I have always wondered, what happens to the tonnes of dirt large and medium construction project dig up? You seen trucks carting it away, what is it used for? Some of it probably gets used on site (and if so, how?) but what about the rest of it? dumped somewhere outside town?
Assuming it’s clean, it is generally used on site, used on other sites where fill is needed, or taken to a landfill where it is used for daily cover. In the U.S. at least, it isn’t just dumped somewhere random.
It can also be trucked to farmland, if it can be used there.
Around here there are always signs up that say “Clean fill wanted.” Since my town is very hilly, there is a solid need for fill to level out building sites.
I’ve often seen signs for “Clean Fill Wanted.” Generally someone else can use it.
I deal with this issue all of the time in my job.
If the excavated material is clean, then pretty much what everyone else has said. If a contractor can’t find a place to either utilize it elsewhere or get rid of it, then they will often stockpile it at their construction yard for later use.
However, if the material is polluted or contaminated (which is quite common in urban environments), then it gets a lot more expensive to dispose of because the material has to be environmentally tested and characterized for disposal (and possibly stockpiled temporarily while this is done), and then trucked to the disposal facility. If the material is only moderately polluted or contaminated, it is generally trucked to a permitted lined landfill and used as daily cover. If the material is hazardous, the costs go way up. One method of disposing of hazardous excavated material is to incinerate it at a licensed facility.
According to a question on Jeopardy last night (which might have inspired this thread), the dirt from the excavation of the New York subway system was used to create Ellis Island.
A contractor might need to excavate to install a foundation or a below-grade utility. If the excavated material is structurally suitable, the same material might later be used to backfill the excavation.
Also, any place that is low and needs fill gets material spread out (perhaps with a bulldozer) and then compacted (like with a roller).
Unlike the [bad] old days, there are laws against all sorts of things that used to be winked at. First off, you can’t “dump” anything without permission of the landowner. Secondly, the landowner is going to want to know what you are giving them (based on environmental testing), because they can be on the hook (along with you) if the material ends up being polluted or contaminated. If there is any reason to suspect that the material could be environmentally impacted, there are also numerous state and federal laws that regulate what environmental testing has to be conducted, especially if the material is being transported to another location. Even for clean material that is being stockpiled, there are laws regulating how to keep sediment-containing runoff from getting into neighboring water bodies, for example.
Create, no. Greatly expand to the point of being useable, yes.
The federal government assumed control of immigration on April 18, 1890, and Congress appropriated $75,000 to construct America’s first federal immigration station on Ellis Island. Artesian wells were dug, and landfill was hauled in from incoming ships’ ballast and from construction of New York City’s subway tunnels, which doubled the size of Ellis Island to over six acres.
-per wiki.
And the added section became part of New Jersey
Sometimes they just dig a hole and bury it.
When building road on a slope you usually try and design the road so that half of the road is cut out of the slope and the other half of the road is fill. End haul road building is a lot more expensive.
And on a smaller job, they might just leave a mound on site for the locals to do with as they see fit. This past weekend, I helped my mom haul a wagonload from such a site for some big outdoor planters.
Maybe you’re just being funny, but how do you imagine this works, exactly? Digging a hole just produces more excavated material, after all.
If the land is flat (like in Houston), and you have a bunch of excavated material that you don’t want to haul away, then you end up with a hill where there was none before. For example, the hill near the Houston Zoo in Hermann Park reportedly came from the material that was excavated to create Rice Stadium.
In many places, though, you have low spots and high spots. Excavated material can be used to fill in the low spots.
Perhaps a decade ago in Sydney one of the universities built a synthetic playing surface, primarily for hockey.
The site required substantial clean fill to level, but was close (abt 10km) to the CBD. Construction developers operating the city paid for the right to dump their clean fill to such an extent that the university made a substantial profit on the development.
I thought it was funny. Mangetout is an intelligent poster - obviously a joke.
Topsoil is valuable and if not wanted for landscaping the same site, it would be sold on. Under the topsoil there can be all kind of ‘muck’. Clay, chalk, sand, or rocks. A good architect would plan to use most of it on site, but some could be used as cover on landfill or at another site.
If there are buildings to demolish, the material would be recycled as much as possible: metals to recyclers and rubble, crushed on site and used as hardcore.
All of this would be an important part of planning any construction.
Actually, much of the land in Lower Manhattan was created as landfill.
For excavating companies it’s an industry. On a site that has too much fill they are paid to haul it away. On sites with too little fill they are paid to truck it in. For lot design that expense is part of the calculations, it’s best not to have to pay to haul it in either direction.
Excavation companies usually have yards where they’ll pile up fill till it is needed for another site. It’s an effort to maintain that balance. too much one way or the other and they’ll have to pay to get rid of it or pay to buy more.
Toronto has the Leslie Street Spit, which was originally intended as a breakwater but is now Tommy Thompson Park. At least, during the weekend it’s a park and during the week trucks continue to dump construction rubble in certain areas.