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Earthworks areengineering works created through the processing of parts of the earth's surface involving quantities ofsoil or unformedrock.
An incomplete list of possible temporary or permanentgeotechnicalshoring structures that may be designed and utilised as part of earthworks:
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Excavation may be classified by type of material:[1]: 13.1
Excavation may be classified by the purpose:[1]: 13.1, 13.2
Typical earthworks includeroad construction,railway beds,causeways,dams,levees,canals, andberms. Other common earthworks areland grading to reconfigure the topography of a site, or to stabilize slopes.
Inmilitary engineering, earthworks are, more specifically, types offortifications 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 includemoats,sodwalls,motte-and-bailey castles, andhill forts. Modern examples includetrenches andberms.
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 otherearth-moving machines such as theloader, thedump truck, thegrader, thebulldozer, thebackhoe, and thedragline excavator.
Engineers need to concern themselves with issues ofgeotechnical engineering (such as soil density and strength) and with quantity estimation to ensure that soil volumes in thecuts match those of thefills, while minimizing the distance of movement. In the past, these calculations were done by hand using aslide rule and with methods such asSimpson'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.[2]
Now they can be performed with acomputer and specialized software, including optimisation on haul cost and not haul distance (as haul cost is not proportional to haul distance).
Earthwork software is generally a subset ofCAD software, in which case it often an add-on to a more general CAD package such asAutoCAD.[3] 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 (usingcontour lines andspot heights); produce shaded cut and fill maps; produce cross sections and visualize terrain in 3D.[4] 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.[5][6][7]
A few programs are specialised inearthworks transport optimization andplanning the construction works.
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