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1) SITE INVESTIGATION
2) OBJECTIVES OF SITE INVESTIGATION
3) FACTOR TO BE CONSIDERED WHICH
AFFECT THE PLANNING AND COST OF
EARTHWORK OPERATION
4) TYPES OF EXCAVATION
5) SUPPORT OF EXCAVTION

The investigation of sites for the purposes

of assessing their suitability for the
construction of civil engineering and building
works and acquiring knowledge of the
characteristic of a site that affect the
design and construction of such work and
the security of neighboring land and
property.
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1. Suitability
-Site and Environment (Location)

2. Design
-Adequate and Economic Design (suit with the soil)

3. Construction
-Method of Construction (Steel / Concrete / Precast)

4. Effect of Changes
- Changes to ground and environmental condition (effect of
other aspect: weather)

5. Choice of Site
-Different site or different parts of the same site

1. Site Consideration: 3. Contract duration and weather prospects:

i. Nature and extend of excavation (location)
ii. Available work area (store / mobilization)
iii.Disposal of soil Earthworks are subject to two forms of change due
iv. Existing services and structure to weather.
i. Superficial changes due to immediate weather
2. Ground Conditions conditions (e.g: heavy rainfall).
It is necessary to establish a clear picture of ground ii. Change due to seasonal conditions, by which soils
conditions before any excavations commences.
may be affected for a longer period of time.
The information obtained will assist in establishing the following:
i. Ground support during excavation. Consideration should be given to the duration of the
ii. Best method of keeping the excavation free from water earthworks programme and the time of the year
iii. Type of plant to be used. which the work is to commence.
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4. Economic aspect of earthwork design

The economics aspects of earthwork designs

take into account the following points:

i. The nature of work

ii. The availability of suitable plant
iii. The availability of suitable fill material
iv. The time of the year

1. Grader 8. Dumper 1. Excavation

Grader, Skimmer & Trencher
2. Excavator 9. Scraper
3. Multi Purpose 10.Tractor Back Pusher 2. Excavation and Loading
Excavator 11.Tractor Shovel Dragline, Clamshell, Shovel, Backactor & Multi
4. Bulldozer 12.Roller Purpose Excavator
5. Face Shovel 13.Trencher
3. Haul & Deposit
6. Dragline 14.Skimmer Dumper, Dump Truck, & Lorries.
7. Clampshell
4. Excavation, Load, Haul and Deposit
Dozer, Scrapper & Dredger
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 Earthworks are engineering works created

through the moving or processing of parts of the
earth's surface involving quantities of soil or
unformed rock. The earth may be moved to
another location and formed into a desired
shape for a purpose.
 Much of earthworks involves machine
excavation and fill or backfill.
 the operations connected with excavations and
embankments of earth

 Type of work or excavation

 Nature of the ground 1. Bulk excavation
Location

2. Rock excavations – Well hole blasting
 quantity of soil involve
– Explosives
 distance to the disposal point
 Availability of plant, equipment and workers 3. Trench excavations
(plant operator)
 Type of support required
 Others
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Bulk excavation include the following operations:

1. Cuttings
 Includes large excavation cuts for roads, canals, and
similar forms of excavation where the excavated
materials is usually moved to some other part of the site
either for bulk fill or for general spread and level works.
 The type of plant used will depend on the quantity of soil
to be transported and the distance to the disposal point.

2. Shallow cut and fill

 Shallow cut and fill operations occur mainly in road 3. Basement & deep pits
works construction.
The term ‘deep pit’ which
 The work is normally carried out by scrappers,
skimmers or dozers; which first strip the top soil
applies to excavation over
for reuse and then reduce the level of the site to 4.5m deep is synonymous
the required formation level. with the term ‘basement’.
 The formation level should be protected against
water and the drying out action of wind and sun by
some form of waterproof dressing, such as hot tar
or bitumen.
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4. Hand Excavations
This will occur when in excavations are heavily The method of breaking and excavating rock or
supported, or at congested area = leaving little room other hard material will vary according to the
for mechanical excavation. type of material, quantity involved, conditions on
site and equipment available. Such method
include:-
It will be necessary in many cases when excavating
deep basements and pits to use pneumatic tools such 1. Use pneumatic breaker
as jack hammer and other tools like clay-spades and 2. Breaking by hand with hammer wedges
picks 3. Blasting

There are two basic methods of drilling and

blasting rock in excavation:
1. Benching
2. Well hole blasting

Removing rock from excavations:

- The choice of method will depend on the position and The choice of method of excavating,
size of the rock pieces which may be removed by supporting and backfilling trenches depends
either of the following method: on the following factors:
1. By hand loading on to flat bottomed rock skips 1. Purpose for which the trench is being
2. By mechanical excavators, such as draglines, face excavated
shovels and loaders. 2. The nature of the ground
3. The time scale of the work
4. Ground water conditions
5. The location of the trench
6. Number of obstruction
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Excavation methods: Excavation methods (cont’d):

The methods of excavating trenches are as

follows: 2. Full depth, successive stages of excavation
 suitable for deep trenches where several
1. Full depth, full length excavation operations of work can proceed in sequence
 Suitable for long narrow of shallow depth in which
the machines completes the trench non-stop
ahead of any other operation
 This method is suitable for pipelines and sewers

Excavation methods (cont’d):

3. Stage depth, successive stages of excavation

 Suitable for trenches with battered sides and
would be suitable for activities such as operation SUPPORT OF
EXCAVATION
of deep foundation and underpinning
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Types of support excavation is depend on 1. Loose sand, gravel and silts

the types of soil. The soil types are as
follows:  Support for this type of soil requires some
form of continuous support
 Such soil are likely to slump quickly, the
1. Loose sand, gravel and silts support must be placed immediately after
excavation takes place.
2. Compact sand and stiff clay  Deep excavation will have to be dug in stages;
3. Rock the first stage by machine, and after
supporting the first stage, any subsequent
stages by hand.
 Use of driven sheet piles would be more
suitable for deep trenching/excavations.

2. Compact sand and stiff clays

 Support for this type of soil can be

achieved by using open timbering support.
 Involves the use of pooling boards or trench
sheets at intervals of approximately 1
meter; the board are supported by
continuous walling and trenches jack at 2
meter centres.
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2. Compact sand and stiff clays (cont’d)

 If the soil is subjected to drying out and

crumbling the spacing of the pooling boards
can be reduced accordingly.
 Dry clays which take up rain water and
expand: this produces extra stress in the
struts and allowance should be made for
this at the design stage.

3. Rock

 Support to rock excavation depends to large

extend on the type of rock and the slope of
rock strata.
 In the case of unstable rock faces, open
timbering should be used to prevent any
slump/collapse.
 Where the depth of excavation is
excessive, the rock face may be stabilized
by rock bolting.
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Unshored Excavations
3. Rock (cont’d)
- Involve the battering of tone sides of the
excavation to a safe angle of repose; for
 Consist of solid steel rods which are fixed in many soils this can be taken to be an angle
deep drill holes by means of wedges, sleeves or of 45’.
grouting process; light steel sections or steel
plates are used to support the rock face
through which the rods are threaded.
 Support of these materials may be expensive;
It may be more economical to cut these back to
a safe angle of repose if space allows such
treatment.

Deep Excavations

Shoring to deep excavations by traditional

methods can be undertaken in two ways:

1. Internal support
Consist of poling boards or, more usually, sheet
piling, supported by heavy walling and steel or
timber struts.
2. External Support
Consist of sheet piling anchored back to the
face of the excavation by steel rods or ground
anchors.