Chapter 6 Flashcards
What is earth work?
Changing the configuration of the ground surface by removing soil and or rocks by either cut or excavation or adding soil or rocks by back filling or embankment.
Example of projects requiring earth work.
Highways
Rail roads
Building construction
What are properly graded tract less prone to
Land slides
Excessive settlements
Flooding
What is the fundamental objective of earthwork construction?
Is to change the ground surface from its initial configuration, typically described by a topography map, to some final configuration, as described on a new topographic map known as grading plan. Also to create slope stability on hilly terrain.
Fills
Must have sufficient shear strength to support own weight and external weight
Must be sufficiently still to avoid excessive settlement- eve when wet
In areas that prone to freezing, fills must be made with non- frost susceptible soil.
Historic Methods and Equipment in construction
Slaves, animals and carts were used.
Hydraulic Fills
Process of mixing soil and water together and then transporting it to its designated location and allowing it to settle. After it settles, the remaining water is directed away. This is no longer used
Modern earth moving equipments
Tractor- moves its self plus other equipment, first designed for military and agriculture. Designed for rough terrains
Modern earth moving equipments
Wheel-mounted tractors: operates at greater speeds, not well suited for rough terrains, equipments can be attached like bulldozer. Can be used for cutting, moving and spreading.
Conventional earthwork
Is described at the excavation, transport, placement, and compaction of soft rocks and or soils in areas where equipment can move freely
Clearing and grubbing
Clearing(Above Ground)
Grubbing( Below Ground)
Step one in earthwork projects: removal or trash, debris and vegetation from site. Most of these materials would have detrimental effect on fills, and must be hauled offsite.
Clearing and Grubbing
Inorganic debris such as chunks of concrete, bricks, or asphalt pavement does not need to be hauled away. They can be reused during filling.
Excavation
Occurs in areas where the proposed ground surface is lower than the existing ground surface. The excavated material is used for site fills, or site fills material is obtained from borrow “sites”.
Transport and placement
Bulldozers and Wheel loaders can be used for long hauls but are very no economical.
Transport and Placement
Scrapers are very different at moderate- length hauls, and earth work projects falls into this category
Transport and placements
Dump Trucks: can be used instead of scrapers especially when the soil is being excavated by scrapers. Ability to travel on public highways.
Transport and placement
Wagons: used for hauling soils over long distances on highways
Transportation and Placement
Soil transportation equipment depends on the haul distance. When ever it arrives on a site that requires filling, it must be laid out into “lifts” typically 200 mm thick. Each “lift” must be moisture conditioned and compacted before next lift is placed.
Moisture conditioning
Soils must be at the proper moisture content before compacting.
They wont compact well if too dry or too wet.
If moisture is needed, soil is sprayed with water by a water truck.
After being sprayed, it is then mixed by a bulldozer for uniformity.
Moisture Conditioning
Mixing good wet soils with dry soils is very difficult, especially when mixed wit clays because it results in alternating clumps instead of uniformity
Method used for this is to spread wet soil over large areas and allow it too dry naturally.
Compaction
Use of equipment o compress soil into smaller volume, thus increasing dry unit weight
Soils and water are virtually incompressible, so during compaction the volume of air is reduced while the volume of the soil and water remains unchanged.
Compaction
In the stages of development, animals were used for compaction.
Earth dam near Santa Fe New Mexico used 115 goats.
Rollers were initially pulled by horses which was replaced by tractors in 20 th century
Compaction
Basically anything the moves across a compaction site does some form of compression, like pickup trucks
We cannot depend on accidental forms of compaction because some pick up trucks amongst other compaction equipment were designed to have low pressures between tires and soils which allowed them to move across soft ground more easily
Compaction (Pressure)
The compact pressure between the ground and the equipment is most important factor resulting in compaction of the ground underlining