Earthwork

Earthwork is one of the major elements of industrial civil engineering construction, transportation, and hydroengineering. Earthwork is a process that involves the movement of a portion of the earth’s surface from one location to another and in a new position. It also involves the establishment of a new position for earth material like sand. Earth movement also involves the creation of a new desired shape and physical condition for the earth material being moved. It is also called Excavation.

The purposes of earthwork are the creation of engineering works from the soil (such as dams, railroads, highways, canals, channels, and trenches), the laying of foundations for buildings and structures which are erected from other materials, the leveling of areas under development for building, and the removal of masses of earth in order to open up mineral deposits.

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, the grader, the bulldozer, the backhoe, and the dragline excavator.