Earthworks (engineering)

Earthworks are engineering works created through the processing of parts of the earth's surface involving quantities of soil or unformed rock.

An incomplete list of possible temporary or permanent geotechnical shoring structures that may be designed and utilised as part of earthworks: 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 include road construction, railway beds, causeways, dams, levees, canals, and berms.

Examples of older earthwork fortifications include moats, sod walls, motte-and-bailey castles, and hill forts.

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.

[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.

Caterpillar D10 bulldozer at work
Earth moving equipment ( c. 1922 )
Flattened and leveled construction site. Road roller in the background.
Geofoam is a new lightweight earthworks technique used to build a bridge overpass on weak soil near Montreal .
Earthworks ditch and rampart in Germany - age prehistorical prior to 300 BC
Excavation of over 76 million cubic metres (23 million cubic metres of which was additional to the planned amount due to landslides) for the Culebra Cut, Panama canal construction photo taken c. 1907
Earthworks cut and fill map and estimation summary produced by Kubla Cubed