Exporting Dirt and Rock for a Melissa Development

Why mixed material changes the job

A clean dirt export is straightforward: one material, one destination, one price. As soon as rock is in the cut, the export becomes two jobs sharing a loading face. Rock and soil have different weights, different destinations and different values, and the decision about which is which gets made by the operator on the excavator as material comes out of the ground.

That decision cannot be deferred. Material loaded together arrives together, and separating it at the receiving end costs more than separating it at the source. Getting it right depends on the person loading understanding where each stream is going, which is an argument for the loading and the hauling being run by the same outfit.

Excavator, trucks and coordination as one package

On this job we provided the excavator, the trucks and the coordination between them. The practical benefit is that there is no handoff. When a site hires an excavation contractor and separately hires trucks, the loading rate and the truck schedule are set by two parties who each optimize their own side, and the site absorbs the gap between them.

Running both means the excavator is sized and staffed to the truck schedule, and the truck count follows the loading rate rather than a guess. It also means one number to call when the ground or the weather changes the plan.

Where the material goes

Export material is priced by what it is and where it can go. Clean soil that another project can use as common fill is the cheapest outcome, because a nearby match removes both the disposal fee and most of the haul distance. Rock has its own market and often more value, particularly if it can be crushed or reused as base material. Wet or mixed spoil is the expensive end.

Sorting at the source is what preserves those options. Our dirt export and haul off guide covers how export pricing works and why the volume leaving a site is larger than the volume dug out of it.

Why developments export early, and why that is good

On a vertical development the earthwork is front loaded. Before anything is built the site has to be cut to the design grade, and on a job like this that means the surplus leaves in the first phase, not the last. It is the earliest heavy activity, it is on the critical path, and everything queued behind it waits.

That timing is an advantage if you use it. The export is happening at the point in the schedule when the plans are known, the quantities are computable and nobody is yet standing around waiting. It is the cheapest possible moment to go looking for a nearby site that wants the material, and the last moment at which the answer is still a choice rather than whatever disposal option is available that week.

Planning an export for a development

For a development the export is usually one of the first heavy activities on site and one of the easiest to underestimate. The quantity comes from the grading plan, adjusted for swell, because loose material in a truck occupies more space than it did in the ground. Our cut and fill guide covers bank, loose and compacted yards and why the three never match.

If you want the number before you have a contractor on it, the earthwork calculator produces cut and fill quantities from published terrain data, and we will price the haul against it.