61,000 yards per day

We are moving 61,000 yards of dirt per day on my job site. 
 

That's like 1400 truckloads PER DAY. 

Every. 

Single. 

Day. 
 

That's a LOT of dirt!

1400 truckloads per day??  OMG!

Aww... that's adorable!

I meant 1400 OF THESE:

It moves 60 tons at a time!

That is a lot of dirt!

We do that every day for 147 consecutive working days!

I could go to the googles but where is the site?

A tandem dump truck moves about 16 cubic yards at a time.
 

The big boys move 44.7 yards. You could put a tandem in the bed. 

Good thing it doesn't rain much in Georgia. 
 

oh, wait...

In reply to Keith Tanner :

It rained 4 1/2" in 2 hours last Monday.  That was 250,000,000 gallons of water on my site. 

Janel is impressed. Also, trucks not scrapers? 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Scrapers don't work on clay. It's Georgia. 

... plus, when you are cutting 30' deep, an excavator really is the right tool. 
 

We've got really big ones of those too! 

Since our standard measurement around here is Challenge cars, let me put it in perspective...

60 tons... That would be about 50 Challenge cars in a single load!  The entire field of Challenge competitors for most years would fit in ONE of these trucks! Lol!!

Moving dirt?  What is most of the movement?

Are you taking the top off a hill to make flat ground?  And then, does a lot of the dirt leave the site permanently?  

Are you filling in a valley to make flat ground?  Does this mean the dirt moved is being brought to the site?

Or, is it a combination of highs and lows being leveled?

Or, is it a combination of digging down to make lower levels like basements and dig down to make road-beds?  

Good answer! :)

Janel kinda wants to come visit and check it out. She is such a construction nerd. 

In reply to John Welsh :

We are building a building pad for a manufacturing plant. That means when we are done, it will be about 1000 acres that is all one level. 
 

It's called a "balanced site". That means we are neither hauling dirt away, nor bringing it in. We are knocking off the high points and filling the low points. 

I worked on a Walmart site in Martinsville, Va where they moved 1,000,000 yards of dirt in a balanced fill.  They basically cut down a mountain and filled a valley because they did not want anybody looking DOWN on the Walmart.  The developer didn't care because they made money on every yard moved.    I don't know how this compares to your site, but it sounds like a lot of dirt for a Walmart.    

In reply to spitfirebill :

This one is 9 million yards

Moving 61,000 yards. How far is the average haul?

What are they using to level and compact the Georgia clay after it is moved?

How many gallons of off road diesel are being consumed per day? 

Does one roach coach team work the site at break time?

In reply to OHSCrifle :

Average haul is probably half a mile to a mile. 

Leveling is mostly done by GPS guided dozers.  Finish grading and dressing by motor graders.  We've got 20 or 30 compactors working every day (mostly sheepsfoot), the trackhoes and dozers contribute to compaction.  And don't underestimate the dump trucks.  When you've got 100 60 ton vehicles riding around, it contributes a lot to the compaction. We move the roads every day, so the machines are doing a massive amount of compaction as they haul.

Diesel... hmm... I should know that one. I'll have to follow up. 
 

Roach coach??  Just one guy working out of the back of a minivan. The crew isn't that large- about 100.  But they are all Hispanic, so everyone sets up grills every day at lunchtime under the trees.  The roach coach probably only feeds 20-30 people.

Except on Bar-b-que day.  Then he brings in the big grills and cooks all morning and we all eat!

Here's some perspective...

Remember that big dump truck?  There are 19 of them in this picture (I think):

That's about 150 acres.  The entire site is about 2000 acres.

This is fascinating. Thanks for sharing. 

Not everything is level...

On my current project we moved about 1.5 Million yards of soil. Thankfully we ended up with close to zero haul off as we more or less  cut the top off a hill (months of blasting) to create about 150 flat acres. The scale of the toys was fun to watch. Large scale construction projects like these are great fun and challenging to be part of. Walking the job every day to see the progress and chat with the guys / gals in the field (we have about 1500 craft currently on site) is the best part of my job.