Project

400 Loads a Day: Running a Fort Worth Limestone Haul

On a major Fort Worth project for David Weekley Homes, Soil Depot is moving hundreds of thousands of tons of limestone. The operation runs 3 excavators and 2 dozers while coordinating 40 trucks and more than 400 loads per day, with Soil Depot supplying and managing all of the equipment and the majority of the trucking. At this scale the material is the easy part. The product being delivered is coordination.

Key takeaways

The job: hundreds of thousands of tons of limestone on a major Fort Worth project for David Weekley Homes.
The equipment: 3 excavators and 2 dozers, all supplied and managed by Soil Depot.
The haul: 40 trucks running more than 400 loads per day, the majority of the trucking operation ours.
One dispatch runs loading, hauling and placement, so a stall in any one of them is visible immediately.
Rock hauls price by weight rather than volume, which changes how the job is estimated and how trucks are loaded.

The scale, and why it is a coordination problem

40 trucks and 400 loads a day means each truck is turning ten times. That only happens if loading never waits on a truck and a truck never waits on loading. Three excavators exist to keep the loading face open so trucks are not queuing to be filled, and two dozers exist at the other end so trucks are not queuing to dump. The trucks are the visible part of the operation, but every one of them is idle the moment either end stalls.

The consequence is that this is not a hauling job with some equipment attached. It is one operation with three linked stages, and it is run from one dispatch. When Soil Depot supplies the excavators, the dozers and most of the trucks, a slowdown anywhere shows up to the same people who can fix it, rather than turning into a conversation between three companies about whose fault it is.

Why we supply the equipment as well as the trucks

The alternative is the normal arrangement: the general contractor hires an earthwork crew, the earthwork crew hires trucks, and the trucking gets managed by whoever picks up the phone. That works fine on ordinary jobs. At 400 loads a day it produces a seam, and seams are where schedule and money leak out.

Supplying the whole chain also means the equipment is sized to the haul rather than to whatever was available. Excavator count is set by how fast trucks have to be loaded to hit the daily target, not the other way around.

We appreciate Soil Connect and everyone involved for trusting Soil Depot with this one. Projects at this scale run on reliable partners as much as on equipment.

Limestone is not dirt

Rock hauls behave differently from dirt hauls in ways that matter to an estimate. Limestone is dense, so trucks reach legal weight well before they reach volume capacity; a trailer that would hold a full measure of loose fill is loaded out on rock long before it looks full. Quantities are quoted in tons rather than cubic yards for exactly that reason, and converting between the two without the material’s actual density is how estimates go wrong.

Rock is also harder on equipment and on haul roads, and it loads slower than loose soil. Our guide on dump truck sizes and dirt load capacity covers what each truck class legally carries, which is the number that governs a rock haul.

What the 400 number actually measures

Loads per day is the honest measure of an earthmoving operation because it captures everything at once: loading speed, cycle time, route condition, placement speed and the number of trucks that actually showed up. Tonnage is the number in the contract, but loads per day is the number that tells you whether the job will finish on time.

It is also the number that degrades first. A haul road that softens after rain, a receiving area that gets tight, a loading face that runs out of working room, all of them show up as loads per day before they show up anywhere else.

What this means for a project at this scale

If you are planning earthwork with volumes in the hundreds of thousands of tons, the decisions worth making early are how the material is being measured, who is responsible for the loading face, and whether the trucking and the equipment answer to the same dispatch. Getting those wrong is expensive in a way that no rate negotiation recovers.

We supply road base, select fill, common fill and bulk rock by the truckload across DFW, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, and on larger jobs we bring the equipment and the dispatch with it. Send the quantities and we will scope the operation, not just the material.

Large scale rock haul FAQ

How many trucks does a 400 load per day operation need?

On this Fort Worth job it took 40 trucks, each turning about ten times a day. The truck count follows from the daily target and the cycle time; the loading and placement equipment then has to be sized so neither end makes trucks wait.

Why is rock quoted in tons instead of cubic yards?

Limestone and other rock are dense enough that a truck reaches its legal weight limit before it fills up by volume. Weight is therefore the binding constraint, so quantities are contracted and priced in tons. Converting tons to cubic yards without the material’s actual density produces bad estimates.

Does Soil Depot provide excavators and dozers?

On larger operations, yes. This project runs 3 excavators and 2 dozers supplied and managed by Soil Depot alongside the majority of the trucking, so loading, hauling and placement all answer to one dispatch.

What limits how much material a site can move per day?

Whichever of loading, hauling or placement is slowest. Adding trucks to an operation whose loading face cannot keep up just produces a queue. Loads per day is the measure worth tracking because it reflects all three at once.

Planning earthwork at volume?

Send us the quantities and the schedule and we will scope the whole operation: material, trucking and the equipment on both ends, priced together.

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