
 Most construction projects involve some degree of earth moving
and excavation.
 On large highways and infields and dam projects, the bulk of
contractor’s cost is in the hauling of earth.
 However, although hauling is a major factor in the construction
industry, there are few analytical procedures for optimizing the
combination of earth movers verses loaders in the interest of
cost reduction.
Hauling Units
1. Trucks and Wagons (Balancing the Capacities)
 One method, devised by Peurifoy is “Cycle Time Analysis”. To
make this type of analysis, the site should be investigated to
determine grades, distances, and haul road characteristics.
 Specifications of each type of haul vehicle should be available.
From this known data, haul speeds can be computed for each
segment of the route by considering grades, roll resistance,
altitudes and acceleration.
 The cycle time is then computed for a single vehicle, using times
obtained from each segment and an estimate of the time lost in
travel due to dumping and accelerating.
Hauling Units
1. Trucks and Wagons (Balancing the Capacities)
 Knowing the capacity of the haul unit and the output of the
loader (say Power shovel), the loading time is then calculated.
 The number of haul units is estimated by dividing the cycle time
of the haul unit by the loading time of the power shovel.
 The cost analysis is then done and the same procedure is
repeated with different combination of haul unit and the loaders
(excavators).
 The most economical combination is then decided.
Factors Affecting Output of Excavation Units
The output of a Excavation unit is affected by numerous factors,
including the following:

Class of material (soil or rock)

Depth of cut (optimum depth of cut leads to greatest output)
Angle of swing (horizontal angle between digging and dumping
positions)
Job conditions (excellent, good, fair, poor etc.)
Management conditions (supervisions and maintenance)
Size of hauling units (balanced numbers should be used)
Skill of the operator (very important)
Physical condition of the Equipment (good maintenance is necessary)
Increasing Production Rate of Earth work
General
 There are at least two methods that a contractor may use to
obtain a higher profit on a project involving earth work.
 One method is to increase the bid prices on the earth work.
However, competition usually limits the price, which he may bid,
otherwise he loses the probability of winning the bid or tender.
 The alternative method is to organize and operate his equipment
in a manner that will ensure the maximum production at the
lowest cost.
 The latter method usually offers the best opportunity for
attainment. Thus, a contractor should strive to increase the
production without increasing his costs.
Increasing Production Rate of Earth work
1. Ripping
 Most types of tight soils will load faster, if they are ripped ahead
of the Scraper. Additionally, delays pertaining to equipment
repairs will be reduced substantially as the Scraper will not be
operated under as much strain.
 If the value of the increased production resulting from ripping
exceeds the ripping cost, the material should be ripped.
Increasing Production Rate of Earth work
2. Pre-wetting of Soil
 Some soils will load more easily, if they are reasonably moist.
Pre-wetting can be performed in conjunction with ripping or
ahead of loading, to permit a uniform penetration of the
moisture into the soil.
Increasing Production Rate of Earth work
3. Loading Downgrade
 When it is practicable to do so, scrapers should be loaded down
grade and in the direction of haul.
 Downgrade loading results in faster loading times, whereas,
loading in the direction of haul both shortens the length of haul
and eliminates the need to turn in the cut with the loaded
scraper.
Increasing Production Rate of Earth work
4. Supervision
 Full-time supervisory control should be provided in the cut. A
more efficient operation will result through the elimination of
confusion and traffic congestion.