Earthworks (engineering)


Earthworks are engineering works created through the processing of parts of the earth's surface involving quantities of soil 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:

Excavation

Excavation may be classified by type of material:
Excavation may be classified by the purpose:
Typical earthworks include road construction, railway beds, causeways, dams, levees, canals, and berms. Other common earthworks are land grading to reconfigure the topography of a site, or to stabilize slopes.
is a new lightweight earthworks technique used to build a bridge overpass on weak soil near Montreal

Military use

In military engineering, earthworks are, more specifically, types of fortifications 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 moats, sod walls, motte-and-bailey castles, and hill forts. Modern examples include trenches and berms.

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 scraper and other earth-moving machines such as the loader, the dump truck, the grader, the bulldozer, the backhoe, and the dragline excavator.

Mass haul planning

Engineers need to concern themselves with issues of geotechnical engineering 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 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, including optimisation on haul cost and not 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.. 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 ; 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 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.
TitleDeveloperStand Alone\Add OnOperating SystemCalculation MethodImportsExports
12D12D SolutionsStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismsPoints : Contour Lines\Break Lines ??
Cut+FillR GoddardStand AloneWindows & Linux with WINETIN & MicrogridPoints Also allows plotting points by moving mouse over bmpcsv table of results & bmp of cut/fill area
n4ceApplications in CADDStand AloneWindowsTin Prisms, Grid or SectionPoints\Contour Lines\Break Lines\Triangles\Alignments Sections, Reports, 3D model, CAD, CSV
AEC CutFillAEC LogicAdd on for AutoCADWindowsCross SectionCross Sections Cross Section
Terra AlphaTerra Alpha IncStandaloneWindowsSolid 3D Modelling with AutoMesh Points : Contour Lines\Break Lines : DXF File with Text Cross Section : 3D Model : Cut/Fill Layout and PDF Report
Civil 3DAutodeskStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismsPoints\Contour Lines\Break Lines Surface
Earthwork 4DStand AloneWindowsHigh-Density Cross Sections through TIN SurfacesPoints : Contour Lines\Break Lines : Route Alignment Data : Surface TINs Points : Contour Lines\Break Lines : Route Alignment Data : Surface TINs : Reports
Carlson TakeoffCarlson SoftwareStand Alone or AutoCAD Add onWindowsTIN Prisms or GridPoints : Contour Lines\Break Lines Reports
Business Centre HCETrimbleStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismsPoints : Contour Lines\Break Lines ??
InSite SiteWorkStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismsPoints : Contour Lines\Break Lines BIM Surface, Trimble, Leica, TopCon, LandXML, Reports
Earthworks OnScreenTally SystemsIntegrates with MS ExcelWindows??Points,Contour Lines\Break Lines ??
ESurvey EarthworkStand AloneWindowsGridPoints Reports
Fast TerrainDiolkos3DStand AloneWindows??Points\Contour Lines\Break Lines ??
Pizer EarthPizer IncorporatedStand AloneWindowsCross SectionManual InputCross Section
EarthWorkProPlanswiftPlug-in for PlanswiftWindowsGridManual InputReport
HEADS SiteTechsoft Engineering ServicesStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismPoints Surfaces
MAGNET OfficeTopconStand AloneWindows?.dwg,.dxfascii,.csv,.dwg,.dxf
MAGNET ProjectTopconStand AloneWindowsMass haul optimization, project managementPrimavera XML
MassterEgis??Mass haul optimization
Nonio C \ DomusTerraInterstudioStand AloneWindows & macOS??Points\Contour Lines\Break Lines Surfaces.
NRG SurveysNRG Survey SystemsStand AloneWindows??????
MudsharkBrightbox SoftwareStand AloneWindowsSolid Modelling from TIN,TIN PrismPoints : Contour Lines
Cross Sections, Results, 3D.dwg/.dxf with results tags, image files of project.
Model Maker SystemsModel MakerStand AloneWindowsGrid & Cross Sections????
KeyTERRA-FIRMAKTF SoftwareAdd on for AutoCAD & BricsCADWindowsTIN PrismPoints : Contour Lines\Break Lines Cross sections and cut & fill depths as contours or solid colors ; txt report files; Surfaces ; Water volume depth graphs
Kubla CubedStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismPoints, Contour Lines\Break Lines, Surfaces Surfaces, Designs : Report
EarthworksTrakwareStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismPoints, Contour Lines\Break Lines ??
LSSDTM SoftwareStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismPoints\Contour Lines\Break Lines Surfaces
LisCADLisTechStand AloneWindowsTIN PrismPoints\Contour Lines\Break Lines Cut & Fill Areas
QuickDIRTConstructive ComputingStand AloneWindowsGridPoints\Contour Lines\Break Lines Surface
SiteWorks/OSVertigraphStand AloneWindowsGridPoints, Contour Lines\Break Lines Reports, Surface, Cross Sections
SCC Pro SoftwareSCC SurveyStand AloneWindowsTIN Prism or Gridsupport AutoCAD, Microstation, MX MOSS and LandXMLsupport AutoCAD, Microstation, MX MOSS and LandXML
Cut & FillSynergy Information SystemsA component of Sage Timberline OfficeWindows??????
Terrain ToolsSofttreeStand AloneWindows??Points\Contour Lines Surface
WinEx Master\WinEx GRADERoctek InternationalStand AloneWindowsSuper High Density GridPoints\Contours Most Image Files, Field Point dataCustomer Reports and Excel.Docx, Land.xml,.dxf,.txt,.rtf,.txt
TraceAirTraceAir Technologies IncWeb-based SaaSweb-browserSuper High Density GridPoints\Contours Most Image Files, Field Point dataMaps in.tiff,.pdf and reports in.xls
Causeway EstimatingCausewayStand AloneWindows??Points\Contour LinesSurfaces
Propeller PlatformStand Aloneweb-browserTINPoints\Contour Lines\Break Lines Textured OBJ, DEM, GEOTIFF, DXF, Custom Contours, Ortho GeoTiff, Ortho JPEG, Standard-Density Point Cloud, Compressed LAS
Viewpoint Earthwork SoftwareViewpoint Construction SoftwareStand AloneWindows & Mac OSGrid????
DatuBIMWeb-based SaaSweb-browserTINImages, Designs/Surfaces, Points Reports, Cross sections, volumes, elevations, areas, points, distances, angles, 3D Models, DSM, Orthophoto, Contours, Images